Puerto Rican Food (A Local’s Guide to 49 Best Dishes to Try)

A wonderful mix of Taíno, Spanish, and African cuisines, Puerto Rican food will delight your tastebuds with a delicious variety of dishes, drinks, and desserts you’ll enjoy on your visit.

Even as a Puerto Rico local, I can’t get enough of Puerto Rican traditional dishes like mofongo, tostones, and rice and beans, and I know you will love them too! 

Eating local food should be on every Puerto Rico bucket list! I rounded up the 49 Puerto Rican foods you can’t miss during your visit. I hope you’re hungry!

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49 Best Puerto Rico Foods & Dishes

Mofongo

Deep-fried mashed green plantain with spices.

🍽️ Where to Find Mofongo:By Cheff’s (Isabela), La Cabaña (Toa Baja)

Mofongo is one of the top Puerto Rican dishes and one you can’t miss on the island.

Mofongo is a mashed and fried plantain dish with garlic and salt usually served in the form of half a sphere.

Sometimes it’s stuffed with chicken, seafood, or other meat. To make mofongo, Puerto Ricans use a pilón, a tool for cooking similar to a mortar and pestle.

Arroz con Gandules

Yellow rice mixed with pigeon peas.

🍽️ Where to Find Arroz con Gandules:Deaverdura (San Juan), La Casita Blanca (San Juan)

Arroz con Gandules is common in Puerto Rican meals, especially during the Christmas season. The rice gets cooked together with pigeon peas, tomato sauce, red pepper, olive, sazón, and sofrito.

Many Puerto Ricans also add cooking ham to the rice to give it more flavor.

Piraguas

Shaved ice with syrup of different flavors.

🍽️ Where to Find Piraguas:Paseo La Princesa (San Juan), Piraguas El Coquí (Arecibo)

Piraguas are a simple Puerto Rico dessert but they’re the best way to quench thirst on a hot day. This traditional dessert is simply hand-shaved ice topped with sweet syrup. 

Piraguas are easy to find in Old San Juan, one of the best places to visit in Puerto Rico.

Pasteles

Boiled green banana dough filled with pork meat.

🍽️ Where to Find Pasteles:La Casita Blanca (San Juan), Deaverdura (San Juan)

Pasteles are one of the Puerto Rican staples for Christmas, and they consist of a dough made with green bananas, pumpkin, and yautía, usually filled with pork meat.

After the dough is ready, Pasteles get wrapped in a plantain leaf and wax paper and cooked in boiling water. Some people top it with hot sauce or ketchup.

Arroz con Pollo

Rice with chicken.

🍽️ Where to Find Arroz con Pollo:Cafetería Mallorca (San Juan), Tropical Gourmet (Aguada)

Puerto Ricans love to mix their rice with pink beans and pigeon peas, but another way they cook it is with chicken, making it a complete meal.

Arroz con Pollo is also commonly cooked with sofrito, tomato sauce, olives, and peppers.

Pernil

Slow-cooked pork shoulder or leg with spices.

🍽️ Where to Find Pernil:Deaverdura (San Juan), Lechonera Los Amigos (Cidra)

Pernil is a traditional Puerto Rican holiday dish that consists of a pork shoulder or leg slowly cooked in an oven with spices.

Puerto Ricans like the exterior skin to be crunchy (called a “cuerito”) and the interior to be soft and juicy.

Tostones 

Deep fried sliced green plantains.

🍽️ Where to Find Tostones:Paladar Criollo (Guaynabo), El Coqui Restaurant (Rincón)

Tostones is another Puerto Rican dish made from sliced green plantains that get fried, smashed individually until they’re flat, and then fried a second time.

Tostones regularly come in a concave form, ready to be stuffed with pork, shrimp, chicken, or churrasco.

Locals also enjoy them with mayo ketchup, a sauce that combines ketchup, mayonnaise, and garlic powder.

Piña Colada

Pineapple juice and coconut cream drink.

🍽️ Where to Find Piña Colada:El Tabloncillo Criollo (Villalba), La Terraza (Loíza)

Known as the national drink of Puerto Rico, a Piña Colada is the ideal drink to accompany your fritters with a view of one of Puerto Rico’s beaches.

Made with ice, coconut cream, pineapple juice, rum, whipped cream, and topped with a cherry, you can find it in bars and restaurants all over the island. 

Bacalaitos

Deep fried codfish fritters.

