Bili Restaurant

We were dropped off here after our kayaking tour and took a short walk to peruse the options for food. We ended up here and waited 10 – 15 minutes for a table. Great atmosphere, great food selection. We had the plaintain chips with guacamole, hummus and the vegetarian paella. We asked for the vegetarian paella to be made by request, since I had seen it in a photo, but honestly I wasn’t impressed. This version had curry, so essentially it just tasted like curry rice to me. Prices were reasonable, though this is a little bit more of a chi-​chi restaurant — people were here for drinks and dates, but my friend and I rolled up in shorts and athletic wear, haha.
Lively spot as I think it’s the commercial area near the waterfront and the hotels. We were staying at Villa Coral and decided to take a 15 min walk back that night in the pouring rain, haha. While it wasn’t the most populated street (very residential), it was pretty well lit and I felt relatively safe walking back at 11 PM.

WOW! No wonder this restaurant was recommended by so many people in Vieques!
Traditional Puerto Rican food that is simply the most delicious food we had on the island. The food in Vieques was all amazing, but Bili’s just was a notch above the rest. We had the ceviche which was diced up, a little sweet and a little acidic– just right! And the pork with Gondules Risotto that was probably the best risotto I have ever tasted.
If you go to Vieques island, please cross this restaurant off your list of things to do!
Highly recommended.

Bili’s came on the recommendation of a local and fortunately, it met our expectations of a delicious lunch in Vieques. The restaurant itself is cute, by the water of where locals seem to frequent. The service was very accommodating and friendly.
We started off with some drinks. I got the Guava Jalapeño Margarita which was delicious. It had a great kick from the jalapeño and the guava tasted so fresh on a hot day. If you do not like spicy drinks but want a guava drink, I would NOT recommend getting this drink without the jalapeño. A few of my friends asked with no jalapeño and unfortunately found the drink to be too sweet so I would recommend just going with another cocktail if trying to avoid the spice.
As for appetizers, we started with the mofongo cassava dumplings. SO GOOOOOD. They were fried balls, stuffed with yucca and plantains. The outside was nice and crispy, inside was super mushy from the plantains and yucca. Just amazing. I couldn’t get enough of it. The aioli sauce was the perfect complement to the carbtastic balls. I would definitely recommend this as a starter.
As for the entrée, I knew I had to get the whole fried snapper. And when they say a whole fried snapper, the mean a Whole. Fried. Snapper. Delicious. It came with yummy rice and beans with chorizo. For $ 29, totally worth it. The snapper itself had superb crisp skin with tender meat on the inside. Very well fried. The meat was piping hot and moist on the inside which is always a challenge when frying a whole fish. The presentation of the fish was also amazing.
Overall, a great lunch spot for a filling meal.

F*cking delicious! Guava jalapeño martinis are the best. The snapper dish is by far the best fish I have ever had. If you are in Vieques, this is a must try.

We ordered the bean dip, paella, calamari, and empanadas. Bean dip was a bit bland as well as the calamari. Paella and empanadas, however, was great! Get a seat in the balcony area or right by the windows. Good for the people watching!

This is a great place to get Puerto Rican cuisine and fresh seafood on Vieques. The servers are friendly and attentive. I had the ceviche, paella, and lobster, which were all delicious. Beware, they serve a strong rum punch!

Had dinner here during our Vieques stay. The food and the service were both fantastic. The paella was especially good and my coconut mojito was one of the best cocktails I had my entire time in Puerto Rico. The ambiance at Bili is elegant, yet casual. Very appropriate for the setting. The noise level is very quiet, except when an exceptionally loud car would drive by on the main strip.

Mahi-​mahi nuggets, Bili salad, Churrasco, pork chips, guava mousse pie… Just order all of it. We loved everything about this place. The food is delicious and the service is outstanding.

Visited Vieques for 5 days and loved this restaurant so much! We ate here twice during our stay and was highly recommended by a lot of locals. Fresh seafood, friendly staff, clean, nice décor, and good location! Our personal favorite were the whole Red Snapper, Fresh Catch Ceviche, & Mahi Mahi Nuggets. The red beans & rice that came with the Snapper was so good, with tons of flavor, the right texture, and went well with the Snapper. My boyfriend loved it so much he was craving it during our whole trip. Best local Puerto Rican food on the island!

My friend and I visited Vieques for 2.5 days, and we ate at Bili for both of the dinners! They are open till 10PM and we snagged a seat towards the end of the night. We shared the seafood gnocchi (AMAZING!), ceviche, and tres leche cake and everything tasted so good! The gnocchi dish was super creative and had a ton of seafood. The server was super nice and we had a great time talking to him. We also had the guava jalapeño margarita and passion fruit mojito and both were great. They weren’t too strong but also not too sweet.
We had such a great time that we came back the second night and split the seafood paella. Once again, the dish had a ton of seafood and was very flavorful. I liked the gnocchi from the night before more, but this dish was still great! We had the same server and he was still just as nice. He gave us suggestions for our stay back on the main island that we really appreciated.
Definitely one of the nicer places to eat at in Esperanza and the food was worth every penny!

Stay away of this place if you don’t want to fight over the lobster with your girlfriend. seriously.
Here is how the date will go:
you will get seated, let her get the cushioned bench looking at the beach or if you like danger, like me, try to squeeze the two of you next to each other… love is in the air.
Check out the menu, just to prove that you can read… but don’t make mistakes. Order the calamari and the mufongo dumplings. Each bite will start a silent competition of who eats more.
Avoid saying that is good at the begining, that will give you some camuflage.
After the two appetizers, get ready for the seafood paella. You will be able to point with your finger where the food was caught. keep it cool… there’s plenty of food for two and trust me
it’s one of the best paellas I have had.
read my lips, I will be back.

