Casa Lola

We were on our way to another 4 star restaurant for dinner, but it was very dark. so we kept walking and found this place. It was bright and upbeat. The dining room had great views of the lagoon.
We had an appetizer of coconut risotto fritters with a papaya dipping sauce. They were amazing. Then we had to try mofungo, because we are in PR. I had the seafood mofungo and my wife got the vegetable mofungo. Both were very tasty.
The place is not cheap, but the food was great, and the servers were attentive.

Bar area very nice atmosphere nice lighting. Dining room ok as well but not the same ambiance. A ok wine list and ok food. The mahi was a good portion but over cooked. The pork croquettas were delicious. The rest of the table agreed in concept everything was good but execution fell short. With a new chef this place could be amazing.

We had a great time here. It’s very spendy, even by Condado standards, but the service, food, and atmosphere was great. Loved the candied calamari, the seared scallops with risotto, and the jumbo shrimp.

Main reason coming to this restaurant was for their mofongo.
I went to use the female restroom and all stalls had no toilet paper, when I went to ask the gentlemen (seemed like he was the manager) he came back with a few paper napkins as he couldn’t find the keys to the stock room for toilet paper. Okay, no problem, for the money that your paying, it felt like I was going to a porter potty.
I am allergic to pork and the very first question I ask our waitress is it the cook can make the mofongo without Chicharron as its very common in the dish. She said the mofongo does not come with Chicharron so I ordered the steak mofongo for $ 27. When our plates arrived my other friend who had also ordered the same dish immediately told me not to eat it as she saw it had Chicharron. When I got the waitress attention she said the cook was new, apologized and would make me a new one without chicharron. By the time she came back with it I was full from the steak, so I only had one bite of a mofongo with no taste. The sauce on top of the steak was very bland. It was like a spoonful of a tomato paste from a can.
I travel alot for work and have been to many Puerto Rican restaurants. This was truly one of the most disappointing restaurants in Puerto Rican cuisine. If you are in the area, I would definitely avoid this place, you are better off eating at a street corner, paying less and getting a much better quality meal.

Went back for a second visit this time around, it was a busy Friday night and I immediately regretted my decision. Service was awful. Food was okay.
Food ³⁄₅
Service 0 zero…

Absolutely fantastic!
Seafood mofungo, calamari and empanadas are all amazing. Can’t wait to try the rest of the menu. So happy to finish 2015 with this incredible and memorable meal!

Vegetarian review: Ended up here after another restaurant was full. Glad we did as we enjoyed it. They seated our group of five immediately for Christmas dinner even without reservations. The waitress was outstanding and even took a few extra minutes to make us a list of her favorite sites around the island.
Since I’m vegetarian I went for the vegetarian mofongo. It was tasty. The mofongo was moist with well cooked vegetables in the middle and excellent flavored red beans around everything. They bright a spicy sauce for the regular mofongos on the table which I added to mine as well to give it a kick.
Overall a good dinner experience!

Okay so I really wanted to like this place. It started off well with the coconut flat bread, ropa vieja empanadas and sangria. However, the rest of the meal fell a bit flat.
So we were sat down at 740PM, and there were other tables but definitely not a full house. We quickly decided on and ordered empanadas and sangria to start, and we figured out the rest by about 8PM.
Like I said the coconut flat bread, ropa vieja empanadas and sangria came pretty quickly by 815pm. However, there was a long lull of around 40 minutes for our seafood mafongo and camaron con arroz to arrive. At some point we did not even want our food because it had taken so long, but eventually it did come…
Yet, the food was cold, the mafongo very dry and the arroz very salty. I’m not sure if they either forgot or there was a kitchen backup, but either way our server was not very attentive. He was not even around for us to ask where our food was. We saw a family near us who also waited a very long time for their food, but their female server was very attentive to them. I’m not demanding for someone to dote on me, but status updates when it is clearly taking longer than it should would be appreciated.
With that being said, I was very disappointed because I was looking forward to kicking off our anniversary with a nice dinner but like I said it fell pretty short of expectations.

