Per my previous blog, Winner, Winner, Mofungo Dinner, I am here to give an update on how we spent our $202 winnings from scratch-off lottery tickets on our meals while visiting Puerto Rico.

Photo by Audrey Lee.

To start, we had to spread the $202 over four days, making each day’s spending only $50.50. This was hard. For breakfast and coffee, we found a few cafés outside of the hotel that were only $1.75 for a coffee and $3 for a Mallorca breakfast sandwich. This was the perfect breakfast to start the day and came in at less than $8 per day.

Lunch and dinner were a little more difficult while visiting the tourist areas of Old San Juan. For lunch one day we visited La Verguenza at a suggestion from a tour guide at the Castillo San Cristobal for the food and rooftop views. I enjoyed the mini empanadillas and coconut mojito, and my boyfriend munched on tostone ensalada de pulpo, also with a coconut mojito. Our total for this came to $40.49. The food, location and views were worth it, though. Another lunch option was steak mofongo at a roadside stand that came to $25. We had one dish to split with a side of corn fritters. The portion size was so large, we had a lot left over for the following day’s lunch.

For dinner on the second night, we visited Orozco’s Restaurant, located down the street from our hotel in Condado. This was my favorite spot throughout the entire trip. Having seen the portion sizes from the other restaurants, we knew a lot of food was coming our way. We opted to share one plate, masitas de cerdo fritas. The dish came with fried pork and onions with a side of rice and beans, and sweet plantains for only $14.98. The flavor of the entire dish was exactly what I was looking for; we were both full, and the price was fantastic.

Photo by Audrey Lee.

In the morning we visited the same café for a quick and cheap breakfast before heading to El Yunque rainforest. Here we stopped at the Rainforest Café. This is not the hokey tourist restaurant with mechanical animals, but a café literally in the middle of the rainforest surrounded by lush vegetation, lots of lizards and real rain falling from the sky. We ordered several pastelitos and enjoyed the scenery. They were delicious and flavorful. The chef came out to greet us and let us know he will soon open an upscale restaurant right down the road. This quick meal was only $12.

On our final night we headed to Raices, suggested to us multiple times from various rideshare drivers and locals. Just as we did at Orozco’s, we ordered one dish and split it. We saw neighboring tables with large portions and thought it was the best idea to not leave any food wasted. We ordered two glasses of wine with pork mofongo and a side of rice and beans. The total came to $36.48.

Photo by Audrey Lee.

All in all, our food spending exceeded the $202 allotment, but not by much. We were surprised we were able to keep within our spending limit while still getting the local flavor. Alcohol is always a huge portion of the bill. Without the mojitos, we may have stayed within budget.

Photo by Audrey Lee.

— Audrey Lee, assistant editor

Photo by Audrey Lee.

Photo by Audrey Lee.

Photo by Audrey Lee.