Parada 22

Service and atmosphere on Haight Street are excellent. Waiter was super friendly and fast. The food is very good. I got the grilled chicken plate. The chicken is delicious - A+. My only issue is that the salad is drenched in dressing and I didn't really like the side of beans. But the plantains, rice and chicken are great. I also really like the Yucca root. I'll be back!

I tried coming here on a Thursday wat 6:30pm for 5 people and the wait was looooong. We ended up going next door instead that time. The 2nd time that we came back was on a Monday at 5pm and there were two other tables. It's a small place so I wouldn't go here with a big crowd unless you're ready for a wait. I had the lomo saltado and ordered a side of yuca fries. Delish! The fries were massive. The main course came very quickly perhaps because it wasn't crowded but I suspect that the tables turnover quickly. The sangria was very nice too. Came back here for lunch on the Friday before a long weekend. We sat outside. Ordered the shrimp salad, steak salad and a side plantains. There was so much steak that I couldn't finish it all and had the rest for a light dinner. The shrimp salad could have used a bit more shrimp. The plantains was about 2x larger than I expected. Came here at 8pm on a Sunday. There were still seats inside but decided to dine al fresco as we had blankets and a cooler after spending the afternoon at Golden Gate Park. They have table service and the staff was friendly.

Parada 22 was pretty busy at 6:30pm on a Monday. I was browsing CD's down the block and got hungry. The best seats are the ones facing the kitchen where you can see all the different dishes roll out. O, the smell also. It smelled wonderful in there. My meal was the Puerto Rican sampler $22 (maduros (fried plantains), chicharrones de pollo (fried chicken), pernil asado (pork shoulder), yuca al mojo (root vegetable) and tostones (fried green plantains.) This was a nice change of pace from my monotonous rotation of usual restaurants. The best part of the pork shoulder. The other stuff were OK. Service was excellent and fast. I was out of there within 45 minutes. Overall, a great experience.

Going to new cities and finding Puerto Rican food like my grandmother makes (let alone a PR restaurant at all) is always very difficult. But they have blown me away with the food. Everything we ordered was absolutely perfect. The pernil was tender and marinated well, the arroz con gandules was fluffy with a little pegao, and the yucca and tostones were fried to absolute perfection. Our server, Erick, was also super friendly and cracked a few jokes and it all was just a fantastic experience. We will definitely be going back in the very near future. Highly recommend!