4,000 Miles from Home and We Eat... Hamburgers?
Monday, December 28, 2015. 9pm.
We got back to our hotel around 5pm today after our bus tour to hike La Mina Falls. We were supposed to have been bused to some "authentic" local restaurant near the rain forest- a restaurant that suspiciously has the same name in several packaged tours offered by different operators I looked up when planning the trip- but there was a bit of an insurrection on our bus after the last hike. One big family on the bus threw a fit about us being behind schedule already and didn't want to be delayed another 90 minutes to have dinner. They wanted to go back to their hotel instead. I agreed with them if only because I preferred to have quiet dinner with Merhawk at a nice restaurant of our choice back in San Juan rather than some "Tour Buses Welcome!" neon-sign-lit tourist trap in the middle of nowhere.
So when we got back to our room we researched local restaurants and decided on Yamburguer. Yes, a hamburger place! It took me a few tries to latch on to that idea because we'd just avoided one type of tourist trap. Isn't eating hamburgers overseas one of the other definitions of tourist trap?
Here the reviews on Yelp helped. First, the reviews were uniformly glowing, characterizing Yamburguer as a locals-type place with good food and a casual vibe. Second, there were enough reviews (24) to constitute a reasonable sample. Third, there were few enough reviews that the place obviously wasn't some made-for-middle-Americans huckster gin joint. Some of the obvious tourist trap restaurants near the big chain hotels had hundreds of Yelp reviews. Yeah, no.
As a bonus Yamburguer was close enough to walk, about 1km from the hotel. Because the hiking earlier in the day hadn't tired us out, we took the scenic route to get there, adding an extra 1km to the trek. I.e., we crossed the wrong bridge and had to double back.
Once we settled in at the burger place we found it was everything the select group of Yelpers had told us it would be: A laid back place with a cool vibe and a large patio overlooking a rundown parking area behind some other restaurants and shops. The place might fill up more when the late-night drinking crowd rolls in, but at dinner hour only a handful of tables were occupied. The owner took personal interest in explaining the dishes to us (as if hamburgers needs lots of explaining) and ensuring that we were happy. We were happy. The burgers were fresh and flavorful and, at least for my part, a few bottles of beer at happy hour prices helped the whole affair go down even more smoothly.
As for authentic, well, the burgers were served with a variety of local ingredients/dishes such as rice and different kinds of plantains. The clientele, except for us, all seemed to be locals. We consider this dinner an eat-like-the-locals success.
We got back to our hotel around 5pm today after our bus tour to hike La Mina Falls. We were supposed to have been bused to some "authentic" local restaurant near the rain forest- a restaurant that suspiciously has the same name in several packaged tours offered by different operators I looked up when planning the trip- but there was a bit of an insurrection on our bus after the last hike. One big family on the bus threw a fit about us being behind schedule already and didn't want to be delayed another 90 minutes to have dinner. They wanted to go back to their hotel instead. I agreed with them if only because I preferred to have quiet dinner with Merhawk at a nice restaurant of our choice back in San Juan rather than some "Tour Buses Welcome!" neon-sign-lit tourist trap in the middle of nowhere.
So when we got back to our room we researched local restaurants and decided on Yamburguer. Yes, a hamburger place! It took me a few tries to latch on to that idea because we'd just avoided one type of tourist trap. Isn't eating hamburgers overseas one of the other definitions of tourist trap?
Here the reviews on Yelp helped. First, the reviews were uniformly glowing, characterizing Yamburguer as a locals-type place with good food and a casual vibe. Second, there were enough reviews (24) to constitute a reasonable sample. Third, there were few enough reviews that the place obviously wasn't some made-for-middle-Americans huckster gin joint. Some of the obvious tourist trap restaurants near the big chain hotels had hundreds of Yelp reviews. Yeah, no.
As a bonus Yamburguer was close enough to walk, about 1km from the hotel. Because the hiking earlier in the day hadn't tired us out, we took the scenic route to get there, adding an extra 1km to the trek. I.e., we crossed the wrong bridge and had to double back.
Once we settled in at the burger place we found it was everything the select group of Yelpers had told us it would be: A laid back place with a cool vibe and a large patio overlooking a rundown parking area behind some other restaurants and shops. The place might fill up more when the late-night drinking crowd rolls in, but at dinner hour only a handful of tables were occupied. The owner took personal interest in explaining the dishes to us (as if hamburgers needs lots of explaining) and ensuring that we were happy. We were happy. The burgers were fresh and flavorful and, at least for my part, a few bottles of beer at happy hour prices helped the whole affair go down even more smoothly.
As for authentic, well, the burgers were served with a variety of local ingredients/dishes such as rice and different kinds of plantains. The clientele, except for us, all seemed to be locals. We consider this dinner an eat-like-the-locals success.