El Caribeno

You know when you haven’t eaten in over 3 meals, that feeling that reminds you of when you didn’t eat for days as a kid, the one that makes anything you finally come to eating, taste like the best meal ever?
I had that feeling when I ordered the beef stew, maduros, rice & beans & side spaghetti, AND STILL THIS FOOD HAD NO TASTE AT ALL!
Tastes like nothing at all, it’s almost admirable how bad it is. Peace all. *drops mic*

Good food. Quick delivery time. I prefer ordering out than eatting in cause venue can be very noisey.

I almost felt bad about leaving a 3 star review until I noticed that most of the other reviewers are from out of town and may not be aware that there’s better food of its kind out there.
El Caribeño is probably one of the first Latin restaurants I’d ever been too and I’ve seen it dwindle down over the years or then again maybe my palette has just grown to like other Latin cuisine as I’ve tried other places! But I think it’s the former.
The baked chicken for example was once a juicy, nice & hefty piece and the lunch special would run you about $ 5.50. Now it’s a small quarter of a leg, tasteless, and just mediocre at best. Not to mention $ 8. They don’t even toast and butter the bread anymore, instead they just toss a stale piece in. Their oxtails were good from what I can remember but they didn’t even have them today and I can always remember there not being enough (3 – 4 per order). The rice and beans are also quite basic.
The ladies behind the counter — well, lets just say there’s nothing special about the service.
Sadly I’ve begun to treat this place like most Chinese restaurants nowadays. I’ll just grab food if I’m indecisive, busy, not up to cooking or don’t want to travel too far — but I wouldn’t go out of my way or crave this food. Unfortunately those days are over.

Came here for lunch with a few of my friends on a Thursday afternoon. The place was about half-​full when we arrived, but no one acknowledged us for a few minutes. After some time, a waitress did show us over to a table, then brought us menus a few minutes later. I opted for the Oxtail lunch special with tostones, and other orders from our table included the ¼ chicken, mofongo, beef stew, and maduras.
We received our food pretty quickly. Our sides came first, and we were actually pretty surprised by how large the sides were — at least a whole plantain (maybe even 2) per plate! I initially thought it was a little odd that the entrees were about ½ the side of the sides, but after the meal, I realized it would have been too heavy the other way around. I thought the oxtail was a little on the greasy side and could have used a little more flavor. However, the tostones were delicious! (And that’s coming from someone who spent a few months backpacking through Latin America!)
My friends also seemed to enjoy their food, especially the mofongo and maduras. We all agreed that it was an incredible lunch deal (about $ 7 for the entrée and side) and that we’d love to come back for the $ 15 bucket of 5 beers!
FOOD: 3.5÷5
ENVIRONMENT: ²⁄₅
SERVICE: ³⁄₅
VALUE: ⁴⁄₅
OVERALL: 3.5÷5

Classic Caribbean food. Everyone is very friendly, good place for a long relaxing lunch with a few beers!

El mofongo in various preparations — is almost as good as my Abuelo’s coveted recipe… great service and down home comida criolla caribeña…you’ll be glad to return with friends…

The breakfast here is amazing. You get 2 eggs on a bed of mangu with red onions and two generous chunks of salami and cheese plus coffee and complimentary bread for $ 8.25. It is worth every penny. The breakfast is a huge portion, just when I thought I could not finish it all and would pack half of it to go, I got drawn back in by its tastiness, and finished the whole platter. The staff is also very sweet, and easy on you when you are having a rough morning. I would love to go back for dinner and will write a follow up review once I do. This restaurant will most likely not disappoint.

This is the hidden gem in NYC! I looked it up online on Unilocal and thanks to everyone Unilocaler I hit the jackpot. I went with a group and we ordered so much food. I seriously wish they had a restaurant like this around my area (MD). The service was great, they do have a lot of regulars there. And the drinks and just everything. EVEN THE PRICE!!!

Ordered a slice of dominican cake to go after eating dinner there. SUPER disappointed. The frosting tasted like it went bad. The cake was dry. I think it was made a few days before. No bueno.

Thanks to El Caribeno and fellow Unilocalers for a wonderful Mother’s Day Dinner. Mom had requested Spanish food. Had a party of 8. Made a reservation and called ahead. Ha! I think I was the only person who made a reservation! The place was packed when we arrived. After a 15 min wait we got our table.
I like authenticity, and this place does not disappoint. Humble but cool dining room on a hot day. About a dozen tables set apart from a food warmer area. Prices are super reasonable! Beer special. 5 in a ice bucket for 15! Nice. Waitresses a bit stretched because it was so busy but hey, it was Mother’s Day. We ordered the roast pork, steak with onions, rice and beans, maduros and some extras. Generous portions. Best Menu Item as others here have mentioned: THE ROAST PORK! Awesome. You will not be disappointed with this choice. Was concerned at first that Mom wouldn’t like it, but she loved it! Will be back!

