Bottles
5 Tabonuco Street
Guaynabo, Puerto Rico
On
the final evening of our trip to Puerto Rico, my girlfriend's father took us
out to one of his favorite places. We went to a place called Bottles, a place
known for its wine and beer selection as well as their use of fresh ingredients
from their market in the same location as the restaurant. It was packed when we
got there, so we had to wait a few minutes past our reservation, but we were
seated soon thereafter. It was a very interesting concept. You could get up
from your table, walk around the wine selection, and pick something from the
store for your table. We contemplated this for a bit, but we decided on
ordering a Puerto Rican beer that I had somehow managed to neglect in my
previous three visits to San Juan called Magna beer. Much like the other Puerto Rican beer called
Medalla, it is a very delicious lager.
We
decided to order a few dishes and share them all. We made up our minds to order
the veal chiccarones, the mixed berry salad, the chicken marsala and the
codfish. I don’t really know if there are different versions of chiccarones in
different cultures, or if just refers to the fact that the meat is fried, but
these were very different chiccarones. They were really like little veal rib
chops that had been fried. Believe me I am not complaining because they were
absolutely delicious. The crispy skin on the outside paired with the juicy veal
on the inside and the sweet and sour sauce that they were tossed with were a
small piece of heaven. I downed quite a few of them before I turned to the salad.
We
had ordered the mixed berry salad, but it was more like a mountain. I was
shocked by the sizes of the portions they gave us, but it is always nice to
feel like you are actually getting what you paid for. There was all kinds of
ingredients in it ranging from mixed greens, tomatoes, avocados, blackberries,
raspberries, strawberries and onions. It was quite good, but there definitely
wasn’t enough dressing on it for my taste. It was pretty dry in a lot of the
areas that I ate.
The
chicken marsala and the cod came out at the same time. Both were very delicious
renditions of these dishes. The chicken marsala was very rich. The marsala
sauce had reduced down quite a bit so that it had almost become a glaze. I also
loved the addition of the capers to the sauce because they added a nice pop of
salty flavor to the sweet flavor of the marsala sauce. The cod was really
fantastic as well. It had a light dusting of breading on it, as well as a bunch
of herbs on it. The flavor was salty and had a nice bit of texture to the
outside of the tender and flaky fish.
When
we had a chance to look at the dessert menu, we all looked at the same thing
with hunger in our eyes. We ordered the Chunky Monkey Baked Alaska because it
looked and sounded amazing. It was a dense brownie, topped with banana ice
cream and then the classic peaks of torched meringue on top. I loved the
flavors of the dessert, and I always love seeing baked Alaska on the menu, but
unfortunately the brownie was just too hard. I don’t know if they had it in the
freezer before they brought it out, but it was very dense and very hard. Had it
been a bit softer or maybe warmed in the oven before it was topped with the ice
cream and meringue, it would have been much better.
Three
pints for Bottles. I really enjoyed the food that they served and the
atmosphere of the place is really fun. I would definitely recommend it to you
all and I will certainly look to go back the next time I am in San Juan. Give
it a try and let me know what you think! Cheers!
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