These New Rooftop Restaurants Are the Coolest Way to Enjoy San Juan, Puerto Rico’s Dining Scene

Audrey J. Powers

San Juan, Puerto Rico’s Caribbean climate fortunately lends itself to outdoor activities—miles of beaches, the open up-air museum that is Previous San Juan, and the street art of Santurce, to identify but a couple. Even so, pandemic occasions and lowered ability within restaurants exposed the dearth of al fresco eating solutions throughout the capital’s metro location. And for the reason that zoning rules discourage avenue sheds and beachfront tables, some savvy restaurateurs sought resourceful methods to embrace the outside.

Their intelligent answer: why not get pleasure from food stuff, drink, and San Juan’s sights from a bird’s-eye check out? These lately-opened rooftops, every overlooking some of the most effective scenes of San Juan, are now some of the capital’s most coveted reservations over-all. Below are the best rooftop places to eat in Sunshine Juan, Puerto Rico, which have develop into incredibly hot spots for savvy people and locals alike.

All listings showcased in this story are independently picked by our editors. However, when you e book a little something by our retail hyperlinks, we may get paid an affiliate fee.

A lemongrass-sake gin and tonic, termed the KOMOREBI, from Kumo’s considerable bar menu

Kumo Rooftop

Kumo Rooftop

Kumo Rooftop

Kumo

Amazing rooftops are the signature of the O:reside Selection of inns. Cascading waters, breathtaking style and design, and lagoon sights are the draw of Condado’s O:live Boutique Resort and O:LV Fifty 5. But their latest house, Isla Verde’s Aire de O:reside, stands aside for two good reasons: amazing beach sights and fine Japanese-motivated cuisine from chef José Miguel Meléndez of neighborhood most loved Yoko. Kumo, which suggests “cloud” in Japanese, was the to start with piece of the resort to open up in December 2021. 

Overlooking a vast swath of sand, the cafe delivers a person of the island’s most picturesque perches to get pleasure from dishes this kind of as crispy sushi rice wrapped with tuna, brushed with eel sauce and topped with foie gras. Cocktails, these kinds of as the origami—aged rum, mezcal, allspice, falernum and orange bitters—are equally sophisticated and alluring. It is a perfect partnership, as well as a whole-circle second for O:stay founders (and spouses) Loisse Herger and Fernando Davila, who coincidentally went on their to start with day on the incredibly exact same rooftop during its preceding incarnation 15 yrs back. About 20 of the 80 lodge rooms will be refurbished and prepared for occupancy by summer time 2022, when the remainder of the resort will open up in 2023 Kumo, in the meantime, can be savored 7 times a 7 days. 

Cuarto 16

Telling the host at Casita Miramar that you have a reservation at Cuarto 16 feels like uttering a secret password. They will mumble into a headset, then guide you up a stairwell exactly where the common trappings of the hacienda-like restaurant give way to a clandestine warren of rooms, open kitchens, bars, and finally a tranquil yard terrace earlier mentioned 1 of San Juan’s busiest enclaves. Planters of herbs, pots comprehensive of bouquets, cascading vines and swaying palms bring about diners to feel considerably taken off from the metropolis. And while the speakeasy addition could welcome friends in the very same way as its downstairs sibling—with a complimentary root vegetable soup and giant discs of bacalao fritters—the rest of the menu diverges from the classic Puerto Rican choices of Casita Miramar. 

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