🍽️ Where to Find Bacalaitos:Frituras del Prado (Ceiba), Bacalaítos El Gordito (Isabela)

Bacalaitos are one of the best Puerto Rican dishes. They’re a mix of breaded and salted codfish, deep fried until crunchy, and then eaten with your hands.

You’ll usually eat them before or after an alcapurria on any of the chinchorros on the island. Some restaurants serve them as appetizers.

Alcapurrias

A fritter filled with ground beef.

🍽️ Where to Find Alcapurrias:Papos Guacaros (Dorado), El Rinconcito Latino (Loíza)

Alcapurrias’s dough is made with green bananas, yautía, green plantain, and potato. Then, the cook serves the dough on wax paper, tops it with then filled with ground beef or stewed crab meat, shapes the alcapurria, and drops it in hot oil. 

Coquito

Coconut milk drink served during Christmas.

🍽️ Where to Find Coquito:Luis Muñoz Marín Airport (San Juan), Bacardí Rum Factory (Cataño)

Coquito is a traditional Puerto Rican drink prepared with coconut milk, evaporated milk, coconut cream, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and cinnamon.

More often than not, coquito will also have Puerto Rican rum included in its recipe.

Like many other traditional Puerto Rico foods, Coquito is served during Christmas, the best season to travel to Puerto Rico if you want to enjoy both great food and festivities.

Pollo Guisado

Chicken stew with potatoes.

🍽️ Where to Find Pollo Guisado:El Fogón del Rey (Guaynabo), Café Bakery Inc (Yauco)

If you’d rather enjoy your chicken and rice separately, you can ask for Pollo Guisado.

This chicken stew is cooked with tomato sauce, red bell pepper, potatoes, carrots, and sometimes pumpkin.

Of course, the main flavor comes from the sofrito. The best way to enjoy Pollo Guisado is with a side of rice.

Pastelón

Baked ripe plantains with ground beef.

🍽️ Where to Find Pastelón:Cafetería Mallorca (San Juan), El Fogón del Rey (Guaynabo)

Pastelón is the Puerto Rican version of traditional Italian lasagna.

They’re similar in preparation and cooking methods, but the big difference is that instead of using pasta, pastelón gets made with thin layers of ripe plantains that give the dish a sweet taste.

Rellenos de Papa

Deep fried potato dough with ground meat filling.

🍽️ Where to Find Rellenos de Papa:The House of Pastelillos (Fajardo), Frituras del Prado (Ceiba)

Relleno de Papa is just one of the many deep fried foods you will find in Puerto Rican cuisine. Traditionally, a relleno de papa is deep fried potato dough stuffed with ground beef.

However, sometimes the dough is made from breadfruit (rellenos de pana), and corned beef is used as a substitute for ground beef. 

Sopón de Gandules

Soup with rice, plantain, and green peas.

🍽️ Where to Find Sopón de Gandules:El Fogón del Rey (Guaynabo), El Balcón del Tío Mon (Mayagüez)

Sopón de Gandules is one of the most popular Puerto Rican soups made with rice, pigeon peas, little balls of plantain, red pepper, olives, tomato sauce, and sofrito.

To make the plantain balls, you have to ground the plantain, make little balls with the dough, and drop them into the boiling water. 

A fun Puerto Rico fact is that Asopao de Gandules is a favorite dish to consume after giving parranda, a Christmas tradition similar to caroling, that involves doing a surprise late-night concert at someone’s home.

Sancocho

Soup with root vegetables.

🍽️ Where to Find Sancocho:Cafetería Mallorca (San Juan)

Sancocho is one of the best Puerto Rican dishes for rainy days or colder winter weather.

It gets prepared with root vegetables such as yautía, taro, sweet potato, potato, corncob, carrots, and beef. The soup is a darker color and thicker than normal soup.

Carne Frita

Fried pork chops.

🍽️ Where to Find Carne Frita:Aventura 4×4 con Sabor a Campo (Coamo), La Casona de Artemio (Las Marías)

Besides fried plantains, traditional Puerto Rican food also includes many pork-based dishes.

After pernil, the most popular is Carne Frita, fried pork chops that usually accompany mofongo, tostones, or rice and beans.  

It’s easy to find Carne Frita and other pork delicacies on Puerto Rico’s Pork Highway, a route known for its many restaurants and a popular Puerto Rico activity for foodies.

Chicharron

Crispy pork skin.

