Maná Escondido Café

Yep, according to a search I did on Unilocal,Mana Escondido still seems to be the only Boston area restaurant that carries the jibarito — a Chicago creation, according to Kyra M. and confirmed on Wikipedia.
Mana Escondido Café is a bit hidden away, located just off the main drag, nestled in a residential area of South End. With four tables to its name, dine in is an option, but take-​out seems to be the norm. If you want something quick, their prepared food counter is ready to scoop from. Otherwise, things seem to be made to order here.
They advise 30 minutes for their Mofongos on their menu (with alternatives the dofongo and trifongo also available), but it turns out their Jibarito (and the sweet plantain variation, the Jibarita) should also be allowed 20 min.
Since we wanted both, I ordered those first and asked them to get started on them before I completed my ordering and paying. That worked out pretty well, as we noshed on our Frituras/​Fritters as we awaited the main course (s).
The Alcapurria $ 2 (grated root vegetable fritter stuffed with ground beef) looked rather small when it was placed in the plastic serving basket, so I selected another item on the fly, which it turned out was not mentioned at all on their menu. It was yellow and described as a sweet cornmeal with cheese. I like corn, I like sweet, and I like cheese, so I went with it.
The alcapurria was a bit disappointing, as it was not to my taste. The crust was a rough, nutty sort of texture, which overwhelmed the meat filling. The Sorullos $ 1.25, sweet cornmeal with cheese, on the other hand, was as described, so I quite enjoyed it. My friend called it a corn dog, thought it was without any dog.
At $ 1.25, for liquid refreshment, we picked up can of guava nectar from the refrigerated case. It was quite rich and nicely chilled. In addition to other fruity flavors and water, they oddly carried Pepsi-​Cola on the same rack as the Sprite.
The Jibarita with Steak/​Bistek $ 6.95 arrived neatly portioned for two, though the soft texture of the «bread» (being sweet plantains) made it more of a knife & fork type of dish than the sort of thing you can eat with your hands. We got it with everything but the hot. The contrast of textures with crisp lettuce and potato sticks tucked in was great, and the flavor was slightly reminiscent of a Big Mac due to the sauce and the beef as the protein of choice. Don’t expect large pieces of beef here — it is rather sliced up the way folks might for a steak and cheese sub.
The Mofongo with pernil/​roast pork $ 8.50 arrived not long after. Mofongo is a savory dish that combines green plantains mashed with fresh garlic. It had a good flavor, and was not too dry like another I had taken with me on a plane once. The roast pork was tender and tasty. I later spotted one of the workers enjoying the shrimp variation on her dinner break, and saw a goodly number a decent sized shrimp resting on her mound of mashed plantains. For $ 9.99, it seemed a steal.
4 stars
*** ⁶⁄₂₀₁₆ dinner again ***
I came back for dinner another night to try their Jibarito (that’s the sandwich using fried plantains (platano verde) as the bread). It was $ 6.95 for the Pernil/​Roast Pork version.
It was about 12 minutes from paying a the counter to delivery to my table. And when it arrived, sure the plantains were sturdier than the sweet version, but gee, were they hot for my poor finger tips! Maybe these are just plain better eaten with the knife and fork as were provided to me…
The pork in this jibarito were not as tender and moist as on the first visit served on the mofongo. It was also a tad drier a concoction this time around. Wait! I realize what the difference was — it didn’t come with the sauce and cheese! Both times I agreed to have it with everything but the spicy… do they make it different based on the type of meat and the plantain selection, or did they just plain forget?
2 stars
PS — I don’t like coconut water. But I tried their canned coconut soda. A slightly sweet fizzy drink — not bad. I’d get it again.

Had a Pastel en hoja and some fried pork (chicharron) and an alcapurria everything os pretty good and home cooked style i got a peep of the rotisserie chicken and that looks awesome I want to get that next time.

Love the food here. It is comfort food at its finest!
Our favorites are the beef stew with yellow rice and sweet plantains. Soooo good!
The chicken stew is also delicious, but I find it trickier to eat with the bone-​in
The beef with onions is amazing as well. Slightly different flavor profile, but still so good
Everyone is so friendly here. We’ve been back three times already! Love how quick it is to pop in. Most things are already prepared (except the mofongos) so you can just point and go. Five stars for food. Perfect for takeout!

The roasted chicken is pretty good and so is their choice of foreign sodas. The place is definitely small, but cozy. The counter staff was super friendly. Its nothing fancy, but its a good place to eat.

