La Borincana

Love this place.. Never a bad meal or experience! The hot case is a great go to for a snack

A I really love getting into the off beat neighborhoods and trying the little neighborhood places like today. I stumbled on this Puerto Rican place and I wanted to try it because I don't really see true Puerto Rican places at all come to think of it. I have not had Puerto Rican food since I was a boy eating at my friends house and I can only remember that rice was always on the dish.The place is across from the El Ray food store on 13th St with plenty of street parking. The neighborhood looks a little worse for wear but that is where you can find some of the best ethnic/real food. If there is such a thing as Puerto Rican dive than this place is it with all the artificial trees and roosters all over the place. There is plenty of old green booths and tables on old linoleum floors. Up front is a hot table with empanadas, blood sausage, pork, plantains etc. The older man and woman were very helpful in assisting me with picking out a dish that would be a good representation of Puerto Rican food. The menu has so much that I really don't know what it all was but I probably would have liked all of it no matter what I chose. I chose the Bistec enpanado which is thin breaded steak, Puerto Rican rice and fried plantains with a side of ground beef and cheese empanada.When the plate hit the table it smelled amazing and was plentiful so there would be left overs to relive my lunch again. For the first time I liked the plantains because they were not hard but fried with the texture of a thick slice of cheese. The rice had great texture/flavor and was fluffy with individual grains, no sticky mushy rice here. The breaded steak was very tasty but I can't nail down the flavor profile which bugged me. The empanadas was crispy/golden tasty but they were skimpy on the ground beef and cheese filling because 3/4 of the inside was air, see my pictures. I really liked all the flavors from the dish but I think the nicely seasoned ground beef and cheese empanada was my favorite with the crispy golden she'll.Overall for my first real adult experience with authentic Puerto Rican food I liked it even though the style is not super flavorful with bold tastes or flavors/spices. I would definitely like to get back and try some more of the menu, maybe the roast pork or the cubano sandwich.

Fantastic place for authentic Puerto Rican food. Clean and very friendly. Ran by actual boricuas. We talked for about an hour. Super nice people. Frituras behind the heated glass looked great. I had one bacalaito, one alcapurria and one pionono. All three were delicious! Just like back home. A few days later, I came back and placed a large order of arroz con gandules, lechón asao and Pasteles for my office Christmas party. All the local people loved it but there was one lady from Puerto Rico that raved all night about the food and kept eating non-stop. There are so many treats on the menu that I need to go back and try like the mofongo con carne frita! Yum! I would give it more than 5 stars if I could.

We stumbled across this place today & wish we would have kept walking! We waited 10-15 minutes for someone to come to our table, then the gal took our order & brought our drinks 15 minutes later. There was only 1 other table & a few people sitting at the counter, so really no excuse. We got our food approximately 45 minutes from when we first ordered. I had a basic sandwich, which tasted very bland. The place was dirty, no matter where you looked. Very disappointing. We will not be back!

If you're looking for some Puerto Rican soul food this is a great place to hit up in Milwaukee. All meals served to order so there is a bit of a wait time, but its worth it especially if you're having the mofongo. Super moist with great flavor, by far best mofongo I've had in Milwaukee.

This has to be one of the worst experiences I have ever had with any restaurant in my life. I walked in and after standing at the doorway for a bit I had to ask if I seated myself, I sat myself after being told to just grab a menu off of their checkout area, the restaurant was not clean, it was was cluttered by random items that don't belong in an open view of a restaurant (I.e. a large microwave in the store front window), the booth I sat in the seat was dirty with crumbs, I waited for a good five minutes before the guy who was sitting at one of the booths since the minute I arrived (to the point I thought he was a customer) got up and finally came over to take my order, tried to order alcapurrias & bacalaitos but they had none. The food I ordered was not good and it was questionable. To top it all off they had 3 kids running around yelling, crying and fighting all while a number of grown ups yelled at them to stop. I even recorded it because it was so unbelievable. I was looking forward to some PR food while back home and it was the worst experience ever. I was embarrassed for my culture. To the point that it prompted me to write my first review; I wonder what happened because these previous reviews do not sound like the restaurant I was at today.

huhhhh what can I say to top it off after my small complaint with the owner that said he never had a complaint before it was so greasy the food I ordered I will never go back It was so greasy and bad packaged it stain my car from the grease, I dare you to go there and you will get a heart attach from there greasy food and bad attitude the man owner had do not go there unless you of want to die of fat food

A real find in Milwaukee - it's the ONLY place in town with the Real thing: Morcilla. Blood sausage. Absolutely delicious, authentic. The fancy places in town Do Not have it.