🍽️ Where to Find Chicharron:Carretera #2 Small Kiosk on the side of the road (Bayamón)

Chicharrón is a salted pork skin that is usually a snack you take on the go.

Bayamón is known as the city of Chicharrón and you can enjoy this local treat in multiple spots.

But it’s also common to spot Chicharrón roadside kiosks in Isabela, Hatillo, and Aguadilla. You can find pre-packed Chicharron Pacheco in the supermarkets.

Mallorcas

Sweet bread with powdered sugar.

🍽️ Where to Find Mallorcas:Cafetería Mallorca (San Juan), Cremolatte (Toa Baja)

Mallorcas are one of the many types of bread Puerto Ricans regularly enjoy.

Sometimes a dessert and sometimes a meal, this Puerto Rican sweet roll is usually powdered with sugar and eaten alone, but some people like to heat it or make it into a sandwich.

Even if you’re staying in San Juan, it’s easy to find Mallorca in San Juan’s restaurants.

Trifongo

Mofongo made of fried green plantains, sweet plantain, and yuca.

🍽️ Where to Find Trifongo:El Fogón Criollo (Corozal)

If you want to spice up the traditional mofongo, try the trifongo. Prepared and cooked the same way as mofongo, the trifongo includes two additional ingredients – sweet plantains and yuca, a root vegetable commonly used in Puerto Rican food.

Pionono

Ripe plantain sliced and stuffed with meat.

🍽️ Where to Find Pionono:El Pionono 1 (Manatí), Pa’l Monte (Rincón)

Pionono is another one of the popular Puerto Rican dishes that include ripe plantain. In this case, the plantain is thin-sliced, shaped into a type of cup, filled with meat, bathed with egg, topped with cheese, and cooked in the oven.

Arroz Mamposteao

Rice with red kidney beans.

🍽️ Where to Find Arroz Mamposteao:Tostón Jibareño (Bayamón), Patria Fondita Criolla (Coamo)

Often you’ll see Puerto Ricans eating white rice and beans separately, but arroz mamposteao combines both things in a single dish along with ham, sausage, tomato sauce, and sofrito. 

Brazo Gitano

Rolled sponge cake with a guava filling.

🍽️ Where to Find Brazo Gitano: Ricomini Factory & Bakery (Mayagüez), Panadería Artesanal Villa Palmeras (San Juan)

Brazo Gitano is a dessert inherited from Europe and adapted to local Puerto Rican cuisine.

Also known as swiss cake, Brazo Gitano is a roll cake filled with guava and powdered with sugar. Carrot flavor with cream filling is also a popular rendition.

Besides being one of the best areas to stay in Puerto Rico, Mayagüez is also a town famous for its Brazos Gitanos.

Morcilla

Blood sausage.

🍽️ Where to Find Morcilla:Tu Antojito Criollo (Guánica)

Morcilla is a common side dish to arroz con gandules during Christmas. This blood sausage that originated in Europe consists of a casing, usually the pork stomach sac or the larger intestines, stuffed with a mixture of cooked rice, pig blood, garlic, and other spices.

Quesitos

Pastry filled with cream cheese.

🍽️ Where to Find Quesitos:Florida Bakery (Ponce), San Luis Bakery (Aibonito)

Puerto Rican food is full of sweets that originate from the legacy of Europeans, and Quesitos is one of them. This puff pastry is filled with cream cheese and topped with honey, and it’s perfect for a coffee break. 

Pastelillos de Guayaba

Pastries filled with guava.

🍽️ Where to Find Pastelillos:Kasalta (San Juan), Panadería Encanto (Carolina)

Also known as pastelillitos, these small pastries are filled with guava jelly and powdered with sugar. They’re a very typical snack at parties and get-togethers.

Empanadillas

Fried stuffed pastries.

🍽️ Where to Find Empanadillas:Donde Olga (Loíza), La Casa de los Pastelillos (Loíza)

Known in English as turnovers, empanadillas are fried pastries stuffed with ground beef, chicken, or seafood. Locals also call them pastelillos.

They are common in roadside kiosks. As a general Puerto Rico tip, it’s always best to carry cash with you, as some of these kiosks lack ATM systems.

Tres Leches

Sponge cake made with three types of milk.

🍽️ Where to Find Tres Leches:El Lechón Ardiente (Fajardo), Panadería Artesanal Villa Palmeras (San Juan)

Another sponge cake popular in Latin America, Tres Leches is a sponge cake prepared with sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, common cow milk, and heavy cream.

