Tucked on the corner of Amber Street and Frankford Avenue in East Kensington sits Casa Borinqueña. Starting her career on the West Coast in San Francisco, Lourdes Marquez Nau—aka Chef Lulu—has since brought her skills to the streets of Philadelphia, opening the second location of her vegan restaurant back in June. Specializing in traditional Puerto Rican cuisine, the restaurant has a certain warmth that even a dreary East Coast day can’t take away.
Inside, the walls are painted orange, lime green, tender yellow, and aqua. Traditional Puerto Rican flags and one recolored rainbow hang from the restaurant’s large front windows, with sunlight streaming through and filling the space with a multicolored glow. The space itself is small, featuring a few two–person tables and a wooden bar that acts as a more casual lunch counter.
When we step into the restaurant, most chairs are already filled. Marquez Nau leans against the wall, talking with her customers. At the counter, her son Wendell introduces himself to us and points us to an empty spot at the bar we can set up at. Soft, rhythmic music plays in the background. Bright paintings from local artists decorate any empty vertical space, while plants fill up the horizontal space with name tags attached to each of their pots.
“They’re named after each of our employees,” Marquez Nau explains. Her own namesake is a healthy aloe vera. “Everyone takes care of their own plant,” she laughs. Casa Borinqueña is a family business with a homey atmosphere permeating every corner.
Growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y. surrounded by Puerto Rican culture, Marquez Nau sought to bring light to the traditional dishes that were integral to her childhood. After adopting a vegan diet during the COVID–19 pandemic, she began to develop innovative plant–based techniques for making the dishes she grew up with. “I needed to be able to still enjoy the food that was culturally important to me,” she says. Thus came about Casa Borinqueña—a restaurant with a vegan twist on Puerto Rican cuisine.
The menu is relatively small, offering seven appetizers, one main sampler plate with a choice of protein, and a few side options. The food is served in brown cardboard boxes, aiding the casual feeling of the restaurant.
We begin with the sampler plate, opting for the BBQ Chkn pinchos—marinated meat skewers—as our protein. The plate also comes with arroz con gandules, a side salad, and maduros. The rice works as a good, well–seasoned base, the side salad offers a light splash of spring mix dressed with a vinaigrette, and the plantains are perfectly caramelized, with a sweet crunch on the outside that gives way to a tender inside. The pinchos, however, are the clear star of the ensemble—thin–cut Chkn pieces spiraled around two wooden skewers and glazed with a generous helping of tangy barbecue sauce that melded spice and sweetness.
The appetizers, Marquez Nau explains, are her takes on popular Puerto Rican street foods. The pastelillos are fried turnovers filled with a healthy portion of spiced Impossible beef wrapped in a thin pastry shell. The alcapurria is reminiscent of a beef and vegetable fritter, deep fried to a dark golden color with a particular crisp to it. Perhaps the only disappointment of the meal is the pasteles. Sharing some similarities with tamales, pasteles are made by wrapping root vegetables and meat (in this case, Beyond steak) in banana leaves and boiling them. Flavor–wise, however, the appetizer leaves much to be desired, not quite packing the punch everything else achieved.
By far our favorite dish was the relleno de papa. The potato croquette features an Impossible beef, onion, and chickpea filling marinated with olives, all of which gives the dish a distinct, toasted–tomato flavor. The thick potato layer is delicately crispy on the outside yet retains its pillowy softness right beneath the surface.
Working within the realm of veganism is no easy feat—and it is an even harder challenge to sell it to non–vegans. For Marquez Nau, this is precisely the goal. She hopes to inspire an “Oh, wow! I can’t believe this is vegan” reaction from patrons. While I am more than willing to give the restaurant a gold star as a vegan myself, Street photographer Kenny Chen can’t help but exclaim, “I didn’t know vegan food could be this good!” as we polish off the remaining crumbs of our meal. Street Multimedia Editor Jackson Ford similarly voices a disbelief that this food really was completely plant–based.
While located a bit off the beaten path from campus, Casa Borinqueña is a real bright spot for vegans and non–vegans alike. The restaurant offers not just delicious food, but friendly faces and an immediate sense of community. Stop inside for a quick to–go bite or sit down and spend a bit of time in this created paradise. Either way, Marquez Nau is excited that “people are getting to know us.”
TL;DR: Plant–based Puerto Rican street food that you will make you say “Wow, I can’t believe this is vegan.”
Location: 2557 Amber St.
Price: $ (15% student discount with ID)
Hours: 10 a.m.–8 p.m. on Tuesday–Thursday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. on Sunday
