Aureola

Wonderful ambiance, food and above all amazing service. Make sure to ask for Steven! He’s great!

We stopped in here for a nice lunch after a long morning of touring. The inside is cute and we had a helpful waiter who was nice and quick. The food though is another story. We started with chips, salsa, and guacamole, all of which were clearly store bought. I ordered the fish tacos and couldn’t even eat half they were so bad. The quesadillas were ok, but then again it’s pretty hard to mess up a quesadilla. The only decent thing we ordered was the home made lemonade. I would definitely keep searching for a better place.

The bartender provided good service but the vegetarian nachos we ordered smelled bad. The fish tacos were average.

Not a very friendly staff when you walk in. The guy who told us to take a seat seemed annoyed that we were there, and claimed he was working alone (not true) Anyway, margarita was $ 8.50 for about a martini size glass, and the $ 11 nachos were bland and have bones in the chicken! Needless to say, we didn’t get dinner and left. Two thumbs down!

We stumbled upon this place when walking Old San Juan. The bartender was super nice and attentive. The food was amazing! Has lots of vegetarian/​vegan options.

Just went in for drinks. What a disappointment. The worst possible Margaritas I ever had. In all fairness, it was Monday afternoon. I do not think the kid at the bar was a real bartender.

Stopped in for lunch, sat at the bar. Ordered veggie nachos for 2 & was not disappointed –plenty of food. Very friendly bartender & great service. Was a perfect stop prior to visiting the Fortress.

I believe this business is a great place to go, the people were great, the food was fantastic and if your looking for a good cup of coffee or a world class Mojito this is your place. We were in San Juan for a week and visited this restaurant 3 times.
We had a fantastic churros dessert yum, yum, yum

Great lunch special! My friends and I stopped by after touring El Morro and ordered the yummy Nachos and Steak Enchiladas lunch specials for $ 8 — which includes unlimited soda and/​or bottled water. Pretty expansive seating area, although quite empty during lunch time so we chose to sit in the semi-​open outdoor area in the back. Overall, solid meal and great value. Not to mention, I accidentally left my sunglasses at the table and they kindly held onto them while I made my way back!

Total dump. We had had a long walk and were starving, and this was the first place we saw that didn’t look too divey.
We went inside and were told to grab a table anywhere. Fine. The restaurant was mostly empty, but service was very slow. We helped ourselves to menus. It took them about fifteen minutes before they came by to take our order. Lots of flies. When the guy wiped down the table next to us, we almost barfed because his wet towel stank so bad. I doubt they’ve ever washed that thing.
At this point we’re getting concerned about the sanitation of the food…
I had asked for some water, and he gave me a tiny tumbler glass full of ice and a little water. I asked for a bigger glass, and he refused. Fu man, I’m 7 months pregnant and its 84 degrees outside, I need water! I asked for a water glass with no ice. Never came. I asked for a water refill, never came.
After 30 min of waiting for our food, The bartender took pity on us and tried to track it down. He accidentally brought out chips and salsa instead of picko de gallo and guac. The salsa looked so nasty, like Heinz ketchup with some onions. At this point we decided to leave.
The server told us we weren’t allowed to leave, and that the salads we had ordered would be coming ‘soon’. We got in an argument, and the kinder bartender ended up telling us we could go.
The server cursed in Spanish. That was the end of the experience.
Walk down the street two blocks, there are way nicer places near the church. We ended up at a place called el jibarito which was a total locals spot and had great food.

A very nice Mexican restaurant right in Old San Juan in a very comfortable space that you’d just want to hang out in, enjoy a margarita or two, and have some great Mexican fare. I ordered the chicken enchiladas, which came «deconstructed» rather than wrapped and doused in sauce. It was a much better way to present the dish, and I wish more places would do it this way, so you really get to taste and enjoy the flavor of the enchilada filling. Very nice!

Love this place. Great food.service.air conditioning is on full blast perfect for short walk after long tour at fort. Highly recommend the jalapeño flavored margarita. A hint of jalapeño. Not too spicy. Enjoy.

