Gurabo is a good place to eat comida criolla — traditional Puerto Rican food — in an unpretentious, local setting. There are no tourist restaurants here, no fusion menus, and no one adapting the food for outside palates. What you get instead is the real thing: lechón asado (roast pork), mofongo (mashed green plantain with garlic and fat, often stuffed with meat or seafood), arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas), and pernil (slow-roasted pork shoulder) cooked the way Puerto Rican families have eaten it for generations.
The plaza area has the main concentration of restaurants. For the region's most celebrated eating, the roadside lechoneras around Gurabo and nearby Cayey are worth seeking out — some of the best lechón on the island comes from this part of the interior.