I’m from Chicago, and back home, the go-​to place for amazing Puerto Rican food was the neighborhood of Humboldt Park. So when I moved to Boston, I was craving a taste of something familiar in an unfamiliar city. I was walking hungrily through South End and I saw this this hidden gem just off Tremont; and when I say «hidden,» I mean hidden, like you could easily miss it if you weren’t paying attention to your surroundings. So I decided to try this place out… No joke, the food was LIT! SO GOOD! It filled my stomach and my soul. Reasonably priced, and you get a lot of delicious food for the price you’re paying. Best of all, the people who work there are absolutely wonderful, and I’ve definitely become a regular there. So if you’ve brunched yourself out with all of the brunch places in South End, go try this place out.

I ordered the chicken stew with yellow rice a few times and it is so good! Even the yellow rice itself was so good. I can’t even describe it. Maybe it was the seasoning or spices they used but wow the rice itself had me sold. The chicken stew is so delicious as well. They use chicken thigh meat and it is so tender that the meat literally falls right off without being dry and chewy. I usually add some of the stew sauce to my rice which makes it taste even better.
I don’t know what the male employee’s name was but he is sooo friendly! Great service, great food, great prices.
Highly recommended!

This restaurant’s food is like homemade puertorrican food. The staff is friendly, service is quick. Perfect for a quick stop. I highly recommended. I rated 5.0

Stopped in for a quick snack as I have been dying to try this place. I grabbed a pastelito de pollo (chicken empanadas) and a small order of the platanos maduros (ripe plantains). It was incredibly delicious and truly transported my food soul to heaven. I may never make my own Puerto Rican food again, there is so delicious and fresh. Can’t wait to go back and have other items

Went here with a friend to grab a bite to eat for lunch. I didn’t realize how small this place was, but there are only a couple of tables to sit at. Luckily for us, there wasn’t much of a crowd around 1pm.
For my meal, I decided to go with the pulled pork with yellow rice and sweet plantains. I had wanted to order one of the mofongos after reading so much about them, but the cashier let me know that since they are made fresh, they take about 15 – 20 minutes to order. Though this sort of made me want them more, I didn’t want to make my friend wait, so I went with the pork.
The pork was good – though I wish there was a little more of it in the dish. The rice was very average, but the plantains made for a nice, sweet finish to the meal.
Overall, this place is a hidden gem over in the South End that serves up some tasty food at affordable prices. One of these days I’ll have to come back to check out some of their freshly made dishes.

Almost couldn’t find this place, definitely «Escondido» lol. But I’m sooo glad I did! I tried the pork jibarito, it was delicious! When I got the plate and saw two, I really thought I wasn’t going to be able to finish but it was so good I had to finish! Definitely recommend this spot. Can’t wait to go back =)

Stumbling across this place was one of the best things that could ever happen to me. Having recently moved from PR, I was craving my food like no other and unfortunately, there’s not much puertorrican food or let alone authentic «comida criolla» in Boston. They met my expectations in every level and I’ll be definitely be coming back to get my fix every other week!

Def a hidden gem in south end. Great Puerto Rican food and just block from my house! Very friendly staff and great portions. A warm welcome because I feel the neighborhood lacked a nice quick serve spot. Very clean inside as well.
I recommend the beef stew with rice. Enjoy

If this app had more stars, I would have given 10. I ordered the mofongo stuffed with stewed beef. It was better than mine. We had alcapurrias and rellenos that were perfectly fried. It is definitely local and authentic. I felt right at home. The avocado was from home big and buttery. The rice and beans could have been made by my grandma. If I lived here I would be in trouble. Loved it!

We recently moved from Miami to Rhode Island and have been seriously depressed at the lack of Latin food. My hubby is Puerto Rican so when we were in Boston coming back from the airport I suggested finding a puerto rican spot to pick up some dinner. We tried a Dominican spot in RI and were disappointed to I wasn’t expecting much. Man, I so glad we stopped. It looks like a little neighborhood spot and everyone was super friendly. Their rice was on point and the beef and chicken was sooo tender. I felt like I was on the island! I even got another meal to eat the next day. Can’t wait till the next time we’re up in Boston

OMG my first time having Puerto Rican food and how I loved it. I wish it was right next to my place. I had the mofongo which takes usually 15 mins to make but worth the wait. Then there is the finger lickin good yellow rice (more like the orange rice with some kinda lentils) and the exceptionally well made beans. Overall, my best find in Boston in a week! Did I forget to mention the people there? The sweetest!

I went to Puerto Rico with my wife last January and fell in love with the country and their food. I had alcapurias in different places and boy they vary widely. The ones I had in Mana Escondido were close to the best alcapurias I had in PR. It is a very basic place but the welcoming people make all the difference. Love it!

