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Quebradillas.- Visiting La Quebrada Restaurant, in Quebradillas, is like visiting a close relative who goes out of their way to please his visitors. Despite featuring over 40 dishes on the menu, its owners are willing to prepare that special recipe.

Entire families have visited since the restaurant’s opening in 1985, because they know well that, aside from the delicious dishes served, featuring seafood, meats, and poultry, they’ll always find a place where to savor succulent food without neglecting their wellbeing.

For this reason, most of the visitors consider themselves a part of this space, where 14 employees, most of them relatives of Rosa María Lugo Soto and her husband, Jose Luis Gandía, work. The restaurant is located in the Quebrada Mala sector, in Terranova barrio.

In fact, this location’s history started in a food truck bought by the couple when they worked in one of the town’s factories. This is where they developed the restaurant, which has evolved over the years.

“We used to sell breakfast and Puerto Rican food. The people who worked with us in the factory received it very well because they didn’t see us as business owners, but as family. It was very hard work, though, and since they were tired, one day my father said he wanted to open a grocery store,” said Victor Gandía Lugo, son of Rosa and José Luis.

“With the money they earned with the food truck, they bought a one-acre plot of land in the barrio. But they kept the food truck and the grocery store at the same time, which was tough. One day, they decided to bring the food they made in the food truck to see how sales went, and Mami started making asopaos (rice-based stew), empanaditas, simple things,” recalled the Gandía Lugo.

Doña Rosa’s kitchen was so successful that they closed the grocery store to fully dedicate themselves to the culinary arts.

“It was more about the food than about the actual grocery store, so they decided to eliminate the grocery store area and kept the restaurant, which only had four tables. People would come in the afternoons to drink their beer, eat their frituras (fried appetizers), and socialize,” said Gandía Lugo, who has a degree in anthropology with a focus in archeology.

However, one of his uncles, who lived in Florida, insisted on renting out the restaurant, so they leased it out to him for 15 years, until he passed away.

“It was at that time that the restaurant started selling a bit more. We worked with him; he came in at night when we left to get everything ready. He passed away, and the business returned to how it was, until it became what it is today. We’re three generations because now there’s also my grandchildren,” said Doña Rosa.

Diners at La Quebrada Restaurant “come for mofongo stuffed with shrimp, lobster, chicken, seafood, all kinds of empanadillas (turnovers), including crab.”

“It’s about 40 dishes. Among the most popular are the lobster-stuffed flounder fillets; they can come stuffed with octopus, shrimp, conch, crab, or a combination of seafood. You can combine it with parmesan or “a la quebrada”,” said Gandía Lugo.

“La quebrada is a dish that is battered in butter with a little bit of brandy, dry wine, and mushrooms. The idea is to have a thin, juicy crust inside in a mushroom sauce. It’s breaded with wheat flour; it is a thin breading,” he said.

For vegetarians, they offer a vegetable-stuffed mofongo. For this family, it is important to please their visitors.

“Some people don’t eat fried foods; we offer to boil it for them instead. Some people have special diets, they might not eat garlic because they’re allergic; we can prepare the food mashed in butter, or in olive oil if they prefer. As long as we have the ingredients to please the customer, we’ll do it,” Gandía Lugo said.

One of their most popular dishes are the empanadillas. “People buy them raw, by the dozen, to make them at home.” Their appetizer menu includes sorullos (cornmeal fritters), arañitas (shredded plantain fritters), cheese balls, mahi-mahi croquettes, and more.

As for desserts, most of them are prepared in the restaurant. These include the casquitos de guayaba (guava shells), cheese flan, tres leches cake, and papaya with local cheese.

“We have a house drink: it’s called el chorrito de la quebrada, which includes eight liquors, milk, cinnamon, and other ingredients. We also offer natural juices,” he said, mentioning that the place has enough capacity for 55 people.

Zenaida, Víctor’s sister, explained that “most of the customers who come here feel like family. They don’t see this as a business where they come to buy food, but as their home,” she concluded.

For more information, call 787-895-2873.