Sad, sad disappointment.
We chose to celebrate our anniversary by eating at Casa Lola for our first dinner in Puerto Rico. Naturally, we were excited, but our excitement was for not. Especially given its 4 star, 200+ reviews.
TL; DR — service sucked. Food was mediocre.
First– the décor was not nearly as nice as the pictures make it out to be. Expected a classy and hip restaurant with bright colors — instead, it looked tawdry and honestly, really touristy.
Second — food was meh. We ordered the rope vieja, seafood mofongo, and the jumbo camarones (shrimp). Flavors HAD potential, but each dish took over 30 minutes to come out, and the food was lukewarm and salty. My boyfriend LOVES salt and he even thought the shrimp was too salty. The best part of the meal was the free coconut flatbread.
Third — AND MOST IMPORTANTLY — the service was SHIT.
It started off with the disenchanted host, who saw us enter the restaurant and didn’t even greet us. We asked if we could be seated by the window, but were immediately denied because it was «full» (mind you, the restaurant was nearly empty when we arrive).
Our server finally arrived and was friendly, but that was about as far as it went. It took us about 15 minutes to decide on our order, and once it was placed, we practically never saw him again. He resurfaced every 20 – 25 minutes or so, and never when we actually needed him. Our food was just as MIA; we waited for a total of 1.5 hours for 3 dishes. My BF and I and literally fell asleep at the table because it took so long.
Overall, I would recommend that you save your money and find somewhere else to eat on this island.

Have been to this restaurant both of my last two trips to San Juan. Was an easy walk from both hotels (Hilton caribe and Marriott la concha). The restaurant itself is intimate and has great views of the bay. Started with the red sangria which was very tasty. I ordered the scallop risotto and my mother ordered the seafood mofongo. Both of us finished our plates easily and thoroughly enjoyed them both. Mom had the cheesecake with a carrot cake crust and I had the bread pudding and ice cream. While her cheesecake was not the traditional style she was hoping for, she still enjoyed it. I loved my bread pudding which reminded me more of churro-​style doughnut holes. But they were warm crisp on the outside and soft on the inside with a slight cinnamon sugar flavor. Delish!
Highly recommend this restaurant. Service is typical for PR. A little slow and not as attentive as you would find back at home (possibly due to the holidays or maybe I’m just used to the fast pace of nj&ny). But overall I really enjoyed my meal and would definitely come back!

Dined at this restaurant last week, we found both positives and negatives.
Negatives
1. We walked in around 730 and were asked if we had a reservation. I didn’t bother making a reservation because there were dozens of tables available according to OpenTable. The man at the front responded dramatically to this, acting as if he would have to go through great pains to seat us (mind you, the restaurant isn’t even at 50% capacity) — he eventually seats us in the bar area rather than the dining room. Why couldn’t we have been seated in the dining room like all the other diners?
2. Because of where we were seated, service was very spotty. The waitress has a section of diners in the main dining room and seldom came by our area. We had to flag her down to put our drink order in — there was no drink menu, and again wee were only told the «most popular» items. The sangria was not great. Neither was the mojito.
3. The menu is in all Spanish. Well, there are random words in English on the menu, but then the rest of it — everything that matters — is in Spanish. I politely told the waitress that we’re not fluent in Spanish and need help interpreting the menu, she flat out said she’s not going to read it to us and only told us about her favorite dishes. I understand it being annoying to have to read the menu to diners, but this restaurant is located in the tourist district of Condado, obviously you’re going to have lots of diners who aren’t fluent in Spanish. Also it was disappointing to not be able to select our food from the full menu, as we relied of our half Spanish and the waitress’ highlighted items. They should just add English to the menu.
4. The mofongo was delightful, the best we had in PR. The skirt steak was chewy and not evenly cooked. The complimentary bread provided at the beginning of the meal was very good. The rest of the foods we had were solid.

Such a cute restaurant. Great for girls nights out!
We had crab cakes and bacon wrapped shrimp (super yummy), Caesar salad (good but really salty)…and the most enormous pork chop I’ve ever seen in my life. We gave up halfway through because even for 2 people that thing is too big to finish.

This is a 5 star restaurant all the way. The décor is beautiful, the staff is professional and attentive and the food is to die for. A little pricey but no where near NY 5 star restaurant prices.
I celebrated my birthday here with a delicious steak dinner. This is the type of restaurant where you get a little dressy, you know… like in your Sunday best.
You won’t be disappointed.

The décor is beautiful. The food was delicious. We had the Ceasar salad, snapper, and Tres Leches. The tres Leches was amazing. The red sangria is a must have.
My only complaint is that a group with no class or social awareness was seated next to my mom and I. They were cursing, yelling and entirely too loud for this atmosphere. It would have been appreciated if the server would have asked them to lower their volume our of respect to the other patrons. Instead it only got worse as their alcohol consumption began.
We did request to move and they were more than happy to accommodate.

