San Juan’s Orujo Offers a Meal and a Connection for Diners

"Tucked into a former ice warehouse in Miramar, this intimate 20-seat restaurant delivers a bohemian, highly interactive tasting experience centered on a 15–20 course menu that celebrates Puerto Rican ingredients. Chef Carlos Portela personally greets guests, leads service, and invites diners into the open kitchen while the mise en place is projected on the wall, creating a relaxed, communal atmosphere rather than a stuffy fine-dining formality. Shelves of cookbooks, bins of vinyl records, puzzles, board games and craft dinnerware encourage engagement and conversation, and the staff—trained to rotate between prep, plating, wine pairing and service—adjust courses on the fly based on diners’ reactions. The cuisine is improvisational and rooted in the island’s staples (yuca, calabaza, yautia, gandules), with inventive presentations such as alcapurria fritters topped with Wagyu, goat-cheese-and-beet amuse, Mallorca bread waffles with seti, cabrito stew, mahi mahi with coconut and pistachio, and chocolates filled with pitorro; Portela sources locally, is cultivating farmland to supply the kitchen, and maintains close ties with purveyors. Founded in 2014 in Caguas and relocated to San Juan in 2021, the place functions as a gastronomic hub—drawing chefs, farmers and wine lovers—and aims to reframe Puerto Rican cuisine for a wider audience by breaking restaurant conventions and prioritizing hospitality, connection and storytelling over standardization." - Kathleen Squires