José Enrique sits in La Placita de Santurce, a ten-minute walk from Condado, and it regularly appears on lists of the best restaurants in Puerto Rico and the wider Caribbean. The premise is simple: a menu that changes daily depending on what's available at the markets and from local suppliers, cooked by a chef who grew up eating this food and understands it without sentimentality. No printed menus — a server reads you the day's options and you pick.
The restaurant doesn't take reservations, which means a line. The solution is to arrive early — ideally when they open — or to go for a late lunch before the dinner rush. The wait is not comfortable (there's no waiting area) but the meal usually justifies it. The cooking is honest and direct: good ingredients, proper technique, Puerto Rican flavors that don't need dressing up. The whole roasted fish when it appears is worth asking about. Prices are fair for what you get, and the room is unpretentious to the point of sparse.