Borinquen Lounge

This is a true gem. The food is affordable, delicious, and authentic. I always take out-​of-​towners here to experience a slice of real Puerto Rican cuisine interpreted the Chicago way. They are never disappointed. I always get one of the Jibarito sandwiches and usually the mariscos and fried pork. Their jibaro salsa is spectacular. You will want to purchase a jar for yourself. It is great on anything.

Tried this place for the first time and ordered the Lechon (pork) dinner which comes with two sides (I had the yellow rice with plantains), a steak and a pork jibarito sandwich. Everything was amazing, especially loved the yellow rice, which was moist and flavorful. Would come back again when I crave some Puerto Rican food!

The fiancé and I went here this past week because we have been talking about how long it has been and we have been jonesing for one. We have not had a jibarrito in almost a year (very sad) — so we made it in to the city to this location. It was lunch time on a weekday and it was pretty empty. The décor is nothing fancy, old school and not brightly lit — but it is clean and the waitress was prompt and got out order right. We split the yummy potato ball filled w. meat (sorry, I am forgetting the name). :) That was really good! The fiancé and I both got a steak jibarito — I got arroz con gandules as my side. The jibarito had a good amt of mayo but not too much, which I appreciate so you can taste the steak flavor too. There was a good amt of garlic on the plantain and the steak was cooked perfectly.
Overall, my jibarito was fabulous and the food was warm and cooked perfectly. We will be back — as always.

Learn how to pronounce jibarito and order one with pork. Thank me in the morning. (don’t call it a Puerto Rican sandwich and get reprimanded like I did. Amature mistake!)

Came to have lunch with my sister and the family. I guess It doesn’t matter who the server or host is. The service still sucks. The food is delicious. I really don’t know where they hire there employees from. Or who does the the hiring but they really need to reevaluate there employees. It takes over 5 – 10 minutes for the server to revisit your table after you have been seated. Then another 10 – 15 minutes to get bread and water. I guess it’s time to find another place to eat Puerto Rican food.

I have no idea what other Unilocal reviewers are experiencing below… but let me tell you, I LOVE THIS PLACE! I’ve been here for the past several years and its time for me to finally show my gratitude.
I don’t know how many times I’ve been here, but the point is, I’m a regular and their food is always good. I usually get the lechon ‘à la carte’ meal with tostones and arroz con gandules with a complimentary tomato and lettuce salad included. The ‘à la carte’ option allows you to choose two side dishes from their menu with the main entrée, in this case, my usual side dishes are the rice and tostones. The roast pork is always flavorful and their rice very moist. Tostones always have a good amount of that tasty garlic oil. I have tried different versions of tostones from other Latin American countries, but Puerto Rican style tostones just tops the cake; it really doesn’t get any better than that. The salad is just sliced tomato and lettuce (does not come with dressing, but its still nice to eat your veggies). The portions are always nice (you will definitely get full) and the service is good. Also, their fountain drinks have free refills, and here’s the winner, they have Ginger Ale. I don’t know about you, but I love ginger ale; and not many restaurants carry it. I also like to order carry out as I live nearby, loving it!
I once had their mofongo (plaintain ball with chicken broth) but there were too many big pieces of chicharrón that was a bit chewy; wasn’t too fond of that. Otherwise, get the relleno de papa and beef pastelillo appetizers, those are always good too.
One of the best things I like about this place is the convenience of them being open late. I am always craving Puerto Rican food, so this place is perfect for a PR food fanatic like me.
As long as this place stays around, I’ll always be around.

Totally not impressed, the service was ok but I have definitely tasted better Puerto Rican food. Its supposed to be a family restaurant however inside looks like a bar, the décor was old, dark, and worn out, family friendly? Not quite. My boyfriend and I ordered Jibaritos, I ordered steak, the plantain was over cooked to the point where it hurt my teeth when I bit into it. My boyfriend ordered lechon but the server messed up and brought him a steak jibarito. When we told her, she quickly took it back and less than 30 seconds brought it back out only to notice that it wasn’t a fresh sandwich, the cook only changed the meat. The lechon was waaaay too over seasoned (too much adobo). Nonetheless, I am certain i won’t be coming back nor recommending to anyone i know, Thanks but no thanks.

