Vejigante

Hands down the best meal we had in PR. Amazing home-​made food and great prices.
We stumbled upon this place after Christmas last holiday season when visiting Luquillo beach on a rainforest-​beach tour through our hotel. I first went to buy a hat from one of the kiosks in the line of kiosks (a very nice young man and an older man sold me a great hat.) I asked them for a restaurant recommendation and they recommended Vejigante.
We went and at first left because they were out of seafood paella (the owner was out buying shrimp). The table next to us got the last paella and it looked amazing! So we left, but then came back.
We ordered the octopus salad and baked red snapper in garlic sauce. AMAZING!!! By far the best meal I had in PR. The fish was so simple yet so fresh, lots of flavor, and the garlic sauce was homemade (with mushrooms, garlic pieces etc.) So wonderful. The octopus salad was amazing too, with lots of fresh seafood, oliver oil, greens, and a tasty plantain crust (and I don’t even like plantains, but this one was amazing!)
Avoid all restaurants in Old San Juan, those are all over prices tourist traps. Coming here was refreshing because these are all mom & pop shops cooking authentic homemade fare. There were lots of locals dining here too (whereas in Old San Juan only tourists were in the restaurants.)
We had an amazing meal here! The waitress (Flour? Flor?) was really really helpful and nice too! And the young boy who helped out was great too.
Next time, I hope to try the seafood paella, which looked amazing.
Overall, this was an amazing restaurant! The rainforest and beach tour was overpriced, but finding this restaurant was the gem of our trip!

Eating here messed up the standard for Puerto Rican food for the remainder of our trip because they set the bar too high. It may not look like much, but don’t judge a book by it’s cover. The food here was excellent even though the wait took a while. Our meals were made fresh and not microwaved like some competing places.

I really enjoyed the food at el vejigante. We ordered the fried cheese, tostones stuffed with churrasco, avocado and chicken salad, plantain soup, and of course, the stuffed pork chop. The pork chop really is all it’s cracked up to be. It was perfectly cooked and the mofongo stuffing was both sweet and savory. The plantain soup was thick and rich. My daughter really enjoyed it. I loved my salad. The avocado and chicken cream was very different, but very tasty. The only downside is the wait. We waited soooooo long to get our food. Ridiculously long. Too long even by Puerto Rico standards. We waited an hour and a half for our food and each plate came out one at a time with at least a 5 min wait in between. The food is 5 stars, but the slow service is 1 star hence the 3 star rating.

Came here for a late lunch and it was empty! We decided to sit in the back to see the ocean since it was a gorgeous day. The server recommended the fried cheese with guava dipping sauce appetizer and the mofungo so we ordered both of those. The cheese was fantastic! Especially with the sweet guava sauce. The only complaint I had was that the pictures on Unilocal ruined it for me. When our order came out we just had a small plate with only half of it filled with cheese (see photo) while all the Unilocal photos of it had a plate packed with cheese all over. I felt like we got shorted on the amount of cheese we got.
The mofungo we ordered had skirt steak which was very juicy and tender, cooked with onions and garlic. The mofungo was flavorful and soft. it was very good. Flavors seemed to clash slightly with the savory skirt steak versus the sweeter plantain, but overall the meal was very good.
This kiosk was a great stop and their food was delicious! I just wish we had more of the cheese appetizer!

Cheerfully decorated, open air dining within steps of Luquillo beach. Really enjoyed Cornish hen with mofongo, cold coconut water, and crackling chicken in tamarind sauce with homemade Puerto Rican style beans and rice.

Being vegetarian & mofongo’d out by now, I had the Caribbean rice & veggies here. The sauce in the veggies was yummy!

Came here after reading all the great reviews on Unilocal,I had to try the stuffed pork chop since that’s all I read about. The service is SLOW! To me everything is a lot slower in Puerto Rico, but the food did take forever to come out! I had to ask the waitress several times if it was ready, the staff was very friendly, I do believe they need to hire more people. Besides that everything else was great. The place is nicely decorated, plenty of seats, nice art on the walk, and was filled with mostly tourist. When the food finally did come, it was delicious! I was a little hesitant about the mangos on top, but it added a great flavor! The pork chops had a taste a never had before, definitely not the average chop that you can get anywhere. I would recommend anyway going to Puerto Rico to check out all the new restaurants at liquillo, especially this one. I’m glad to see the area improving,
I remember going here eleven years ago, and it looks nothing like it does now, the food options are great!

If you are in the area make sure to come here! Even vegetarians like myself So happy we found this spot! I had the vegetarian mofongo w/​tofu AMAZING! My husband had mofongo con pollo he loved it.

Got a well deserving 3 stars. The steak mofongo was pretty good, had lots and lots of garlic and a soup/​tart taste to it. Wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible either. Had the fried cheese with the guava dip! Now that was great!!! The cheese was like no fried cheese I’ve had before, it was warm, crispy and just the right taste to dip into the sweet guava sauce. I also had a piña colada which was WAY too sweet. I felt like I was drinking a whipped cream milk shake. It was awful.
Due the the awful $ 6 drink and mediocre mofongo, it knock down a few star. But, the cheese was really delicious!

