Tropical Sensation

Loved the food and music. They played Selena, who is one of my childhood favorites, so automatically, I had an enjoyable experience. Apparently I was also bopping up and down in my seat, so the waitress told me I should hit the dance floor. Passed on that this time around.
I ordered the ropa vieja with yucafondo. Beautiful presentation, and the meat was tender and flavorful. I didn’t try my friend’s bistec. However, for some reason he isn’t fond of caramelized onions, so I got all of them and they were delightful. I did feel that prices were on the higher side, although it could just have been the Valentine’s Day menu. Will definitely stop by another time for lunch.

I always go eat personally and the food is always fresh and good, today i decided to order delivery since i live close by. I order some mangu (3golpe) and it was a mess. the brown bag was full of grease food was spilling all over the place. I tried to cope with it but it was nasty the mangu was all watery like a soup i took like tree bites and trew it out i lost my appetite would never order mangu from you guys ever again. Step your mangu game up guys

Its a shame the service is so bad. I never ate here, only ordered through seamless and take out. Delivery experience really bad and sloooow. Nonetheless, i needed some rice, chicken and beans one day and thus i went to place an order in person. I just waited, waited, waited and waited at the counter and no one even acknowledged me. They werent even that busy. Also, one girl was all up on her instagram. As much as i love the food, i wont be back. Poor service.

We ordered chiken and steak for two people. It was huge portion.
If you are not very hungry, share one dish with your friend. Even if you are hungry, one main and one appetizer is enough.
This restaurant is close to my school campus but I hadn’t been realized for a year!
We will come back here again.

Authentic Dominican/​Caribbean food! Great for a sit down dinner or delivery ! Go to place for tasty and affordable Spanish food.

First let me start by saying that the food here is good. We order lunch delivery here on a somewhat regular basis and we’ve also ordered trays of food for our company events/​parties. This review is based on our experience with customer service today on our lunch order.
We ordered the fish cooked in coconut milk along with the avocado salad. Delivery time was quick but when it arrived the pieces of fish was on top of the salad and the avocado was in a separate container. We thought it was a little strange because they were two separate orders but somehow was combined into one. We were starving so we just let it slide and started to eat. This is when things took a turn. The fish was not cooked all the way through! When fish is cooked it’s flaky and it breaks apart. We couldn’t even break it with the fork. We called the restaurant and they would not help us. They insisted that it was cooked and stated there was nothing they could do for us. They didn’t even offer to replace the order or to reverse the charges on my card. They have lost our business. The fact that they showed no concern about serving raw fish to their customers is unacceptable. I will be complaining to the Health Department because we spoke to the owner and he stated there was nothing he could do because the food was served. We will never order from this restaurant again.

The food is very good and we’ll done but for the third time that I order from here the delivery is always 1 hour late and by the time it gets to me it’s cold. I recommend but eating there instead of delivery.

The food is really good, good enough that from now on I will be judging all Dominican restaurants based on the food here. We were a party of seven and every single dish ordered was well seasoned and something I would order again.
My only gripes:
1. The service is very friendly, but they were busy and that made it VERY slow. It is not a big place, it really should not have taken over an hour from when we got our table to getting our food, especially since no one had any dishes that would take a long time to make.
2. We asked for half of one of our dishes to be packed up to go. The server said «Ok» and before leaving I asked for it and they gave a very sincere «sorry». If the food wasn’t so good I wouldn’t be so annoyed, because now is the next day and I am craving those left overs!!!
3. Instead of the Dominican traditional bread given before a meal they have tortilla chips with pico de gallo. It was pretty good, but they gave one plate for the table of seven. When I asked if they could give us a second plate the server said the first is free but they charge for more. The owner later offered us more for free because of the long delay. But I think they should not be as stingy, especially since it is expected at a traditional Caribbean Hispanic restaurant.

This place is so good the food is always how I like it I get delivery most of the time an this is one of my favorite places Spanish restaurants that I eat at the food is so fresh an they put love an care in there cooking that’s why I keep coming but to this restaurant it’s so good.

My neighborhood go to for Dominican food. When I’m feeling too lazy to cook, I order from here or simply walk over and pick up. Service and quality of food is always great. The staff is always in a good mood and welcoming.

Ate here on a Sunday afternoon. The place was pretty full so the service was slow. Although the waitress was very kind.
I ordered bistec plus rice and beans. Even though the food was great I was expecting more of a Caribbean flavor. I also had chocolate cake as a dessert, which was NOT good at all! It not only was hard in consistency, but I was not expecting for it to be covered in caramel, which I hate. The flan was really good though, but expect for it to also be covered in caramel.

