El Jibarito

My husband has only been in the States 3 years. This place takes him back to his lil olé island and we love it. The food, the music, the vibe, it’s perfect.

Great/​fresh food, 100% puertorrican food. Excellent services, they treat you as family all the time and its so great to feel like home.

Well how i will start this review… I am from puerto rico and when you see a restaurant from your country you always are attracted to it. They have our local sodas that was great until we had to wait 35 minutes to get our food out. mofongo was not good instead of the original process they boiled the platains then mashed no flavor. The chirrasco it did not had a good aspect and very low flavor. Chuletas kan kan were good but over cooked. rice anx beans were ok. My wife did not ate and had to end up at pollo tropical for good food.

Great food! a must try. I’m Puerto Rican so when my parents came to visit Texas from Connecticut took them there and they loved it.

I came here looking to find authentic Puerto Rican cuisine. This place is a little hard to find. The location is inside the hotel it advertises from. I ordered the «bistec asado» while my boyfriend ordered fried chicken. The bistec was really great, very close in terms of authenticiy like how my Panamanian mom makes it. However my boyfriend’s dish looked off. There was barely any meat on the chicken and it looked like it had been pulled out of the freezer. He’s was pretty dissatisfied with his dish.
Reason for the 2 stars:
The food was expensive for the amount of food that was given to us. My bistec was a small portion, like the size of a sundae bowl and the fried chicken pieces were SO SMALL they looked more like chicken nuggets. The computer system they have that takes your money at the end makes you tip a considerable amount… My boyfriend and I paid separately and we wanted to tip together, but computer program made us tip a total of $ 6.00 for a meal that average $ 16 between us. We left this place ripped off and disillusioned.

I went with my Hot Puerto Rican boyfriend and it was so authentic and delicious. I and soo going again.

Food is very good here. Very much a local/​family/​friend restaurant.
Wish I spoke Spanish though, kind of hard to get service since I don’t.
Great for lunch.

Delicious food. My party and I ordered: pernir (roasted pork), pollo a la plancha (chicken both fried & grilled), empanada de carne (beef). With that we had a side a arroz, salad (lettuce & tomatoes), tostones (fried plantains). Food was served hot after about a 20 minute wait — worth it.
We also tasted limber de fresa (homemade strawberry icee), flan de vainilla (vanilla custard), pastel de queso (cheese filled pastry). With that we ordered café con leche (spanish coffee) but we had to ask for two more shots of espresso since what they served was more of a hot latte — the color was more like a dirty milk & the original flavor was very weak. Once we received that extra espresso & sweetened it with sugar to our taste the color was right and the flavor was oh so delicious!
The entrance to the restaurant was through the motel lobby — I know — deceiving.
The environment was similar to visiting a Latin gathering much like the ones I had back home as a kid. Homey.
To say we were satisfied is an understatement. It was delicious. We will definitely come again whenever we get a chance.

This is the real deal right here! It’s the closest in Dallas you will get to PR food! I went for the first time and ordered Chuleta kan kan with arroz con gandules, it was so fresh and tasted so good! I felt like I was visiting PR again! I’m happy there is a spot like this and will be back. I no longer have to wait to visit my parents in Puerto Rico to eat that Chuleta kan kan! Loved how the cooks were listening to El Gran Combo while cooking! Salsa!

Took my very picky Puerto Rican friend when he visited FW and he was impressed. Other than his cooking this was my first experience with Puerto Rican food! It was soooo good! I’m Mexican and used to HEAT but this food was so flavorful I didn’t even miss the heat. Very reasonably priced considering there’s not too many PR food establishments in the area.

Stopped by for lunch. Not my cup of tea. Service was good but that was it. Went down hill food was horrible, cold and didn’t have no taste what so ever. I would be back. Maybe it was a off day. Wait n see

Hole in the wall type of restaurant, good food, good people, what more do you want? i got the plantain sandwich, it was filled with steak and fries, yum

Only ate once at El Jibarito, All I can say… in Spanish:
QUE PORQUERIA! Nunca regresare a pagar por esa comida tan grasosa!

Over expensive Latin food for a plate banana, piece of meat and rice. Won’t be going back.

