RESTAURANT REVIEW: LA CASITA BLANCA

Most descriptions you will read about this restaurant (including a spot on both Rachael Ray's $40 a Day Travel Channel show and Food Network's Have Fork Will Travel show) make you feel like this is a restaurant to check out if you jet set to Puerto Rico.  La Casita Blanca (which means "the little white house") has been around for more than 80 years, it serves authentic Puerto Rican cuisine, and is really inexpensive.  Some of the drawbacks: its located in a not so nice area of Santurce (just outside of San Juan- so you have to cab it there and back), and you'll be dining on plastic chairs and tables.  Things like that don't deter me from trying a place if it has a been around for more than 80 years, and if its been featured on two Travel Channel shows, so I decided to check it out for myself the last time I jet setted to Puerto Rico.  

Arroz Con Pollo

Pernil

 Fricassee de Pollo 

I ordered Arroz con Pollo (rice with chicken), my husband had Pernil (pork), and my dad had Fricassee de Pollo (chicken stew)- three typical Puerto Rican dishes.  I have to say that all three were pretty disappointing.  My dish had very little chicken and the rice was rubbery (as though t was cooked days before and microwaved), my hubby's was mostly all fatty which I know he likes, but I didn't think was right.  My dad's chicken was mostly pink inside and not fully cooked.  In addition, the plastic tables and chairs were covered with some pretty dingy and dirty tablecloths that are enough to turn off your appetite if you look at them too long, and the bathroom was disgusting.  We also drove to the restaurant and had to find on-street parking which made for a pretty harrowing two block walk to the place (and we're not locals, but we are Puerto Rican).  Believe you me, I don't like giving bad reviews to a restaurant in my homeland because lets face it, it's probably owned by a hardworking family, but I just have to be honest and say that I'm surprised that (1) it was featured on two Travel Channel shows, and (2) it's been around for so long.  I do hope things improve at this place now that it's getting the press it is.