El Coqui - Puerto Rican, Santa Rosa

400 Mendocino Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95401

(707) 542-8868
Parking: street parking
Hours: Mon - Sat 11am - 10pm, Sun 12pm - 9pm
http://elcoqui2eat.com/

Last Visited: July 17, 2011

Food: 3 stars

Atmosphere: 3 to 4 stars

Service: 3 to 4 stars

Price: $$

The restaurant's name, El Coqui, catches your attention right away. Coqui is the sound that tree frogs make in Puerto Rico, hence the frog in the restaurant's logo. I had heard about El Coqui through the web, and fellow foodie James also gave it a thumbs up.

After hearing about it for some time, I finally made the trip to Santa Rosa in February and walked into their corner restaurant. The windows brought in the sunshine as the high energy island music blared from the speakers. I was surprised to see such a large bar and instantly thought what a hopping place this would be on a Friday or Saturday night. The wood flooring contrasts the bright orange and green walls and can lights point towards the bar. Two large flat screen televisions sit on the wall behind the bar, the perfect setting for World Cup crowds to enjoy the game.

The tables are placed in a spacious way so if you plan to have guests join you for dinner, you should still be able to hear the conversation, although the music can be a little loud. The service was friendly throughout our visit. First, we were served glasses of water, and the staff asked if we had questions about the menu.  They were fairly attentive throughout the meal.

On the table, El Coqui has a bottle of their special hot sauce, Pique de Pina, a pineapple-infused, spicy, tangy hot sauce that pours more like vinegar. The staff told us that everything tastes better when you add this sauce, so we tried it and it's definitely unique. It goes well with those fried green plantains and adds a kick to whatever you pour it on.

For our first lunch visit, we opted to go with more familiar Puerto Rican dishes so that we could do a proper comparison against other places we have tried.

- Chuletas - Thin cut pan fried pork chops - You can select one or two pork chops depending on how hungry you are. All entrees come with avocado salad, rice and beans, and sweet or fried

green plantains. The pork chops were good - a little crispy on the edges, juicy inside. The avocado salad was refreshing, paired with tomato and red onions and lightly dressed; I was surprised that they actually served that much avocado. What I loved was the rice and beans.  The beans are well flavored and the rice is cooked with olives and tasted fantastic. At other places, you often find yourself paying extra for rice with Spanish olives.  They were also nice in letting us select half fried plantains and half maduros so we could try both - both tasted good.  The quantity of food is also enormous as you can see from the photo.  Good.  Solid four stars. $9.99, $14.99

- Sandwich de Bistec - Thinly sliced angus steak on a toasted French roll with lettuce, tomatoes, mayonnaise, and sauteed onions. The meat is incredibly juicy and the roll is soft on the inside. I would have liked the roll to have been toasted just a little more to make it a touch better - it's a little softer than it could be. The sauteed onions just made the sandwich even better.  Fried thin plantain chips accompany the sandwich.  Good. The meat gets four stars, but the bread only three stars.  $11.99

While the food was good, there are still some things that could be improved slightly. See Battle Puerto Rican for a direct comparison with my Puerto Rican favorite in San Rafael.

During my July visit, I came back specifically to try the fried chicken.  A neighboring table had ordered it and it looked really appetizing. 

- Chicharron de Pollo, Fried Chicken - The menu described it as seasoned, golden, and crispy.  Well, two out of three ain't bad, but it still fell short of expecations.  I thought I remembered the skin of the chicken as being crispy when I saw it delivered to a neighboring table during my last visit, but alas, it's more like the thigh and drumstick are just seasoned and deep fried without any batter.  While the flavor was okay, I really wanted the fried chicken to be crispy, not just fried.  At least it wasn't greasy.  Also, the Spanish rice seemed bland today - I remembered it with great fondness from my last visit, but today, it wasn't as flavorful.  I wonder if they have reduced the amount of spices, but it wasn't the same. The red beans were fine. Just okay.  $9.50, $11.99

- Sandwich Cubano - Slow roasted pulled pork, a slice of ham, swiss cheese, pickles, mustard, and mayonnaise come on a bun, similar as that described above.  While the tartness from the pickles stands out, I found the sandwich to be just okay overall.  Thin plantain chips come with this sandwich too along with some spicy dipping sauce - almost like an aoili that you would get with fried calamari.  I definitely prefer the bisteca sandwich, but then again, I am a beef lover.  $10.99

I really liked the spacious setting.  The comparison blog post against another local Puerto Rican place really says it best though.