At El Campeón in Old San Juan, Patrick and Cecilia Champion bring in the crowds with live music and happy hour offerings. Their casual yet fine menu focuses on seafood dishes like lobster risotto and whole fried snapper. Try the trifongo, stuffed into rounds of filete de cerdo (pork tenderloin); the meat encases sweet ripe plantains and starchy mashed yuca along with the salty green plantains, and a risotto of pork sausage and sauteed vegetables on the side further enhances the porky, salty flavors. If you prefer surf to turf, order from their variety of seafood-stuffed mofongos, like the shrimp in criolla or garlic sauce.

For more than 70 years, Café Manolín has been making exquisite, affordable, well-loved food on Old San Juan’s Calle Justo. Don Ernesto Ruíz opened the restaurant in 1942, before selling it to his brother Manolín Ruíz, who in turn passed it to current owners Annie Rivera and Tomás J. Molina. Loyal customers come for the traditional mofongo de camarones — with pieces of chicharron dotting the surface and bursting with shrimp in garlic sauce — often paired with other house specialties like medium-rare steak with chimichurri, or fried chicken straight out of the fryer. Get your order with a beer, and finish off your meal with a cafe con leche, or cortadito, made just the way Grandma likes it.

You’ll find garlic in almost every dish at Ajo Del País, which honors the flavor that perhaps best represents Puerto Rican cuisine, but that’s just the starting point for the restaurant to demonstrate the roots of local foods. Along with red snapper, salmon, and fried chicken, the restaurant serves traditional mofongos, many served right in pilones. Go for the version with a topping of octopus salad; the seafood covers the whole dish, but the flavors perfectly balance garlic, oils, and salt, and you can add a twist by swapping the mofongo for the bifongo or trifongo, which include yuca, sweet plantain, or pana (breadfruit). Don’t miss the watermelon or mango mojitos, which cut the rich flavors.

It’s hard to find a better combination than mofongo with homemade rum punch, but La Verguenza, set off Calle San Sebastián, improves on the combo with one of the city’s best views of the sea and a lively music scene. Though the place is really more of a bar, the mofongo hits the right notes, with touches of butter, garlic, and salt dancing together nicely — but pour on some mayo-ketchup to make the beat drop on the flavor. La Verguenza offers an affordable night of dinner and dancing — and people do come to dance, so dress appropriately.

Many visitors believe this bar in Old San Juan serves the best mofongo in the city. The version stuffed with shrimp is particularly popular, especially since diners can choose to amp it up with salsa criolla or creamy garlic sauce. Find a shaded spot beneath a patio umbrella and watch the crowds in the plaza.

This chic house on Avenida Miramar was designed for Doña Aurora, the mastermind behind all the recipes and flavors that are now on the menus at Casita Miramar and Casita Blanca. Aurora’s grandchildren, Jesuito and Leonardo Pérez, now run the emblematic restaurant, where their goal is to maintain their grandma’s traditions. Start your meal with the first-rate bacalaitos (cod fritters) served with a green banana broth, or the buñuelos de malanga (taro cakes). Then dig into their popular mofongo de yuca stuffed with seafood. The cassava brings a rich base to a soft inside, perfectly fried to a crispy shell, with flavors more subtle than sharp. The chicken fricassee is also great with a side order of mofongo and slices of avocado for brightness.

At gastronomy bar Guararé, owners Joseph Boucher Martínez and Annette Giuliani proudly showcase the riches of Puerto Rican agriculture in their comida criolla alongside local music talent. Take a tour through their craft cocktails, made with fresh ingredients like smoked lavender, blueberry syrup, and elderflower. Then explore their mofongo and trifongo, best paired with the churrasco encebollado, skirt steak, and glassy caramelized onion that infuse the mofongo with their juices.

Don’t let the name fool you; this place makes good alcapurrias (fritters), but plenty of customers come for the mofongo, which is big and flavorful like everything else they serve. The corner spot is hip and lively, but the homestyle cooking is just like at a chinchorro in the countryside. There are multiple varieties of mofongo on offer made from plantain or fried yuca, and they might come filled with hefty entrees or with dishes paired alongside. The carne frita encebollada (fried pork chops with caramelized onion) and serenata de bacalao (cold, salty cod salad) are particularly great, especially paired with your beer of choice.

El Platanal is a family restaurant that has been going strong for 10 years. Founded by Rafael Hidalgo in the Carolina neighborhood, it’s grown to include locations across the area, including central San Juan and Loiza. The restaurant offers mofongo as an accompaniment to dishes like chillo frito (fried red snapper) and chuleta kan kan (fried pork chop), but even as a side dish it’s an excellent example — simple, stuffed with chicharron, and dotted with caramelized onions that keep the mofongo buttery. With a soft, heavenly texture inside, the mofongo avoids getting dense or dry as you work your way through it, leaving plenty of time to enjoy the flavor. There’s a decent drinks menu too, so pair your meal with a Cuba libre, mojito, beer, or wine.

Among the kiosks at Lote 23, an outdoor “gastronomic park” of food stalls, you’ll find chef Pablo Rosas serving traditional Puerto Rican dishes at El Cuchifrito. Specially for the #mofongolover, Rosas scratch-cooks mofongo from plantain, sweet potato, yuca, or a trifongo of all three, which diners can then customize with their choice of steak in demi-glace, carne frita with pickled onions, fish in criolla sauce, or surf and turf with carne frita plus shrimp or fish. Dishes are served in compostable bowls, so you can enjoy your meal at the picnic tables at the center of the park, or take it to go.

At Trópiko, mofongo translates perfectly into the fast-casual bowl format, with mashed plantains serving as the base for toppings like arroz mamposteao (tomato-spiked rice and beans), fresh vegetables, and your choice of proteins. You can build your own mofongo plate, or go with one of the house specialties. The Boricua comes with rice and beans, carne frita (fried pork), caramelized onion, sweet plantain, bacon, and mayo-ketchup, while the El Tropical consists of bifongo with mamposteao, steak, caramelized onion, arañitas (nests of fried plantains that resemble a spider’s web), shredded cheese, avocado, and the house sauce, Trópiko aioli. The most popular, though, might be La Vaya, which consists of arroz mamposteao, avocado, ropa vieja, and a drizzle of Trópiko aioli. Pair your meal with a flavored mojito served in a cute pouch.