Friday’s Featured Food: The Delicious Quantico Patacon and Pina Colada, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
I was feeling peckish just before the sunset while backpacking through the beautiful old town of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Little was I to know the sheer treat that lay ahead here in Quantico Restaurant! This was not only a textbook Friday’s Featured Food, but on cocktail standards and generally in life, good enough for a Thirsty Thursdays too, given the expertise of the cocktail I was to feast my eyes and lips upon…
In Santo Domingo, I was based in the city centre, or should I say the old town – it is known as Zona Colonial and is very pretty. Streets are architecturally rich, flying us back to the colonial era and giving me an unexpected buzz in a city I expected nothing from, but got a lot out of.
It came as a surprise to see such a charming old town here, and looking back it’s probably my favourite old town from my entire travels in The Caribbean to date.
Hotel wise, I loved my stay at the Hotel Novus Plaza Hodelpa. Having toured the sights of the very pretty Santo Domingo, it was time for dinner. There are a myriad of restaurants scattered around the old time and sometimes, I just make spontaneous decisions by chance. Sometimes it’s the name of a venue, sometimes the location, often I choose places with no queues and empty seats – these are the best places. Those with long queues and rave reviews are usually the popular excrement that don’t care about customers, and live off a falsified reputation including idiotic review fake sites such as Tripadvisor (Tripped on Cider). This led me to the incredible Quantico Restaurant.
First off all, I ordered a Pina Colada and I had no idea how delicious and good looking this Pina Colada would be. It looked almost too good to drink. These photos won’t do justice to how tasty and stylish this was. To date, aside from my beloved “Micheladas”, this was the best cocktail I have ever drank!
After ordering and loving the Pina Colada, it was time to order the restaurant’s signature dish – the Quantico Patacon. I had never heard of this before and had come across it by chance due to the couple sitting opposite me ordering it. “What’s that?” I asked the waitress and the reply was “A Quantico Patacon”. I ordered in and when it arrived, it just looked amazing…
It was so delicious that I didn’t care what was in it – but it seemed like – avocado, coleslaw, potato, pulled beef, pepper pork, chicken and with banana / plantains on top and at the bottom. A feast of multiple proportions!
Thanks to my waitress Liz who served me, the barman from Cuba who chatted to me and all staff at the Quantico Restaurant. On my journeys around the world, sometimes we just never return to the same place. This restaurant will live long in my memory and soon it was time to visit Christopher Columbuses Grave, the beach at Boca Chica and be on my way to Jamaica.
Here are the details for getting to Quantico Restaurant in Santo Domingo:
https://www.facebook.com/QuanticoRestaurante/
Here is a video I made of my delicious Quantico Patacon: