Cafe La Princesa

Great place to grab a bite after a beautiful walk through old San Juan. The staff is helpful and understanding. The food was delicious! I highly recommend this place.

A bit of a tourist trap but food was fine and beautiful décor. Wouldn’t go out of my way to eat here. Service was a bit strange with a main server and asst waitress with others. A bit of a wait for the food as well.

The worst service EVER and I’m typically pretty easy going with service bcz I know it isn’t easy.

I love this place. It is an outdoorsy restaurant and the food is so delicious and filling. The food was so tasty that my boyfriend and I HAD to make room for dessert. It is great for the day or at night with mini lights creating a romantic ambiance.

Came here twice two weeks ago for dinner by my best friend to celebrate my husbands birthday. The food is amazing. We ordered the chimichurri steak which basically melts in your mouth. Service is great I waitress was very attentive. We were sad to learn however during our last day that this place is closing it’s doors for good :(

Nice place. Lovely environment. Soothing and romantic. Food is good. Not amazing, but it was nice. I had the stuffed snapper. She had the plantain pie.

Pretty place for outside seating! The grand coco coco piña colada was sweet and good! Could have used more rum though for the price of $ 9. The hostess, cashier, waitress all in one was hot and tired! shrimp naranjo and tostonones with mariscos appetizers were the best!

The food and service was absolutely amazing! My mom and I had paella and it was sooo sooo good! Everyone at the table was very pleased with their meal!

So this is my go to place when I want to have a nice date with a girl that Im really into… you must take her at night when the atmosphere just calls for good deep conversations while tasting good wine and nice food. The lights are low as well as the music. Theres a lot of plants and stuff inside that will make u forget you are at a very crowded area jn Old San Juan and feeling in a intimate environment. The food is good as well as the quantity. I always order the Churrasco Italianisimo, great taste and huge size. Too bad the menu is not that deep. After eating and drinking nice wine take your date on a walk trough the Paseo de la Princesa… holding hands… I guarantee the rest of the night will get better…

We went for a snack and dessert around 8pm and we had very bad timing. While the food was good and decently priced, the service was minimal because the servers were busy taking care of a wedding party. Nevertheless, the croquetas de pollo and coconut flan were amazing! I think this place has a lot of potential. It is very romantic. The management recognized the bad service and offered us free dessert!

Not everyday you get to seat outside on paradise and eat an amazing churrasco (skirt steak) it was amazing! Ordered medium and it was perfect also the service was really good had some good local beer Medalla and really good puerto rican coffee at the end! Will definitely come back next time i go visit Puerto Rico

Five star drinks and four star food… Outdoor eating area could be too warm in the warmer months but was perfect this time of year. Very pretty atmosphere with leafy vegetation, tree frogs, Christmas lights, and adorable little kitties looking for handouts… They do have outdoor fans that are pretty efficient… Fabulous plantains… had both a piña colada and a frozen mojito– BEST I’ve ever had of both…

We ate here for dinner and were pleasantly surprised by the food, and the ambience was gorgeous. Like many others on here, I thought the drinks were terrible. Maybe I should stop laughing at the ridiculousness that is the term «mixologist».
The kitchen is a bit slow, but sit back and enjoy the atmosphere. It is also very reasonably priced considering the location.

I love this place! We escaped a rain shower in Old San Juan here, and just really enjoyed sitting under the canopy in the rain. The food is wonderful and the staff and service couldn’t be better. It’s very charming outdoor dining, with lush tropical surroundings and chirping tree frogs. So relaxing and friendly. Came back for dinner after the rain ended. Personally, I love the coconut shrimp appetizer. Sit at the bar level for a smoke or cigar with friends.

This is a kodak moment spot on your trip to Old San Juan. If you plan to visit on a Sunday night, you’ll mix with the locals who sit among the trees listening to live music as the sun sets. My friends and I walked along the waterfront before settling in for wine (warm) and fried queso (fine) but we couldn’t stop grinning as the atmosphere made us feel like the evening was designed to force us to unwind in old San Juan.

This is a very nice restaurant in the Paseo La Princesa. I’ve walked past it so many times but the first time I visited was to listen to a jazz band. Today I finally decided to go and eat since a friend invited my boyfriend and I.
The appetizers they offer are nothing out of this world. In fact, you’d probably find them in any other restaurant in Old San Juan. My bf got the «tostones rellenos de jueyes» (friend plantain «stuffed» with crab) and said that they were quite good. My friend got the «mofongo relleno de churrasco» with rice and beans. She told me that the mofongo was moist (which is excellent considering that you could easily choke in a very dry mofongo) and that the churrasco was very tender and tasty. She also said that the beans were great. Most restaurants in OSJ just won’t get the beans right. Apparently these guys did. And even though I didn’t get to taste them, they sure did smell good.
I got the «pastelón de amarillos con carne». I expected a much larger portion than what I got but have to admit that it tasted great. The meat could have had a bit of more flavor to it but it was still good. The put what I think was mozzarella cheese on top which gave it a different (and nice) taste to what I’m used to when eating pastelón. I recommend it.
The drinks are not that great. My friend got a «socorocosongo» (hope I got the name right. It was a kind of mojito with cilantro, guanábana and something else. Tasted it; not that good. My friend said that it was ok but that she wouldn’t order it again. My boyfriend got the «El Gran Cocoroco» (again, hoping I got the name right). That is basically a piña colada but one could taste the cocconut on this one. I found it to be too sweet for my taste.
The presentation of the food was very nice. The ambience is amazing also. It’s an outdoors restaurant so if you dislike humid weather then you wouldn’t want to go to this place. I bet that when it’s breezy and not that «icky» you can enjoy yourself a bit more. It’s located right next to one of Old San Juan’s ancient walls. There are a lot of trees with lighting in then, creating a very nice atmosphere.
Our waitress Stephanie was great. Excellente service, always looking out to see if we needed anything. Not like those places where the waiters just forget you’re there. But she was really nice. I’m not a fan of outdoor-​sy places but I’d probably go back some day.