Often served as a dessert or coffee companion, the cake is first baked and then and then soaked in the tres leches mixture. 

Tripleta

Sandwich of three or more different types of meat.

🍽️ Where to Find Tripleta:Gipletas (Loíza), Panaderia La Campana (Aguadilla)

For those who enjoy sandwiches, Puerto Rican cuisine offers the Tripleta. The name of the sandwich comes from its three types of meat: grilled steak, roasted pork, and ham.

The sandwich also comes with sides of fries, mayonnaise, ketchup, and vegetables.

Asopao de Camarones

Soup made with rice and shrimp.

🍽️ Where to Find Asopao de Camarones:El Plátano Criollo (Carolina), Doña Ana (Bayamón)

Another soup in Puerto Rican cuisine is the Asopao de Camarones. Similar to traditional sopón with pigeon peas, the Asopao con Camarones consist of rice, potatoes, tomato sauce, and shrimp.

Tembleque

Creamy coconut pudding.

🍽️ Where to Find Tembleque:Panadería Fernández (Carolina)

Tembleque is a delicious dessert you can enjoy mostly during the holidays. Tembleque is a coconut milk-based pudding prepared with sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon. It has a consistency similar to gelatin.

Café con Leche

Coffee with milk.

🍽️ Where to Find Coffee with Milk:Café Mis Abuelos (Mayagüez), Barista Squared (San Juan)

Contrary to other travel destinations, if you ask for coffee in a bakery or restaurant in Puerto Rico, you’ll get a coffee with milk.

Puerto Rico’s coffee is famous for its strong flavor and most Puerto Rican families start their morning with the warm beverage.

To enjoy it as a local, drop a piece of cheddar or ball cheese within the coffee. The mix of flavors and the melted cheese at the end is a complete culinary experience.

Arroz con Dulce

Sweetened rice pudding.

🍽️ Where to Find Arroz con Dulce:Fresh and Fancy Bakery (Bayamón) 

Arroz con dulce is another sweet traditional dessert. It’s made by cooking rice in both coconut milk and tea water prepared with cinnamon, sugar, ginger, and anise – resulting in a sweet rice pudding. 

Flan

Custard made of condensed milk, evaporated milk, and eggs.

🍽️ Where to Find Flan:Casa Linda (Añasco), Palma’s Bakery & Coffee Shop (Arroyo)

Originally from Europe, Flan is a dessert made with condensed milk, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract.

Although the original recipe is widely used in Puerto Rican cooking, flan de queso is another variant that includes cream cheese in the recipe.

Arroz y Habichuelas

White rice and beans.

🍽️ Where to Find Rice and Beans:Café Manolin (San Juan), Rincón del Sabor (Luquillo)

Arroz con Habichuelas is Puerto Rico’s staple food. It’s eaten almost daily in local households, and it’s simply white rice with a side of red or pink beans. The dish is made complete with meat, often chicken.

🚗 Going on a food-hunting road trip? Have a smooth day trip with these Puerto Rico driving tips.

Limbers

Frozen flavorful juice.

🍽️ Where to Find Limbers: Some gas stations

Besides piraguas, limbers are another treat Puerto Ricans enjoy on a hot summer day.

Limbers are frozen juices of different flavors like strawberry, coconut, cookies and cream, passionfruit, cream cheese, and peanut. 

You can find them in small markets or gas stations, but the best ones are homemade. If you stumble upon a house with a sign that reads limber, make sure to stop and buy one.

Serenata de Bacalao con Viandas 

Codfish salad with root vegetables.

🍽️ Where to Find Serenata con Viandas: Ekekua (San Juan), Rene’s BBQ (Guayama)

Serenata is a salted codfish salad with onion, lettuce, tomato, boiled egg, and olive oil. It’s served with viandas, as root vegetables are known in Spanish. Puerto Ricans like to enjoy boiled viandas with Serenata de Bacalao and a glass of milk.

Guanimes 

Boiled dough of coconut milk and cornflour.

🍽️ Where to Find Guanimes:El Balconcito Criollo (Aibonito), Frituras del Prado (Ceiba)

Often served with codfish stew, Guanimes are cooked similarly to Puerto Rican pasteles.