Good quick cheap food

This is such a cute restaurant. Beautiful bar, well decorated, very cheery. The bartender was our waiter and was attentive and friendly. If I was rating based on ambiance and service it would definitely be 5 stars.
The food here is adequate, but not great. The salsa and guacamole tastes exactly like something you get out of a tub from Costco or somewhere similar. I am actually quite positive that that’s what it was. They definitely were not not making it from tomatoes and avocados in the back of the restaurant. For dinner, we got the chicken tacos. They were good, but again tasted like the tacos you would end up with from a «taco kit» from your local grocery store. So they were good, edible, but not something I want to pay restaurant prices for.
Margaritas were weak, but good. Because it is a cute restaurant I would come back and try something different. Maybe the tacos, salsa, and guac are the lowest points on the menu?

This was an ok place to eat. We ate at the bar and the bartender Giovanni was great. He made us some local shots with coconut milk which were delicious. I ordered the ceviche which was in a thicker liquid than I was used to. My husband got a pork burrito which was average. The chips and salsa were pretty good. The chips came out fresh and the salsa was served hot which was unusual for me but really enhanced the flavor.

Amazing Mexican food. Returned because it was so good. Try the carnitas or chicken tacos. For dessert, the dulce de leche with strawberry sauce and churros. Amazing.

Ok, so we didn’t quite intend to go to Aureola… you might not even believe the story of how we got here, but here goes.:
We were trying to find a place to eat on 3 Kings Day (PR shuts down), and our first few attempts didn’t succeed. This woman comes up to us, identifies herself as a lesbian swim coach form a northeast school and wants to find a gay bar. Despite her excellent gaydar, we were still pretty unhelpful, so she practically carries us into Aureola*, raving about what a great dinner she had there last night. Anyway, we enjoyed ourselves.
Our server was truly outstanding (and pretty cute). He was incredibly attentive, unfailingly polite, and perhaps flirting just a little bit. He did say hi might join us at Lupulo for a beer afterward. This seriously was the best service I’ve had in a long time.
The food was generally pretty good, (3.5 stars) although not quite up to the standards of Airenumo. We started with Queso Fundito, which was ground beef and cheese served with chips. It was quite a disappointment that the chips were not housemade, but it was still good. We split an entrée of carnitas, also served with chips. The carnitas was pretty spot-​on and we heartily enjoyed it.
For our beverage, we had an incredibly tasty pitcher of white sangria which was perfect for the warm weather and spicy food. Very refreshing, lots of real fruit. I was a little surprised when we got the bill, as the prices were not listed anywhere, and the pitcher clocked in at $ 28 (more than our total food bill). It was a generous portion, but not a fan of the «tourist surprise» pricing strategy.
Anyway, the food was pretty good, the drinks were tasty and pricy, and the service was outstanding. I’ve seen several guidebooks that list this place as a trendy «fusion» restaurant. There’s is nothing fusion or trendy about it… it’s a good, honest, Mexican restaurant, maybe with a little Puerto Rican flavor. As a bonus, you’re close to Taberna Lupulo, which is an amazing beer bar (see my other review).
*Ok, now that the real review is over, it’s time to be childish. I accidentally referred to this restaurant several times by a part of the female anatomy. Actually, I guess, men have them too. I’m surprised no-​one has pointed this out yet?

Three of us were looking for a good happy hour deal in San Juan, and saw that this place had 2-​for-​1 margaritas and mojitos. The best part was that their «happy hour» was from 6 to 10! (tourist off-​season, I guess)
The bartender was very friendly, giving great advice on drinks to order AND making great drinks! He even poured us a free «Puerto Rican shot» that was very tasty. I ended up getting 2 normal margaritas with top-​shelf tequila. It was still part of the happy hour deal and was surprisingly affordable. My friends got fruity drinks that were amazing.
We wandered to another bar later that night, but after a few rounds there we decided to come back to our friendly bar tender here to close out the night.

Excellent mojitos
Get a map of Old San Juan and you can get 2 for 1 mojitos. We only ate chips and salsa which were warm and tasty.
Happy hour from 5 – 7

I had a very artistic coconut dessert Coco Kiki Rico at the beautiful bar there last weekend. It’s a special place with great atmosphere, great décor, and good creative caribbean cuisine. The location deep in the heart of Old San Juan keeps the average tourist riff-​raff away, It doesn’t get better!