Chef Javier Nassar has brought back Tras-Patio, the San Juan restaurant he first opened in 2010, and this time it's a full steakhouse. The relaunch happened in June in the Hato Rey neighbourhood, a business district well outside the usual tourist strips of Condado and Old San Juan — which is part of the point. San Juan's dining scene keeps spreading into new corners of the capital, and Tras-Patio is one of the latest examples.
Nassar's résumé explains the menu's odd-but-coherent mix. He trained at Johnson & Wales, picked up a sommelier certification from the United States Sommelier Association, cooked Mediterranean and classic French food at the Biltmore in Coral Gables, worked restaurants in Vienna and hospitality events across Europe, then did a stint at Miami's The Forge before returning home to Puerto Rico. The new Tras-Patio folds all of that into a steakhouse built on Puerto Rican cooking.
The menu splits neatly between lunch and dinner. Midday brings asopao, mampostea'o, a lobster roll, a steak sandwich and half chicken done en chicharrón. At dinner you start with share plates — filet mignon tartare, octopus chicharrón, bacalaítos, alcapurrias — before moving on to filet mignon, pork prime rib or steamed local cartucho. French, German and Mediterranean touches thread through it all.
Wine gets real attention, unsurprisingly given the sommelier background, and there's a bar lounge with a short signature cocktail list: Verde Luz pairs rum with Raventós i Blanc, La Pinta is gin-based, and Mirando el Cielo is built on Armagnac.
The most personal detail is on the walls. A mural in the dining room incorporates handwritten recipes from Nassar's grandmothers, Alexandra and Herminia, and his mother, Hylsa — recipes that had sat in family boxes for years before being baked into the redesign, alongside warm lighting, upholstered banquettes, family photos and artwork.
For travellers, this is a reason to eat somewhere most visitors never go. Hato Rey is a short ride from the tourist zones, and dining there means seeing how San Juaners actually spend an evening. It also slots into a wider run of new openings — DANTE, a rooftop in Condado, is another recent arrival — that are making food a bigger part of a Puerto Rico trip than ever. If your holiday plan is beach by day, dinner as the main event, Tras-Patio gives you a serious steakhouse option with genuine local flavour, plus a wine list chosen by someone who actually knows what they're doing.