This was a super-​cute little spot in Old San Juan as your walking to the gate. We stopped to grab a couple drinks. I absolutely hated the drinks both my husband and I ordered, and I should have stuck to something I knew, but hey, «when in Rome…»
We ordered the El gran cocoroco and el company 3 estrellas to drink. The el gran cocoroco was basically a piña colada, but it had some strange spices in it that were really off-​putting. The el company 3 estrellas was slight better, but still not so great. It tasted like a bubblegum flavored sangria with coconut. Some people might really like that drink, but I did not. The food looked quite good, and I am sure the drinks would have been good if we had stuck with something we would have known. It was a pleasant stop though because it was such an adorable outdoor café.

If you go to Puerto Rico, you must go to Old San Juan, and if you’re there, you must do the Paseo de la Princesa stroll. It’s romantic and beautiful and it’s the best and easiest route to the fort of El Morro. There. That’ll be 10 dollars even. Speaking of which!: dude, the currency is the U.S. dollar… since 1899. Get with the program.
Anyhoo! Café La Princesa, located at the Paseo de la Princesa, is a conveniently located spot for drinks and food — however, I’ve only had appetizers and drinks here, so I can’t assure it’s the best you’l find for formal lunch or dinner. But if you find yourself wanting to grab something quick and head on to your Old San Juan discovery adventure in order to, say, quickly get back to your cruise ship at the pier 2 minutes away from the Paseo, this is outdoorsy, comfy and well located just for that. :-)
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Para el que es local, quizás esta reseña no sirva de mucho, pero sí para el turista hispanoparlante.
Si visitas Puerto Rico, tienes que ver El Viejo San Juan, y una vez allí, tienes que ir al Paseo de la Princesa. Es una caminata linda, romántica, además de ser la ruta más práctica hacia el fuerte de El Morro.
Sobretodo si visitas en crucero, el Paseo de la Princesa y el Café La Princesa se encuentran a unos pocos minutos (caminando) del muelle; por lo que si deseas comer y/​o beber algo rápido para ver El Viejo San Juan y volver a tiempo al barco, parar en este café es una buena opción. No he probado los platos principales, pero sí los aperitivos y bebida, y es una buena alternativa. Es al aire libre, tipo terraza, y cómodo. :-)

Decided to dine here after getting a tip from one of the security guards on the street. The seating is all outside and that’s a bad thing on a scorching hot day like the day we were there. They have fans but it makes no difference when the heat is over 100 degrees because all it does is push hot air around. The food was good and reasonably priced. I had the Churrasco Rioja Style (made with Spanish Rioja Wine) and it was flavorful and it was cooked exactly how I asked for it. There was enough meat for at least 2 people so it was a bit overwhelming but the taste was spot on. My wife had the Red Snapper and she enjoyed it. She said it was fresh and cooked perfectly.
The cocktails were very refreshing, not strong like I prefer but good flavor and decent price. The service was very good but we were the only ones there for most of the lunch hour. If I had any suggestions for the owner, get better fans. I definitely recommend it if you are in the Paseo De La Princesa Area.

Hungry and wandering, on my last day in Puerto Rico, I gave in and decided to check out the Avenida de La Princesa. Moments from the Coast Guard base I was staying at, and a few moments more from the cruise ship terminal, I was prepared to be deluged in a fiercely targeted marketing attempt at my perceived tourist dollars.
We were very pleasantly surprised, first by the live salsa band playing to locals halfway down the ave, and then by this Café.
The café nestles at the foot of the old fortress walls, shaded by broad tree branches and cooled by the burble of a tired fountain. Our waitress was yogi calm and very friendly, and made palatable food and wine recommendations throughout.
Tried the Baccalao Empanadillas, the rice and beans, and the fried plantains, all were prepared faithfully to local custom (or so I was told). The baccalao was surprisingly unfishy, and the pastry it came in was flaky and fresh. Washed down with a solid pinot grigio. All with the smooth sounds of salsa filtering in from the street, and the glimpses of old-​timers bobbing with the music on a sunday afternoon.