What I love about travel are those unexpected surprises.  Those times when you have an experience that is totally different than the one you expected, and it exceeds all expectations you may have had.

After spending the morning and afternoon riding ATV’s, amphibious vehicles, horses, and whizzing down ziplines, we were more than ready for lunch.  After an early breakfast at 7am and our day of activity, we headed to lunch starving.  As we drove along the waterfront, I noticed roadside stand after roadside stand, thinking in my head, “These fancy restaurants are good and all, but I would love to eat at one of these more local looking places.  Those are always my favorites when traveling.”  Beggars can’t be choosers, though, so I let that thought slip from my mind.

We arrived at about 3pm at our lunch destination, Crispy Y Rellono, with stomachs grumbling.   We were ecstatic upon sitting down to find out we were being served a nine course lunch.  That’s right, NINE!  Maybe the fancy cuisine wasn’t so bad after all.  While the quantity of food was welcomed, the quality absolutely blew me away and has my mouth watering just thinking about it.  I am not exaggerating when I say this was one of the better meals I have ever eaten in my life.  Simply spectacular in every way, there was not a weak dish amongst the nine.

I’m not going to review all nine dishes, but several dishes did stand out.  The King Crab salad was a fresh, cool, and refreshing start to the meal.

The Cassava Balls stuffed with Bacon melted in my mouth and had a tasty, tangy sauce that accompanied it perfectly.

I was thinking of one of my favorite Colombian dishes as I chomped into the Chicken and Cheese stuffed Arepas.

My two favorites, though, were the Shrimp in Coconut and Ginger sauce, which had a bit of a Thai flavor to it, and the very Puerto Rican, very unique Plantain encrusted Grouper served with a cilantro cream sauce.

I had never been a big fan of plantains before this past week, but time and time again I was proved wrong, with this dish leading the way.  The perfect amount of crunch and sweet in the breading along with an expertly cooked, tender fish was an explosion of Heaven in my mouth.

While dessert was hardly necessary, the crepe filled with tembleque, a traditional Puerto Rican coconut custard based dessert, topped with a strawberry comfit, was the perfect sweet ending to this incredible meal.

The best part about this entire meal was not that Chef Fernando Parrilla opened his restaurant specifically for us that afternoon (Crispy y Relleno is only open Thursday-Sunday), but the location and set up of the restaurant.

After the descriptions of the dishes, I’m assuming you are picturing fine dining at its best.  As you can see, my earlier wishes were granted as we pulled up to Crispy y Relleno.

This place is right on the side of the road, looking more like a food cart and a place to get street food, with its plastic chairs, tiny kitchen, and patio dining than a place for top quality cuisine.  Street food and road side restaurants like this hold a special place in my heart, and the way the chef combined fine dining with the casual atmosphere of how many of the locals eat was excellent and unique.  In all my travels, I’ve never seen anything like it.

He explained to us that he decided on this location because it was low risk.  The rent was low, the building small so he only needed a few employees, and he figured if he could cook top notch cuisine in this low budget atmosphere, he might have something here.  He absolutely did, and as a traveler who loves both the atmosphere of roadside restaurants and amazing food, his idea is pure genius.

Crispy y Relleno probably isn’t in many of the guidebooks, but do yourself a favor, find this place, and GO!  You will NOT be disappointed.