Order a jibarito with lechon, received a bistec. After getting my order right the lechon was salty «yes I would like lechon with with my jibarito of salt» said no one ever. The tostones were hard, needed a sledgehammer to take break the jibaro in half. If you want your pressure to sky rocket I suggest coming in here but if you want good food go else where.

The jibarito is just out of this world. Service is nice, and the food is great. The alcapurrias are something I’ve never heard of and recently tried and AWESOME! Everyone should go here.

I was a little disappointed in this restaurant. We heard about it from many people. When we went it took forever to get our food, it was hotter than hell in the restaurant, and the tables were tiny. On the upside the food came out hot but I guess I was expecting it to be spectacular considering all the recommendations. The tostones were really salty, while on the otherhand the jibarito was very dry and flavorless. The meat taste like it had been chilling for a minute while the other parts of our order was prepared. I expected a little more. Hopefully it was just an off day.

Service and quality of the food has definitely gone down.
This used to be one of the top restaurants. Something has significantly changed.

Everything Here Is Good, The Salchichon Soup Is The Perfect Hangover Cure. And The Staff Is Friendly

No no just what not to to have try to ask how and when this food is not for the weak
As for the stuff they just came up ask what we like and did not explain what this food is like so sorry not for us, better food down the road !!! And sevice

Its ok but I have had better. steak is a bit fatty in the jibaritos.

This place is great. It’s a cozy restaurant, never too busy or empty. You can order your food to go or sit and dine in. There is a bar available if you choose to have drinks, also I think it’s Byob (have to check to be sure though). Every time I come here I try something different and I have never been let down. So if you are interested in good Puerto Rican food I think you may enjoy this place.

I’ll be honest, I came here very skeptic expecting the worste since those so called «puertorican» restaurants in Los Angeles can’t get their shit together… Well Chicago, I’m impressed. I devoured the shit out of this plate with a glass of «jugo de parcha», aka passion fruit juice, and this ambassador has bestowed the honor of «authentic puertorican cuisine» upon this establishment. Que Dios los bendiga! #faithrestored

Borinquen has an unremarkable, dingy and dark interior plus slow, spotty service.
However, it’s affordable and tasty.
I’ve had plenty of home-​cooked Puerto Rican food (including in PR), so it obviously won’t ever compare to that. But it is my go-​to spot for a jibarito, arroz con gandules, platanos, lechon and/​or chuletas.

My steak jibarito was very tasty, and the fried plantains were perfect. I was hoping for a little more sandwich for the price but that price is low, so I can’t complain too much. The rice served on the side was not good, not good at all. But the service was great and the food came out real quick-​like. I’ll be back to pick up sandwiches to go at some point!

My first impression of the rest was right away bad. Very poor look they need a make up over ASAP. I believe they have never done any changes since they opened. They need to really to remodel it so can attract other customers. Portion of food was to small and staff are just ok. Only good thing is that food taste very good specially their jibarito seasoning is good. Overall need a lot
Of improvement to become a better Rican rest.

Omg never again!
As you can tell, I like Jibaritos. I search different parts of the city to see how different each establishment prepares theirs.
I got off work and searched Unilocal for Jibaritos. A few places came up but to be honest I don’t know why I stopped here. I guess it was convenient and on my way home.
When I walked in, I sat myself and the waitress came fairly quick. I ordered a «Papa Rellana & Steak Jibarito». FYI don’t let the sign the have in their window fool you that says «Home of the best Jibarito». I received my Papa Rellana first and boy that thing was COLD; okay maybe I’m exaggerating a bit but it was not fresh nor was it hot. This sucker was less than room temperature. It honestly looked and tasted like they just threw it in the microwave. So I stabbed it with my fork a few times and pushed it to the side.
From my Jibarito adventures I know for a fact it doesn’t take 7 minutes to prepare it. I don’t know why I paid so close attention to the time but yeah it took them 7 minutes to prepare it which I found very odd and disturbing. The waitress placed this greasy thing they call Jibarito in front of me with the rice. I picked it up and prayed to baby Jesus not to walk away from here with clogged arteries. Ok first bite was deadly to me! This thing was so over salted and greased up that my lips became super glossy and on top of that it was COLD! Yes it was damn near cold only the steak was warm.
End of my review! seriously what were they thinking?! What twilight zone do they live on to serve luke warm food (in my eyes COLD)
Yeah so guess what; I won’t be coming back. If i want microwaved food I can just walk to my pretty microwave and do it myself FOR FREE
That’s it folks