This is a solid place. Nice local vibe, probably predominantly tourists given the location, but the food is quite good. Definitely get the sangria, and it’s an easy walk if you are staying in Condado. Have been here 3 times now. The dessert menu is in the waiters head, so be sure to ask as it’s constantly changing. Service is great, English isn’t a problem, and they are very welcoming. Great atmosphere when packed on the weekends, little less going on earlier in the week.
The food:
Mahi Mahi — served on top of a bed of pork sausage with veggies on the side. The Mahi Mahi was a little dry, but very good when combined with the sausage and sauce. The sausage was very mild and a nice compliment. The veggies, a bit too al dente and could probably have been left out of the dish,
Seafood Mofongo — this is a delicious dish, with mixed seafood on top of a soft Mofongo base. The scallops were cooked to perfection, and the Mofongo was soft and fluffy. Definitely want this to be on table.
Chocolate Banana Dessert — hot and delicious, this item wasn’t on the list on our return visit
Coconut Flan — thick and rich, topped with pineapple, whipped cream like substance (marshmellowy), and a side of salty caramel sauce. Good but rich and definitely not light.
Long story short, the food is good and reasonably priced for the tourist district.
A solid place, but not a «must» on the itinerary. Will come back again schedule permitting.

My husband heard/​smelled a waiter taking a gigantic odiferous poop, then saw him bolt out of the bathroom without washing his hands. That is extremely alarming, considering you can spread hepatitis that way!
There were also two women sitting at the table next to us with their phone not on silent — beeping and ringing at least a dozen times during our meal. It was extremely rude and the staff should have asked them to silence it, considering that it would clearly affect the experience of other patrons.
The octopus tentacles were over-​cooked (to a crisp, literally).
The rice that came on the shrimp dish was good but overall it was a sh*tty meal (pun intended).
Skip Casa Lola — unsanitary practices and mediocre food.

Very good food and impeccable service.
It’s located a short walk from the Marriott and is in a relatively safe and nice area. That said, this is a moderately priced restaurant with a variety of great choices. From what I could tell, many people make reservations. We did not, but we’re fortunate to be seated for dinner within moments of entering the door.
The waiters are well groomed, attentive and very professional. Their care made for an even more delightful experience.
Join the crowd of happy customers. Dine here.

WOW!!!
Best Mofongo ever! My husband ordered the seafood mofongo de yuca and it was AHHHH-​MAAAZING! The service was incredible, the food, the ambiance, everything was great! I’m so happy we ended up coming here for dinner. You definitely won’t regret it. Food is truly amazing!

Casa Lola is certainly one of the nicer restaurants in the Condado area; as a result, it attracts a lot of tourists and accordingly is priced for tourists.
The Caribbean mofongo is not a bad dish. The pork could have been cooked to a better consistency, since it came out a bit dry, but the plantains were delicious. Something about the combination of the sauce that was on the pork and the starchiness of the mashed plantains worked exceptionally well. Sugar tuna isn’t half bad either. It’s a pity that it’s $ 5 per basket, but the house coconut flatbread is very tasty, if the aioli served with it is nothing particularly special.
Service is friendly and prompt. Seating was not an issue at all. Casa Lola certainly won’t be the most authentic of the restaurants around here, but it’s still not a bad choice. I just wish that the dishes would be good as a whole, especially at the prices they ask.

We arrived in San Juan later on a Saturday night and were looking for a casual restaurant with excellent local food. We asked the man who checked us into our hotel (in the Condado area) where we should go and he immediately recommended Casa Lola. It was a short 10 minute walk from our hotel and we were seated immediately. The décor in the restaurant was lovely, and we were seated at a table with a water view.
We ordered a few of their signature cocktails throughout the night, and all were good. My favorite was the sangria (the one with Dragon Berry rum in it). They kept our water filled and were attentive with checking on our other beverages throughout the night.
As we had snacked on the plane, we were not starving, so we skipped appetizers so that we could fully enjoy our entrees. I ordered the paella, and my husband ordered the pork loin with risotto. The server was kind to ensure that I knew that the paella was a meat paella, rather than the traditional seafood. The menu described it as «meatopia». I actually don’t remember all of the meats that were in it, definitely chorizo, chicken, brisket and some sort of steak maybe. There were lentils on the top and it was finished in the oven. It was delivered in a cast iron pan piping hot and it was SO delicious. If you like meat and rice, this is definitely the dish for you. And unlike most other restaurants, there is not a 2 person minimum for the paella, it is a single portion (but a very large one that 2 people could probably share). I could not finish it all, even with my husband’s help.
My husband said his pork was a little dry but was flavorful and had a good sauce on it. His risotto was amazing! Not quite as tasty as the paella (in my opinion) but really very good. We had also ordered a side of mofongo y chicharron. My first time having mofongo, it was not my favorite. I had it at other spots while I was there and liked it better, it was a bit dry for my liking. But it was just a side, not a main dish, so it was not a big problem. I did enjoy the pieces of fried pork skin that were mixed in, and ate most of those.
Overall, we were very pleased with the meal and the service. If you find yourself in the Condado area, Casa Lola is a great choice for a meal. The service and food was excellent, but it was casual enough to go in shorts and sandals. We will definitely go back next time we’re in the area.