Adam F.
Yelp
Heh, I'm sad I missed my chance to be the first review - I was also at the grand opening, and yes, it did take like 2 hours to get my food, a fact that I wouldn't ding them for at all, since it seemed like a quarter of Long Beach showed up for the grand opening. It is very true that Long Beach, and really SoCal in general, has long been starved for Puerto Rican food, and it is just *so* good. I hadn't had mofongo in an *eternity*, and it really is one of the best dishes any culture has ever come up with (so obviously that's what I was there to get and to judge them on, mainly.)
You order at the front, which presumably when it's not their first official day open, would be quite quick - then they have just a few tables inside, so obviously I got my order to-go. I do, however, want to point out a *very* convenient quirk of their location: Trademark Brewing is *just* across the street. Trademark has *tons* of seating and is byo food. I live in the area, but La Casa de Iris also has a very tiny parking lot - Trademark has a larger one. Iris's drink menu is also a small handful of cans of soft drinks, whereas Trademark obviously has a much larger and more interesting menu of drinks to choose from (i.e. beer). So obviously I got it to-go - and will probably continue to. Craft beer went *great* with mofongo, as you'd expect. So: great choice of location!
Anyway, I did also try one of their potato balls, which I thought was just decent. Don't get me wrong - if you put down a big tray of them at a party, I'd absolutely *house* them. But for $4, they weren't quite as big as I was expecting, nor quite as crispy as the ones from Porto's. Not gonna ding them for that at all either, though, that not being what I was primarily here for.
What I *was* primarily here for, the mofongo: sooo good. Other than not being quite as pretty for being stuffed into a to-go container (not their fault: it's what I asked for) - absolutely as good as the best mofongo I'd had when I was in San Juan once, years ago. (A trip in which I just went around trying mofongo from as many restaurants as I could.) Great mofongo, *excellent* pernil. I look forward to trying all four meat options at some point, but the pernil was seriously excellent. Strongly recommended.
Only real complaint about it - they also had a large container of pepper water, that appeared to be made in-house, by the register, also very good, if you like that sort of thing, which obviously I do. I doused the top of the mofongo with it on the way out the door, so obviously, when I ate it a few minutes later, the mofongo on top was clearly one micro-step tastier than the mofongo on the bottom. They should really have small to-go containers ready for people to take some pepper water for their to-go orders. (It's very good pepper water.)
Super friendly people, too, so I'm glad there's such an immediate buzz! I definitely look forward to coming back when it *isn't* a madhouse.