The dough, made of coconut milk and cornflour, gets tied inside a plantain leaf to give it flavor, and then boiled until ready.Most Puerto Ricans enjoy guanimes with codfish stew or bacalao guisado.

Local Candies

Local sweets and candies.

🍽️ Where to Find Local Candies: Any corner store

Puerto Rico features its own special variety of delicious candies, similar to Turkish delights. Some of the traditional candies include dulce de leche, gofio, ajonjolí, guava paste, and pilones, a sugary popsicle with sesame seeds.

Amarillos

Fried ripe plantains.

🍽️ Where to Find Amarillos:The New Reef (Loíza), Don Kike´s BBQ (Camuy)

While many Puerto Rican dishes use green plantains, ripe plantains are also present in local cuisine.

Amarillos are a common side dish that consists of cutting ripe plantain into pieces and frying them until the outside is golden/black and the interior is soft.

Cuajito

Pork stomach boiled and seasoned.

🍽️ Where to Find Cuajito:Tu Antojito Criollo (Cabo Rojo), Papos Guacaros (Dorado)

Cuajito is pork stomach sliced and soaked in vinegar and water. After rinsing, the pork stomach gets boiled and seasoned with peppers, onion, tomato sauce, adobo, garlic powder, sofrito, and chicken broth.

Guineitos en Escabeche

Boiled green bananas seasoned with spices.

🍽️ Where to Find Guineitos en Escabeche:El Pionono 2 (Manatí)

Guineitos en escabeche is a side dish of green bananas boiled, drained, chopped, and finally marinated.

The seasoning includes olive oil, olives, vinegar, onion, bay leaves, and pepper. Some people mix guineitos with gizzards too.

Maví

Fermented drink made of Maví tree bark.

🍽️ Where to Find Maví: Paseo La Princesa Food Kiosks (San Juan)

Maví is a homemade fermented drink most Puerto Ricans like to enjoy while strolling through San Juan.

The drink gets made with Maví tree bark, sugar, and water. Just make sure to drink it very cold, since the flavor might not be as good any other way. You can also find Maví in other areas of the Caribbean.

Pan Sobao

Puerto Rican bread.

🍽️ Where to Find Pan Sobao: Any bakery or corner market

Your visit to Puerto Rico isn’t complete without trying the bread of the island. Local bread is divided into Pan Sobao and Pan de Agua.

They vary in consistency and flavor, but are present in the breakfast of almost all Puerto Ricans, along with butter and a good cup of coffee.

Asopao de Pollo

Chicken Noodle Soup.

🍽️ Where to Find Asopao de Pollo: Sopa Grill(Coamo), Hermanos Pinchos

Puerto Rico’s version of chicken soup includes much more than chicken.

Brewed with potato, garlic, onion, peppers, noodles, ham, sofrito, and tomato sauce, the Asopao de Pollo is a great dish, and many Puerto Ricans use it as a remedy to common colds.

Pinchos

Chopped meat or chicken cooked in a BBQ.

🍽️ Where to Find Pinchos:Willy’s Pinchos (Guaynabo), Hermanos Pinchos (Carolina)

Pinchos are a great quick snack if you’re on a Puerto Rico road trip. Pincho refers to chopped pork or chicken cooked in a BBQ and served on a stick. Often, Pinchos are paired with tostones or pan sobao (bread).

Arepas

Crispy wheat or coconut flour cakes.

🍽️ Where to Find Arepas:Bobby’s Place (Naguabo), La Preñá (San Juan)

Arepas are a staple in Latin American cuisine, but Puerto Rico’s arepas have a twist to them.

While most arepas are prepared with corn flour, Puerto Ricans prepare arepas with wheat or coconut flour. You can eat them alone or stuff them with chicken, meat, or fish.

Adobo

Seasoning used in traditional Puerto Rican dishes.

🍽️ Where to Find Adobo: Any corner market

Adobo is a Puerto Rican mix of grounded spices used to season meats, fish, and stews, and it’s part of what gives the delicious Puerto Rican food its unique flavor.

Sofrito

A mix of different spices grounded together.

🍽️ Where to Find Sofrito: Any corner market

Not something you eat on its own, Sofrito is the base of all Puerto Rican stews, mamposteao, and soups.

This mix consists of cilantro, onion, garlic, salt, recao, oregano, parsley, achiote, and sazón, a local spice that Puerto Ricans use to cook. 

You will not see sofrito in your food, but you’ll definitely feel its flavor.