The restaurant is located on 68 Aguadilla St (off Tremont Street). The Unilocal map was a bit off on the location. Sorry Unilocal.
The restaurant is cozy with 3 – 4 tables. They have prepped food for quick in/​out (ie. beef stew, roast chicken, fried chicken) or made to order items (ie.the jabarita sandwiches, mofongos — which can take about 20 minutes). The lady was sweet to let us know in advance which prepped food is available. She showed us each of the items.
We were hungry — so we opted for the prepped food. We got the following:
Stewed chicken combo plate — with yellow rice/​beans and plantains. I’d asked if I can try a little bit of the yucca. She happily added a couple pieces.
Stewed beef — with yellow rice. beans and plantains.
Chicken turnover — ended up being ham and cheese but that’s okay.
Both the stewed entrees were flavorful and you can tell it cooked for a long while — meat was extra soft and goes well with the yellow rice/​beans.
Someone after us ordered the mofongo. The chef was nice enough to give us a lil sampling on the side when he brought out the customer’s order out. It was flavorful, a tad bit more garlic than I’m used to.
Overall, great service and delicious food without breaking the piggybank.

Hidden gem in the south end (when i said hidden, yes, it was hard to find on google maps). I finally found it (easier to find it on Tremont Street than cutting through Little Puerto Rico). Friendly staff and tasty food. I went with the beef stew over rice (awesome sauce with tender meat), sweet plantains and chicken. Who said you can’t find affordable and yummy food in the south end?

The food here is AMAZING. We both got mofongos. These are these round cakes of heaven (actually made of fried plantains and garlic), then you can have it topped in veggies or meat. I polished off every last bite. It’s crunchy, salty, a little sweet, and just amazing. I will DEFINITELY come here again for it. It’s so good.
HOWEVER, minus 1 star because of the wait times. We went and ordered and were told 15 minutes. We weren’t in a huge hurry, but did have somewhere to be. 20 minutes went by, 25, 30, finally 35 minutes later we got our food. It was bad. We almost had to cancel our order because we had to go. Definitely order ahead of time so your food is waiting for you and don’t go here if you’re short on time.

So the food here is amazing, but that’s where the bueno ends. This place claims to open at 7 AM. You are lucky if they pick up their phones by 9:30 AM. When you walk by in person, frequently there are workers there but they say they have to wait for their boss to prep the food. When you finally are able to connect with someone and order your food, plan on waiting AT LEAST 30 – 45 minutes. We’re talking some real island time. Then when you get there, there is a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ chance of your food being ready. Paying is a process. A group of four of us ordered once and let me tell you even though we paid as a group it took a solid 3 minutes for them to ring everything up and have us pay. I would not recommend if you are in a rush or if you have somewhere to be… but if you have time and patience… the food is amazing :)

Great Puerto Rican/​Dominican Food!
Amazing Service and the Prices are unbeatable! This place is going blow up one day, wait until Phantom Gourmet finds out about this HIDDEN JEWEL!

First and foremost, my standard for Puerto Rican food is pretty high considering 1. I can cook it in my own kitchen (I buy habichuelas and gandules in bulk at BJ’s) and 2. I have actual blood relatives on La Isla and 3. I grew up in the mecca of Puerto Rican food that is Chicago (i.e. the birthplace of the jibarito sandwich). It’s also important to note, I’m super excited I found this place, randomly, while searching Unilocal for pasteles and discovered they have what is possible the ONLY jibarito in New England.
So alright, we find this place hidden, as the name suggests, in South End, and walk in completely famished. Worth noting, there are only three tables in the entire place, so don’t show up with your mom’s birthday party of seventeen. Anyway, we knew our order off jump. Having been in Boston several months, I’ve had jibarito on the brain for a while. Upon ordering, we were immediately scoffed at, because we asked for only one meat per sandwich and they serve up their platano goodness with a «tripleta» (three meats: roast pork, ham, and beef). So I can’t order a jibarito de pernil (roast pork)? Ok… Sidenote: the jibarito as created in Chicago, is typically one meat (usually steak, sometimes pork or another singular meat) sandwiched between gigantic fried plantains and topped with lettuce, tomato, American cheese, grilled onions, and garlic sauce. For experience’s sake, we tried it their way. Complete with mayoketchup (the official sauce of Puerto Rico), pickles, and shoestring potato chips.
I will not call this the best jibarito of my life. BUT I will say, the consistency of the platano was perfect, and this version of a jibarito is 100% alright in my book. I would definitely go to Mana Escondido before going a lot of other places in Boston, and it’s refreshing to have a tiny taste of home without having to stray too far. Important to note, the arroz con gandules could use a little flavor pick-​me-​up, like maybe some salchicha (farmer’s sausage) or jamon (ham). Overall, I’ll be back, maybe not tomorrow, but I’ll be back.