It’s Friday and you know what that means for the HCUPR team: Foodie Friday. We decided to take a glance at the new and healthy ‘fast-food’ named Pitanza, located right on Avenida Universitaria, across from “El Ocho De Blanco”. Easily recognizable with its corner location and glass windows, Pitanza will definitely catch your attention.
Walking inside, we noticed how clean and tidy the place was. The room was filled with sunlight yet it had a cool feeling towards it. The whole environment pulled us in causing a ,mysterious effect. We walked towards the front desk, wondering what to order. A huge chalkboard was hung on the wall filled with the available food you’re able to order every day, along with their daily menu which you can choose in a combo that comes with water. In fact, all the combos unless ordered otherwise is served with water, which was the first recognozible sign of being a diffrent type of fast food restaurant, and one we will definitely think of when when we think of the word ‘healthy’. If you’re not into drinking water, you can choose between the variety of drinks available in the refrigirator.
Under each menu item, Pitanza has stated whether the combo comes with side-compliments in which you can choose between different types of greens, cheese, veggies and even fruit to be mixed with your main dish. What intrigued me the most was the fact that Pitanza also made fresh healthy smoothies – imagine this: a very hot afternoon and you have an hour until your class. Wouldn’t a cold and fresh smoothie do the trick? I thought so..
I do want to get into the pricing of Pitanza. On average, for a burger with 3 side-compliments and water, Pitanza only asks for 5 dollars which I should mention is less than many ‘to-go’ places in Rio Piedras. However, when I did order the Menu of the Day one day, I unfortunately paid a little over 9 dollars which included my main dish and vitamin water. That shouldn’t stop you from trying Pitanza, though. Trust me, it’s worth it.
What we liked most about Pitanza, besides the food, is how open and illuminated the interior feels. Having the sunshine always brimming through big windows surrounding the place, it’s quite refreshing, providing a cool oasis in Rio Piedras where the streets are always filled with cars and passerby. The interior of the place is actually filled with wooden tables and bar-like stools in which one can easily move around and accomodate when in a big group of friends. The design is also comfortable to walk towards the front counter whenever your food is ready and if you’re lucky, they even serve it to you when there’s not so many foodies. Another great detail I’ve noticed is the plating Pitanza uses: unlike many other places I’ve been to, Pitanza uses squared ceramic-look alikes that are plastic plates to convey a very clean and professional look to the food being placed. After finished, you can easily dispose the garbage and leave the dirty plates on top of the garbage bin ready to be picked up.
Check out our plates that we ordered and tell us how your experience with Pitanza went.Was it tasty? Did they serve it at the right amount of time? We want to know it all!