I had been eyeballing Miro restaurant ever since we made it to our hotel, and with its location directly across the street from us, we finally decided to give it a try the night before our last day in San Juan. Ensconced between a few other cheaper eateries (Starbucks, a Mexican, Italian, Turkish, and a burger joint), most people would overlook this restaurant because of their prices, which is far from being cheap. Compared to the others, Miro is slightly more expensive and isn't open 7 days of the week. Although it's closed on Mondays, Miro offers lunch and dinner with live bands playing Spanish and Jazz music on Thursday and Friday nights. Labeling itself as a Spanish and seafood restaurant, I was curious to see what their menu had to offer.

Because our 3-year old isn't a huge fan of dark and semi-claustrophobia-inducing interiors, which is what Miro's first level reminded me of, we asked our server if we could sit upstairs on their open veranda. The main floor includes a bar with booths and tables lit with tea lights to create a rather somber and, to me, a slightly Gothic atmosphere. It may have been the dark wood used to build the structure that made it seem so bleak inside, but I prefer eating at a place where I can see my food and relax comfortably. Fortunately, the 2nd floor of Miro's restaurant has enough room on their patio area to sit a family of 3 and you don't have to worry about the live acoustic band downstairs drowning out your dinner conversation. Also, the 2nd floor contains unique black and white murals of some of Jazz's greats and you can enjoy the view of the streets below. I know I sound pretty critical of Miro's interior, but it certainly doesn't reflect what I think about their restaurant or food as a whole.

Looking through the menu, Miro offers a small combination of Spanish and seafood cuisine that seem a little fancier with Spanish-sounding names. Luckily, there are English descriptions on the bottom of each entree and I didn't have to worry too much about pronunciation, as Spanish seems to roll easily off my tongue, despite never having taken Spanish classes or speaking it myself. For our appetizer, we ordered cod fritters that our son absolutely loved and allowed him to eat that as his dinner. They also offer a basket of toast with some olive oil dip to munch on while you wait for your food. My husband ordered seafood ravioli stuffed with lobster and drenched with pesto sauce. Although it looked rather simple and slightly unappealing with its mismatched color combination, the dish was pretty tasteful. I did find that they were slightly stingy with the lobster meat, but the pesto sauce more than made up for it.

For my entree, I decided I wanted some red meat for dinner and went with their Churrasco steak with chimichurri accompanied with Maposteao risotto. The steak was ordered just right; medium rare with enough juices to keep the insides tender and moist (but not entirely too bloody). Combined with the creamy risotto, I was surprised to find that the dish was, well, pretty damned good. Across from me, my husband was salivating and offering to finish whatever I couldn't handle, but I was more than happy to share. It doesn't look like much in the picture above, but the steak is really very filling. Also, eating anything with rice will make you full quite easily. If I could change one thing about my dish, I probably would have suggested that they go ahead and spread the chimichurri sauce over the meat as soon as it comes off the grill. Because I was given a small amount of sauce on the side dish, I didn't think it tasted well with meat that had already cooled after coming off the grill.

Despite its rather odd and dark interior on the first floor, I would still recommend Miro restaurant to anyone looking for a taste of seafood or Spanish cuisine in San Juan. Miro is a little more pricier than other eateries in the area, but they do have a good selection of meats as well as seafood dishes for even the pickiest of eaters. Unfortunately, I can't say that Miro's is entirely kid-friendly, due to the lack of a menu for children, but it does have a jazz bar and parties tend to gather until the wee hours of the morning and I doubt children are a common sight at the restaurant past 10pm. However, because they also serve lunch, I would hope that they offer a small selection aimed towards patrons with little ones in the future. As I've mentioned before, if you do travel somewhere that doesn't cater to entire families (especially those with little children), you can usually get away with ordering something off the appetizer menu or asking the waiter if the chef can split a bigger meal in two, so that you can still portion out smaller meals for your children. If they don't, ask for a spare plate to share your food. I've found that most establishments don't mind, save for buffet places, and you don't have to worry about ordering extra food for your children. Adults shouldn't always have all the fun.