Looking for recommendations for great restaurants in the historic district. We like upscale with great food and service. Local cuisine would be a plus. Ideas?

We've had two excellent lunches at Cafe Nispero in El Convento hotel and two excellent dinners at Agua Viva on Fortaleza, on two different visits to Old San Juan.

Carli's in the old banco Popular (especially if you like Jazz)
Tapas bar in El Convento
Amadeus
Tantra
Parrot Club

or head over to Isla Verde / Condado for
Ropa Vieja Grill
Ajili Mojili
Metropol
Miro's

more ideas at my blog www.visit-the-coqui.com

Carli's (my favorite)
Dragonfly
Panza

These are my favorites. I eat in OSJ a lot!

We really enjoyed Agua Viva. The menus are posted outside- we looked at Dragonfly, but Agua Viva's looked better to us (if I'm surrounded by water, I want seafood! ).

One warning (and I knew it was a bad idea, but I was hungry and wanted to sit outside and didn't want to go back to the hotel to change)- the PR place right across the cruise ship docks is awful- bad food, bad service, bad atmosphere, and it was expensive for what it was on top of everything else. Seriously one of the least satisfying dining experiences I've ever had. We had to wait for an hour for our food and there were only 3 occupied tables when we ordered. I can't remember the name (it was something really cliched like Coqui- it was next to a West Indian themed restaurant). Like I said, I didn't have super high hopes, but it was bad.

There's a Nicaraguan or Venezuelan place just one or two streets up the hill from Agua Viva- it was yummy! The service was not great (I think our server was new- he seemed lost), but the food was (corn pancakes with savory filling) and it was super cheap. I think it was less than $10 for both of us. It wasn't upscale at all, but is a good lunch place.

If you want authentic Puerto Rican food, try El Jibarito on Sol Street. They have many specialties at reasonable prices.