Casa Borinqueña serves bold, vegan Puerto Rican classics like mofongo and pastellitos, blending tradition with a fresh, plant-based twist.
582 7th St, Oakland, CA 94607 Get directions
"La Guerrera’s also serves as a throwback to Old Oakland’s often-forgotten history as the original hub for Oakland’s Mexican immigrant community before highway construction and redevelopment displaced most of the neighborhood’s Latino residents and businesses starting in the 1950s. Before it closed in 2015, La Borinquena, a Mexican deli-restaurant located just a couple of blocks away, was the place to buy tamales in the East Bay for decades." - Luke Tsai
"Casa Borinqueña is the Bay Area’s only vegan Puerto Rican food business. When Lourdes Marquez-Nau, the proprietor of the Oakland-based Puerto Rican catering business Casa Borinqueña, announced a little over a month ago that she would start serving only vegan dishes moving forward, the response from the local Puerto Rican community was mixed. 'That’s not real Puerto Rican food' was one typical response, Marquez-Nau says. 'How can you do it without the pernil?' was another. This idea that vegan Puerto Rican food might be seen as controversial wasn’t exactly surprising to the chef. After all, the island’s cuisine is famously meat-centric, and pork — including pernil, the beloved roast pork shoulder preparation — plays an especially central role. Still, Marquez-Nau thought to herself, 'I need to stay true to me, to stay true to my dishes.' And so she’s pressed forward with Casa Borinqueña’s new takeout menu of such Puerto Rican classics as shrimp mofongo, arroz con gandules, and pastellitos — all of them plant-based." - Luke Tsai