Visiting from Canada and was looking for a decent local place after touring Central Park. A store clerk recommended this gem. Friendly staff, great atmosphere and very clean. We had one of the lunch specials, roast pork with sides of tostones and rice with beans. The roast pork was the best I have ever enjoyed, moist and beautifully spiced. The sides were done perfectly. A bottle of beer is only $ 3.50 and you get a very generous portion of food. Highly recommended this spot.

After three tries at this place… I give up.
I love Spanish food but never satisfied with this place. :(
I ordered take out twice and ate inside once… not satisfied at all.
The chicken every time was either old, over cooked or just plain dry!!!
Maybe I need to stay away from their chicken?
Their rice and Maduros are good but come on… I didn’t come here for your side dishes. :(
If you want baked chicken, boneless or chicken chunks… don’t come here.

I wish we would have come here sooner. The food is absolutely delicious and prices are reasonable. You get a great mixture of Dominican and Puerto Rican food. The tostones were on point and the Morir Soñando I had here was the best ever. The waitresses were so nice and attentive. Next time I’m in the area, I’m definitely swinging by.

Excellent PR food like mama use to make, I go every chance I get whenever I visit NYC !

My favorite Latino restaurant in the hood! Food tastes like its home cooked, which is a huge plus for me, and it’s convenient to get to. Love this place!

Awesome in Spanish Harlem. Great taste, and variable selection. The pricing is wonderful for the quantity. A great place to eat with your family. Music, Tv, WiFi and a bar. The people is polite and humble. It doesn’t get any better then El Caribeno. Did I mention the food taste awesome!!!

After a Target run we were hungry. I had to eat! We stopped in and seated ourselves. You really can’t mess up spanish rice and beans. Tostones were cooked to perfection too. The server was friendly and had us in and out in no time

I love this place! The food is always good and the people are friendly. It doesn’t hurt that everything is so affordable. Best Spanish food in the neighborhood hands down!

I had a terrible experience here yesterday. I’ll start with the food, it was OK. Rotisserie chicken was dry & not particularly flavorful. The beef I ordered was tough, although the sauce it came in was tasty when poured over my rice and beans.
Now to address the transgression that ruined my experience and took this establishment down a star from the 3 stars I typically give most places with mediocre food. My friend ordered a Quarter Chicken. After our food came out the server says «OH, THEY GAVE YOU A HALF A CHICKEN» acknowledging that there was an error made. so I just knew she would handle this and we would be charged for what we ordered, WRONG! after waiting an excessively long time for the check, we saw that we were charged for ½ a chicken.
Since our server was no where to be found we got the attention of the MGR, explained that we did not order a ½ a chicken. Instead of taking ownership of the error she began to argue with us saying «you didn’t say nothing» insinuating that we tried to get over. When in actuality we had no idea it was a ½ a chicken until the server pointed it out after my friend already began eating.
They really expected us to pay for their mistake, our server did nothing to fix the problem that she herself discovered and management literally tried to insult our integrity. At the end of the day it was only a few dollars different but it’s principle. I’m not paying to cover you for your mistake.

I’m surprised that no one’s reviewed this restaurant yet, considering the neighborhood’s known for their predominately immigrant Latin population and that it’s close to the subway on a main avenue. Isn’t there a Puerto Rican restaurant near here that battled Bobby Flay and won with the arroz con pollo (with beer as a secret ingredient)?
I think this restaurant’s Dominican, or at least it’s dominican dishes tasted pretty good to me. Came here after an opening at Museo del Barrio. Passed by a few gringo-​latin looking places that were packed. This place looked a little empty (but it was 9:30pm) and I was worried at first. But I’m very glad we came here. There was a older grandpa watching the soccer game at one table and an older lady that clearly didn’t give up her salsa dancing days, that was eating rice & beans and probably going to go out afterwards. A young family came in to buy take-​out, their little son was too shy to come sit with us and show us his toy cars.
Their counter had the usual items on the steam table: pernil, rice, yucca, beans, rotisserie chicken. Friend decided on the pork mofongo (you can choose a meat, the waitress recommended pork). I had the sancocho soup and a cuban sandwich. Everything was Delicious, flavorful, and hit the spot. The mofongo looked a little small at first, but for the amount of carbs it was the perfect size. It came with a small soup bowl of sauce– if they sell this sauce separately, I would eat it with Anything! It was smokey, a little sweet, a lot savory. Perfect with the mofongo. And the mofongo had just enough crispiness to softness.
The sancocho was just as good. I’ve never had this dish but only know that Domincans Rave about it and of course it doesn’t taste as good as it is in DR, but as far as I can tell, it was savory, filling (potatoes, plantains, chicken on the bone), and tasty. The cubano was good too. I could only finish half of one. It wasn’t too greasy, the cheese was good and big slice of pickle. I think the bill was around $ 25 total (including 1 corona).
I’d definitely go back to try other dishes, but I might just stick to these ones.