There’s officially a new restaurant on Philly’s lineup of vegan spots. Casa Borinqueña, billed as California’s first vegan Puerto Rican restaurant, soft-launched its second location in East Kensington on Saturday.
The new cafe on Amber Street is brightly painted with tropical blue, yellow, orange and green walls. Inside, the vibe is warm and low-key. The shelves are filled with decorative pilones, Puerto Rican mortar-and-pestles made from wood used to crush garlic, grind spices, and mash plantains. Puerto Rican flags hang from the windows and ceilings — with black and white and rainbow versions to celebrate the country’s political independence and LGBTQ+ pride.
Saturday’s opening began at 12 p.m. The menu is stocked with traditional Puerto Rican fare like pasteles and alcapurrias, dishes usually filled with meat, but made vegan.
Lourdes Marquez Nau, also known as Chef Lulu, opened the first Casa Borinqueña in 2018 as a pop-up restaurant. Originally, the spot had meat options on the menu. However, during the pandemic, chef Lulu adopted a vegan diet for health and environmental reasons. Soon enough, her restaurant followed, and in 2022 she opened Casa Borinqueña’s first all-vegan brick-and-mortar location.
The chef grew up in a Puerto Rican neighborhood of Brooklyn, and lived in Philadelphia for a few years while her kids attended college in the city. Now, she’s back to bring her flavors to East Kensington.
“Philly has always been a city that inspires,” the restaurant posted in its Instagram. “From its deep-rooted food culture to its passionate people, it’s a place where flavors tell stories and meals bring people together. That’s exactly what we hope to contribute. We can’t wait to make you part of our growing family.”
Often, vegans are limited to ordering one or two items on the menu, but here, every dish is made with them in mind. It’s a counter-service place with plenty of coffee options.
We ordered the sampler plate, which comes with arroz con gandules, mojo mushroom pork, a side salad and maduros. We also got the Mofongo cups with Beyond Meat and a complimentary tres leches cake. The latter was awarded to the first 100 customers of the day.
We were happy with our selection.
The mushrooms in the sampler plate were sliced so thinly that they appeared silky and ribbon-like. The mojo sauce infused them with a bright, garlic and citrusy taste. The arroz con gandules, a national dish made from spiced rice and pigeon peas, was well flavored and vibrant. The maduros (fried plantains) were well-cooked and melted in your mouth with flavor.
The mofongo cups were equally yummy. Made from mashed plantains, the shells were crispy and served as a delicious base. Sometimes, Beyond Meat can give a dish an artificial feel. However, the substitute works best in situations like this one: multi-element dishes that are rich in flavor. The result was an addictive little snack that we kept reaching for.
After polishing off the last bite of our savory items, we moved on to the tres leches cake. Calling a cake tres leches that doesn’t have a drop of dairy in it may feel confusing. After all, what’s tres leches without the leches? The answer, it turns out, is pretty good. The cream on top of the cake was whipped beautifully and it was cinnamon-forward.
The only knock on our experience was that we had to wait a long time for our food, which wasn’t ideal for an over-the-counter order. Someone from back of the house came out from the kitchen to greet guests and explained that the day had started with issues in the POS system and that they had gotten “slammed.” It was clear there were still a few operational kinks to work out.
That said, Casa Borinqueña’s food has a lot of heart and flavor. Once it’s truly up and running to full capacity, it’s definitely a spot we’re excited to stop by again.
