Upon arrival in San Juan, I had pretty much only one goal: to eat well. You see, I had been to San Juan before starting a meat blog, and I knew that I had missed out on some good stuff. Thus I convinced my friends to follow me to El Jibarito in Old Town. There was a decent wait when we arrived so we knew it had to be a good place.
The set up of El Jibarito looks more like a cafeteria than a restaurant, which added to the charm. I decided to not to order their namesake sandwich and instead went with the Pollo al Ajillo (Garlic Chicken) with mofongo (mashed savory plantains) as my side. This wasn’t the classic stuffed plantains, but it was still pretty spectacular. The garlic chicken was nice and tender with a crazy-good flavorful sauce that was perfect for dipping the mofongo in. And that mofongo, by the way, was pretty great in terms of texture and flavor.
It tasted like how I assume a meal would have been in a Puerto Rican home, and I assume eating in a Puerto Rican home would be delicious. El Jibarito may always have lines, but it was worth the wait for me.
