Puerto Rican food: 20 traditional dishes to try and where to eat them

What is Puerto Rican food?

Discover Puerto Rico, the island's official destination marketing group, describes traditional cooking as cocina criolla, a blend of Taíno, Spanish and African influences. In practice that means generous plates built around a few staples:

• Plantains, green or ripe, fried, mashed or boiled.
• Rice and beans, served almost every day.
• Root vegetables such as yuca and yautía, plus green bananas.
• Pork, from whole roast pig to ham hock in the bean pot.

Two seasonings hold it together. Sofrito is a green base of onion, garlic, peppers and cilantro or culantro that starts countless dishes. Adobo is a garlicky rub of oregano, black pepper and vinegar used on meats. Sazón is the other common seasoning mix.

20 traditional Puerto Rican dishes

Main dishes

1. Mofongo: green plantains fried, then mashed with garlic and pork cracklings (chicharrón), butter or oil. It comes as a side or stuffed with shrimp, crab, octopus, steak or stewed chicken. Some cooks add a little salty broth while mashing.
2. Trifongo and mofongo de yuca: two twists on the classic: trifongo mixes green plantain, ripe plantain and yuca, and the yuca version swaps the plantain out entirely.
3. Arroz con gandules: rice cooked in one pot with pigeon peas, sofrito, pork, tomato and annatto, often with olives or capers. Discover Puerto Rico calls it the national dish, and it is a fixture at holidays and family parties.
4. Lechón asado: whole pig rubbed with adobo and roasted slowly over coals until the meat is tender and the skin crackles. You will find it at almost every big celebration and the reason people drive up to Guavate.
5. Pernil: the oven version of roast pork: a pork shoulder seasoned with adobo and roasted until tender.
6. Pasteles: a true local specialty. A dough of grated green banana (sometimes with yuca or other roots) is spread on a plantain leaf, filled with stewed pork, chicken or salt cod, tied, and boiled. Think of a cousin of the tamal.
7. Arroz con habichuelas: white rice with a side of stewed pink beans cooked with sofrito, pumpkin (calabaza) and ham hock. You decide how much bean sauce goes on the rice.

Sides

8. Tostones: green plantain slices fried, flattened, then fried again until crisp.
9. Amarillos: ripe, sweet plantains fried until dark and caramelized outside and soft inside.
10. Ensalada de papa: Puerto Rican potato salad, one of the most common side dishes.
11. Morcilla: blood sausage, another classic side.

Frituras (fried snacks)

12. Alcapurrias: torpedo-shaped fritters made from grated yuca and yautía, filled with seasoned ground beef, crab or other seafood.
13. Bacalaítos: big, thin, crunchy fritters of flour batter with flakes of salt cod.
14. Empanadillas: large fried turnovers stuffed with meat, chicken, seafood or a pizza-style cheese filling.
15. Pastelillos: smaller cousins of the empanadilla, also fried and filled.
16. Arepas: Puerto Rican arepas are fried flour cakes, sometimes made with coconut for a hint of sweetness, split and filled, often with seafood. Locals often eat them on their own as a starter.

Desserts and drinks

17. Tembleque: a smooth coconut custard set in a mold and dusted with cinnamon.
18. Arroz con dulce: a cinnamon rice pudding with raisins, one of the traditional seasonal desserts.
19. Flan: vanilla custard with caramel.
20. Casquitos de guayaba con queso: guava shells or guava paste served with mild white cheese, a simple, classic finish. And in December, a small glass of coquito, the island's creamy coconut and rum holiday drink.

Where to eat traditional Puerto Rican food

These restaurants serve the dishes above; we checked each one's official site, and each has a card in our directory.

• Lechonera El Rancho Original, Cayey: a lechonera on Route 184 near Guavate and the Carite forest, known for lechón asado a la vara (spit-roasted pig). It also has a dance hall and craft kiosks, so it is a day out, not just lunch.
• Mofongo's Carolina, Carolina: a criollo restaurant in the Paseo del Prado Shopping Center on PR-3, where mofongo is the house specialty. Carolina is also where the SJU airport is.
• La Casita Blanca, Santurce: a family restaurant founded in 1980 on Calle Tapia in Villa Palmeras, in a 1920s house, serving grandmother-style Puerto Rican cooking and starting meals with bacalaítos.

For more, browse the San Juan restaurant directory, our Cayey guide for the pork highway, the Carolina restaurants near the airport and the Luquillo restaurants near the beach kiosks. Our Puerto Rico restaurant guide covers the island by region.

Own one of these restaurants? If your business is listed, you can claim it with a free account to update hours and photos; if it is not, you can add your business.

Street food and food tours

Many of the best frituras are eaten standing up at a beach kiosk or a roadside stand. Our guide to Puerto Rican street food covers the kiosks of Luquillo and Piñones, pinchos and late-night bites. If you want a guide to order for you, see our picks for local food tours.

Tips for eating like a local

• Some criollo restaurants close in the afternoon. Check hours before you drive out; La Casita Blanca, for example, closes at 4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
• El Rancho Original in Guavate stays open later on weekends and holidays (until 7 p.m.) than on weekdays (until 5 p.m.).
• Portions are generous, so sharing a mofongo and a few sides works well.
• The drinking age in Puerto Rico is 18; see the drinking age guide before ordering that rum cocktail.

Frequently asked questions

Originally published on PuertoRico.com (2026-10-27). Reviewed and updated October 2026: facts were checked against the sources above.