We went for lunch and were seated in the back. The service was molasses slow even though the place was mostly empty. We waited at least 45 minutes for our food. At one point the waitress asked how we were doing — I mean our water was delicious.
The food:
Ribs — these were very tasty if not a little dry. I still recommend.
Fried chicken appetizer– a little bland and the sauce was sickeningly sweet
Mofungo — so dry and bland. Avoid
Seafood paella — very nice flavor. Really enjoyed it.

Very good spot to stop. My daughter is a vegetarian and they offered tofu mofungo. She loved it! Along with the coconut bread! She was in heaven.

Pork Chop. Get it. So juicy and delicious!
I think I had the best pineapple mojito I’ve ever had in my life here.

Wow!!! It’s a kiosk and it’s fricken AWESOME food!!! Friendly service, great food!!! Yup it’s a hole in the wall but huge portions and nice people make up for all of that superficial crap!
A must go!

Best Food! You will not regret any meal at this place! The best mofongo around!
We keep returning because their excellent service and food!

Who would have thought a kiosk would have such delicious food? I found this place on TripAdvisor and Unilocal since it had glowing reviews. They were NOT wrong! We came here after a swim on Luquillo Beach.
We ordered a bottle of Sangria that was locally made an distributed only in Puerto Rico. YUM! I also ordered the skirt steak with chimichurri sauce for dinner. The skirt steak was absolutely tasty and bursting with goodness that you would expect from a formal dining establishment. It came with a side dish, so I ordered a mofongo that wasn’t too bad. The crinkle cut fries were also crispy and good too. We had fried cheese for dessert that I couldn’t stop eating. Well done!
It’s a lot more pricier than the other kiosks but well worth the stop. The service was very good and the food was even better. Parking wasn’t too bad, and there was a view of the ocean from where we were sitting (albeit a few dumpsters in the way but we still an ocean view nonetheless. Definitely worth a pit stop in Luquillo Beach!

This is our favorite kiosco in Luquillo, we visit every time we are in PR. They do a great, refreshing take on classic Puerto Rican food that really highlights the island’s taste and ingredients without resorting to fried foods. That said, the fried foods are pretty damn good. Get the fried chicken with tamarind glaze, mofongo stuffed with skirt steak cubes, and tostones de papan (fried breadfruit). So good! And get the stuffed pork chop. It’s to die for.
This is the only place in PR I’ve seen that’s has mixed spring greens in their salads and garnishes. Mixed greens!!! You can’t even find that at Chilli’s in PR!

Had food here twice on our Luquillo visit. The food was very good and the staff friendly and efficient.
We tried 3 appetizers and the standout were the cod fish cakes. They were super light and almost entirely of fish with no filler. The outside might have been coated with a little bit of panko, but it wasn’t enough to weigh the texture down. They were well-​seasoned and came in threes.
Of the main dishes, we tried the highly recommended pork chop stuffed with mofongo and sausage. It was very good and a good portion for what they charged. However, my fried pork from the traditional entrees part of the menu stole the show for half the price. The pork pieces were crispy on the outside but not dry at all. They were seasoned well, with a nice spicy kick. Like I said, it was fantastic and only $ 10, where the pork chop although good was a bit expensive at close to $ 20.
I’d definitely go back if we’re in Luquillo again as this is one of the nicer places that opens for lunch and dinner.

Our last night at the kiosks we tried Vejigante. We arrived after a mojito malfunction at another kiosk. It was a good choice in the end and I’m glad we tried it.
I kinda went a little crazy with the menu, but I’m here to help ;)
Mojitos — tasty but not as strong as our first night.
Started the fried cheese with guava sauce. Solid start.
I ordered the asopao de langonstina — Caribbean lobster ‘gumbo’. Puerto Rican soup with rice, bits of lobster and spices. Very tasty.
I decided I hadn’t eaten enough yucca in PR so went for the Yucca al mojo which are like large fried pieces of yucca fried til very crispy and very garlicy. I thought they were tasty, but between being fried and garlicked, they were almost too much flavor. But they came in a little log cabin so have to give them credit for that.
I also ordered the coconut pockets with mango dipping sauce. Those were a awesome surprise. Almost like coconutty pita pockets they were sweet, but not overly so and flakey. I’d never had them before so yay. Something new. They can also be ordered like turn overs with crab, lobster or octopus.
I was too full to try any of the desserts. They both looked amazing.

Off PR-​3 on the N side of the highway, just west of Luquillo, in the row of small restaurants. Restaurant #31.
We got the mofongo (mixed with different types of plantains) with shrimp — the presentation was weird with the shrimp under the hollow cylinder of mofongo. There were only a few shrimp in there. Heavy on the garlic
The cornish hen was dry with interesting garlicky «building blocks» of fried yucca.

This was the best meal of my trip to PR. Granted, we were stuck at Rio Mar and had limited methods of transportation. Regardless, the food tasted great. It is totally possible that my experience was skewed because of the rest of the trip. Plus, I have no concept of authenticity.
Everyone in our group enjoyed the food. The Mofongo was seriously delicious. Fried chicken was pretty decent, though heads up– not your typical breaded fried chicken, and it’s covered in sauce. It’s been a few weeks so my memory of the rest of the food was fuzzy, but I can say that we left in a happy food coma. I wish I could take this place home with me.