My cousin had dinner here for her birthday and my wife and I enjoyed the food and the ambiance. We had a date recently and came back. Love the place and the food. Paola served us. She was professional and attentive. She frequently came by and made sure everything was ok. I love their Rope Vieja!

Food was good beef stew a little tough, yellow rice and beans good. Waitress OK atmosphere good.

What can I say the food is great the drinks are great the ladies walking around are great. Happy to have them in my hood now. For years been traveling uptown for their great food. Have a Miami vice and thank me later!

Tropical Sensation catered an event I attended at Columbia, so I can speak to the food but not the price/​dining experience.
Overall the food was average. The salad had avocado slices, which was nice, but other than that it wasn’t anything special. The rice and chicken were sort of bland, and the chicken was served on the bone, which isn’t really ideal for catered events. The fried sweet plantains were the delicious saving grace, though. (But they’re nothing extraordinary; fried sweet plantains are just always delicious.)

The food was very good and not expensive. We went as a party od six and tried a bunch of dishes and drinks. The drinks are not as good as other placrs, too sweet.

On a weekday UPtown, my Lady and I decided to grab a bite before heading to work. The Morningside Heights has seen a whole lot of development lately in the form of gentrification. A whole slew of new businesses have been popping up like whack-​a-​moles. Nevertheless it’s bittersweet depending on how you look it. With that being said, old or new there are a lot of places to choose from when wanting to dine or grab a drink.
TROPICAL SENSATION is one of those said venues in the Morningside Heights area. It’s a Latin restaurant w/​bar with a very homey Latin feel as evidenced by the music playing and décor. We were welcomed by a young fellow who seated us accordingly. We were then promptly served a complimentary starter of fried plantanos w/​an onion cilantro tomato dip. Needless to say, I loved it and dived right in.
Now because we established that I was the hungry one and she wasn’t too hungry, we decided to split a dish. We ordered the Pechuga Rebosada (lightly breaded chicken breast in a lemon and white wine sauce) w/​a side of arroz and habichuela. It was great! I loved it! It was tasty and satiating! My date liked it so much she began to add more to her portion of «I’mReallyNotThatHungry» haha.
My server was very pleasant and I enjoyed the cuisine and prompt service. There’s a lot on the menu to choose from, and it isn’t overwhelming like a lot of other places. The food is satiating and music is a cool touch to the ambience. Not a fancy type of place, yet straight to the point w/​a homey feel, and I will definitely come back again within the near future whenever I’m uptown and I recommend this restaurant to anyone who likes Latin food.

Great food. Service is a bit iffy. The servers are nice, but it’s honestly hit or miss. That being said, I’d come back a million times. The food is really good though. And the drinks are super strong.

They start you off with complimentary sweet plantain chips and an onion cilantro tomato dip.
We ordered the Pork Mofongo ($ 9), the baked fish filet with rice and beans ($ 15), an Avocado salad ($ 5) & the Tres Leches cake ($ 5) for desert. The pork mofongo was ok, I wish it had more garlic. I have had better. The fish filet was seasoned well but wasn’t the best. The dressing on the avocado salad was amazing & the contents were nice & fresh but there was more lettuce & tomato than there was avocado in the salad, which kind of defeats the purpose of an avocado salad. The Tres Leches cake was one of the best I’ve ever had.
Items are reasonably priced, our server was nice and the food comes out quickly. However, compared to other authentic Dominican restaurants (you can many in Washington Heights), this place is just mediocre. Plus, the group of young ladies behind us ruined our dining experience by screaming, cussing & acting obnoxious with each other the entire time. I don’t expect management to kick them out but it would have been nice if they would have at least apologized on behalf of the rude diners.

Came here a few weeks ago after one of my people’s posted about this spot on IG a few months ago… didn’t have much but the empanada’s and a Layered Margarita… WOW! BOTH were so damn good! I don’t know if I am necessarily surprised or not being that I am biased towards Spanish food anyway but maybe I was a bit surprised by the drink cause it definitely did it’s justice… strong, inexpensive and decorative… if first impressions mean everything then Tropical Sensation did it’s job!
Coming here again and again…
This place has Happy Hour weekdays from 5pm-​8pm if I’m correct and good for after work, dates and groups!
Probably will do a follow up review after I come here a few more times and start having entrée’s but for now… this place is definitely a GO!