Great food, great drinks, and great service. Best burger I’ve ever had! Would recommend eating inside because the noise from busy road can be distracting not sure why everyone needs to blast their radios but apparently it’s a thing around here.

One of the best spots to grab a cocktail on the island. Bili offers great indoor and outdoor seating along the popular stretch in Esperanza. We stopped in twice — once for afternoon cocktails and once for dinner. We had the lobster paella, empanidillas w/​pulled pork, mahi mahi nuggets. The nuggets were our favorite and the lobster paella was good (but not the best paella I’ve ever had…). I recommend this spot for cocktails in sun or a hearty seafood lunch.

OMG OMG where to start. This is horrible overpriced costco food !!! if they happen to give you a fresh piece if fish its best you take it away from them since they will ruin it. you will throw up a lil in your mouth when you see the blue martinis and sticky menus, i was told its part if the bili experience. I’ve eaten «rabbit» –who knows what meat pinchos In the beach that are better anyday than their crap. STAY AWAY! i NEVER AGAIN & SERVICE IS HORRIBLE TOO. prepare to wait over 2 hrs without a reservation… save the reservation call, eat at BK at least you know the crap your getting.

We end up here recommended by our tour guide since allegedly the food was very authentic.
We were far from impressed. The service was incredibly slow and the food was just ok.
I would recommend the mofongo balls but stay away from the wraps. Absolutely nothing especial about them. NY delis wraps have 10x more flavor than they do.
Cocktails (Piña coladas and jalapeño margaritas) were good.
Highly priced for the quality of the food and the service.
After hearing it was recommended both by tourist guides and hotel personnel wonder if it is just a tourist trap.

My boyfriend and I went back here for the third time. It’s in the heart of Esperanza, a touristy spot. Love this place though. I had Mahi Mahi wrap and absolutely love it. Plantain and chutney made a great mix for the wrap. My boyfriend had half of a grilled lobster and he killed it all. The lobster here is really fresh and we can actually see people deliver live lobsters here. For dinner, we shared seafood paella, a little bid salty but very tasty. Service here is great as well. A little bit pricy but worth it.

Rolling into Bili’s was a great luck. The place looked nice from across the street and there was not any disappointment. From the appetizer to the dessert and all in between was perfectly made and wisely balanced. My party shared the tuna and seaweed flavorful tapas. 3 pieces is not enough. Then I had the Mahi Mahi wrap, if I will ever be back to the island, I must eat it again. The fish meat melted in my mouth, there was type of glazed onion with other things added a great kick to the, supposedly, simple wrap.
To end an unexpected great meal, we had a traditional cake, according to our waitress calls «Tear Laches» topped with passion-​fruit. Worth every calorie!
The highlight of our meal, was the short talks with and older gentleman attended our table for a couple of time and gave my hints and tips about what to order! Glad that I listened to his recommendations.
Wish to test other options on the menu, but stomach capacity and time limitation were not on my side.

Good food, but don’t expect to go anywhere anytime soon. I was surprised when we showed up on our first night and were sent away for not having a reservation. This is Vieques, not New York City. There are what, 10 people on the island. But we made a reservation for the next evening since this place came highly recommended, and as I said, this is Vieques, there are 10 people and 8 restaurants.
When we showed up the next evening we had a little bit of a wait while our table was being prepared. However, we were seated with no menus, and it took our server a while to get to us. We sat on the patio, which is super dark, so I suggest you bring a flashlight so when you finally receive a menu so you can read it.
They also do not have a drink menu, so the server just recites what they have and you make her repeat it 10 times until you decide. I went with Sangria, which was very nice and refreshing. The others in my party kept making requests for drinks they could not make. Oh, and there is one bartender, so be prepared to wait a bit for drinks too.
As for the food, well the food was really good. It’s always hard to decide when reviewing a place how to rate it when the food and the service do not match up. And actually, in this instance, I don’t even want to blame our server for the service, because I am pretty sure she was the only one taking care of the entire patio. It was obvious she was slammed. But for a place that requires reservations, they can see ahead of time what their business is going to be like so they can plan accordingly. I think our server did the best she could considering. But end rant, back to the food.
We started with the Mofongo Cassava Dumplings, which were little balls of plantain and yuca with a nice aoili sauce on top. Very tasty! I ordered the Bili Salad, which had crunchy plantain croutons, and almost was tempted to order a second salad, as it was so good. My friend also ordered it and loved it as well.
For entrees, we all ate off each other’s plates, and everyone enjoyed the creamy chicken dish with yuca, while my fried pork chops with risotto coming in at a close second.
The food was really good, but they could use a little more lighting on the patio and an extra server or two, and this could’ve easily been a 5 star review. Oh and an extra bartender, nobody appreciates that island life while waiting too long for their cocktails.

The mofongo yuca was to die for. Lightly fried and packed with flavor over a delicious aioli.
The conch dish was different. It’s sea snail, apparently but it was prepared very well. An amazing taste. Not what I expected. The sea flavor was not strong or over powering. Very well done.

We enjoyed Bili’s as our first meal on Vieques, and it was really good! Not sure why this restaurant always seems perpetually empty compared to the others in the area– it’s generally at the same price point, although it serves less Americanized fare, I suppose.
We tried a variety of tapas/​appetizers, all of which were deep fried (there isn’t a lot of choice). The mahi mahi bites and the onion rings were both very good, although the dough in our pulled pork empanadas was a little undercooked.
I tried the Bili house salad for my main ($ 10). Although our server said it was appropriate for an entrée, it was a lot smaller than I anticipated– I would recommend one of the salads with proteins instead. In any case, the coconut vinaigrette that they put on all the salads was awesome.
Other hits at the table included the paella (which is not made in a paella pan and doesn’t have that crispy crust), the conch salad, and the ahi tuna wrap.