I’ve been here several times for lunch and have taken some people from work, I have enjoyed every meal. It gets crowded at lunch so, you may consider calling ahead for take out as it’s not «fast food»:. I have also called ahead to eat in. It saves time and frustration.
It is very close to my workplace so it’s a dream come true. The food is consistently good, They make a good mofongo. Not dry. Yes, you heard it here. Mofongo, in Texas, that isn’t dry.
I’m a petite woman and I am normally appalled at how large portions are in most restaurants. The portions here tend to run small. The desserts portions extremely so. The majority of this stuff doesn’t cost that much to prepare. Yes, make a nice profit because I want you to stay open and feed me… however, for standards like, rice and beans, tostones and some desserts, make your portions larger. The prices are quite good for the meal but once you realize how small the portion is you then see it’s fairly expensive for what you’re getting.
The place is very clean, nothing fancy. Very good service.
I like it.

Food is horrible here. When my plate arrived the meat was cold. The service was awful. This is why Puerto Rican restaurants do not last in Texas. Get it together.

El Jibarito was a totally unexpected find thanks to Unilocal.We were staying at a hotel nearby, and didn’t have a car. El Jibarito was one of the few non chains nearby. We never would have walked into a restaurant attached to a hotel like this, definitely nothing to impress from the outside. Inside is basic and comfortable with some posters and decorative items from Puerto Rico.
The food is the real deal. I was excited to see mofongo on the menu, and opted for that nostalgic choice with shrimp in garlic sauce. Mofongo is made from green plantains all smashed up into a hill of goodness. Then you eat it with the side, the plantains soaking up all the juice, in this case garlicky shrimp. It was delicious. A basic salad was served on the side.
There were a number of specials as well. Ibwasb tempted by the «canoa» which means canoe. It’s a ripe plantain cut lengthwise and filled with spiced ground meat. One for next time.
For dessert they had guava pastelillo, which we couldn’t resist, though I wish they had some good Café con Leche to go with it.

I have been looking for a Puerto Rican restaurant in DFW for months and found El Jibarito online. Let me start by saying I’ve missed my native cooking dearly for years and was so excited to find a place nearby. So what did I think?
Location– NOT GREAT. The restaurant is attached to a run down motel off the 360. Parking is limited and shared with the motel.
Interior– Small. There are about 8 tables in a very small space. It seems as if a full restaurant would be hard to navigate with tables being so close. The restaurant opent to the motel lobby with no separation which makes you feel you’re on display while you’re eating. A partition would go a long way.
Staff– OUR SERVER WAS GREAT! With that sayd, there was a large number of servers for such a small place. I think I counted 4. Plus a «hostess» and a guy at the register. I say «hostess» because all she did was tellmus to sit where we wanted then stare at the patrons from the side.
The food– The food was AMAZING! We had some cuajitos for apetizer and I have to say it reminded me of grandma’s cooking (tear). For an entre, I had the carne frita with mofongo. It was a huge portion of meat and the mofonfo was moist and fresh. Everything was perfectly seasoned and had fantastic flavor. My wife had the pernil with arroz con gandules– fantastic!
The low down– I would definately order take out from El Jibarito but I would probably not eat in again. The place has potential, but needs some work, especially some staff training. I’m glad to have good Puertorican food in Arlington!

Comida deliciosa y todos muy amigables.
Delicious Puerto Rican food and everyone was very friendly

Lo peor, alcapurria quema. El sitio parece una cafetería de santurce, te sirven en cartón, el menú sucio con manchas de comida, el pastelillo de pizza y e l de carne nada que ver. Fuimos para tratar por que el otro Jibaritos es excelente y pensamos que iba a ser igual. Bueno después del los apetizers pagamos y nos fuimos corriendo.

El mejor en las frituras la comida exelente y creo Que no hay otro Que haga las empanadillas como el Jibarito las de pizza y las de carne las mejores

Great place for Puerto Rican food, just opened up! Not many in the area at all and this is the real deal! The owners are awesome people and very humble. Make sure to go by and try it out for yourself! Highly recommend it. I will definitely be driving the whole 45 minutes that it takes me to get there!
Also, good prices! Can’t beat that!