Ariel’s Latin Bistro
“Saturday Happy Hour until 8PM with half priced drinks.”
“My favorite dishes are the shrimp dumplings, arroz con pollo and camerones, and churrasco for brunch.”
“Here's the rundown:
Nice lil spot on the LES; we went on Sunday and we had parking right out front.”
Ariel’s Latin Bistro
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Nah.
Went here with a friend for dinner with a Groupon deal. They clearly have a separate menu specifically for Groupon considering it was completely different than what we saw online. We had a reservation and waited about 10 minutes before even being served water.
The menu was kinda lackluster but we got nachos and my friend ordered empanadas and tacos but not before being told they were "out" of most types.
I ordered arroz con pollo which was an awfully small portion especially considering it came out nearly 30 minutes after all of the rest of the food.
Service was bad. This is a tiny establishment idk how it was so difficult.
While we were waiting (again exceptionally long) for our waiter to grab our bill, I overheard them telling another party they were completely "out" of something else- and another woman behind me had her dish completely forgotten about bc after she said "I'm still waiting for my meal" one of the servers said "oops I forgot". Smh
Food was not great. Definitely not worth the OG non Groupon price.
Drinks were dope though. On to the next one. Do not recommend.
Used a Groupon deal here and we were content. Had a shrimp appetizer with this awesome sauce it was drenched it. My friend who does not like seafood even enjoyed it. I then had the Churrasco which was cooked simply, yet perfectly. The meat was so big I couldn't even finish it (no pun intended)! The fries were delicious, too. Can't remember if I had dessert or not.
Try the Sol y Beso drink and the Dark N Stormy. Pure awesomeness. Oh – and the customer service was great.
Service is severely flawed here and based on the size of this place it shouldn't be.
Arrived with reservation ( make one for brunch for sure) seated at a table waited 15 min for menus and then nothing . No acknowledgement from either server for at least 10 min. I finally got up and asked if someone could come over.
Server arrives we order everything starters, entrees and drinks . Obvi we came for the bottomless . Kudos to the manager for realizing they should be giving people pitchers to avoid empty glasses .
My Benedict was standard however the jalapeño , truffle , Parmesan fries were EVERYTHING . I'd seriously come back just for those .
Around 3pm the restaurant cleared out but based on our time here they clearly need a 3rd server , busser /someone to help clear tables during the brunch rush .
Based on several other reviews the service is usually spotty and it's a shame because they clearly need the business they are on every deal site groupon and pulsd are both running deals as we speak . Those fries might make me come back though.
**This is not a review for the food**
I have been to Ariel's before but it was almost a year and half ago. I only had a couple of drinks and several tapas/small dishes and was happy (I was partially drunk and had no recollection other than laughing the entire night and stuffing my face with empanadas, wings and dumplings). When Lapin said he wanted to go after passing the restaurant on our way to another restaurant I thought it would be a good idea.
Oh, how I was wrong! We made reservations but arrived a bit early. There was one waiter and one bartender in a semi-packed place (the restaurant was small). We stood for 15 minutes and then decided to sit down. The idiotic bartender made us get us to go to the bar to check our reservations and gave us the same seats we were sitting in. If you were going to do that, at least come to us or give us different seats. When other people came in and also waited to be seated and then decided to sit down, she never once said anything to them. Then the incompetent waiter finally came around and asked if we had reservations this was 15 minutes after being seated with no menu or acknowledgement. Apparently she didn't believe us, she had to ask the bartender. After waiting another 30 minutes, we finally got to place our order. They both took our order and one didn't write down our order and forgot how Lapin wanted his food and came back TWICE to confirm. Not like pen and paper was never created. Everyone was using some type of voucher, that the menu has stuff crossed off and has the up-charge prices written on them (and before the waitress even said hello, she said do you have a voucher but she had no idea what was available and what wasn't). The menu claims this place is seasonal but it was the same exact menu from my last visit almost 1.5 years ago. I would like to tell you what I ordered, dear reader but there is no point because after 1 hour and 45 minutes (additional from the time waiting to place our order) of waiting and asking 2 times where is our food, it never came and we got feed up and left after just being ignored.
AVOID AT ALL COST. The place treats other patrons better and have no experience or knowledge on how to treat people. A very very incompetent staff as I saw more than one dish being sent back.
Just wanted to start off by saying that my waitress was a complete sweetheart! It really makes the difference when the food is mediocre and the drinks are extremely watered down. Read many reviews stating that the cocktails were strong so I guess .. Oops. Someone's an alcoholic!
I ordered the seafood paella. Said there would be scallops but mine came with none. Maybe there was a misunderstanding because my friend ordered her dish without scallops. Anyways, there was an abundant of seafood. All delicious! But I just do seafood anything. It can have no seasoning and I'll still love it. The rice was a bit undercooked. It was hard.
Also had the tosotones as an appetizer. It was nicely fried and loved the sauce on the bottom. Added a kick to the already seasoned plantains.
For drinks, I had the sangria and my friend ordered a classic mojito. We both agreed that it could've used a bit more alcohol ….
Overall, I would probably come back to try other things. It's a great atmosphere to drink, eat, and talk .. We spent about 2 hours there! The waitress didn't rush us and kept checking up on us and our waters. The size of the place could use some help though. I felt like I was toppling over a table the second I stepped through the door. Felt so many eyes on me, meh.
This place serves a mix of various Latin American cuisines. They have Mexican stuff, Puerto Rican (mofongo), Brazilian (caipirinha), Spanish (paella) and more. However, if you are looking for a place with good Latin American food, this is not the place. We tried several things from here and they were all bad to okay. The maduros were burned. The chicharrones de pollo had the skin removed and was too salty. The pernil was not pernil at all. It was chopped up bits of pork with sauce all over them. Tostones were okay though.
It appears that this restaurant is more interested in looking hip and cool for the locals. Better off going to a nice hole in the wall mom and pop place for some good Latin American food.
THE AMBIANCE: Since we have a one-year-old baby, we decided to come early on a weekday, hoping not to disturb other diners. We came here on a Wednesday afternoon around 5:30 but the place was already super packed and LOUD. Seriously, this place was loud enough to be a dance club, which is fine, but really a bit odd for the early afternoon/diner crowd. There happened to be a HUGE group of women celebrating a bachelorette party (on a Wednesday??) and another huge group of women coworkers apparently just celebrating the fact that they were drinking and not at work. I have to lay the scene to explain how LOUD this place was. We almost didn't stay to eat because it was that loud. You seriously had to shout to hear yourself over the music and, because of that, everyone in the restaurant was shouting at each other. The server could not even hear our order; instead we used caveman-like pointing and grunting to explain what we wanted.
THE FOOD: The food itself was fantastic. We used a Pulsd deal for dinner here one evening. The deal was $29 which included 2 entrees and a bottle of wine, not a bad deal at all. The restaurant was much better than we expected and the meal/wine was totally worth our money. I had the chef's burger which was really good. I suppose it's a little weird to order a burger at a Latin restaurant but it was excellent. The sauce was delicious and the meat was grilled perfectly. My husband enjoyed the shrimp with rice and found it very satisfying.
Overall, this is an awesome place but I would only come back if they turn the damn volume down on their speakers.
I have gone twice. Not because I thought it was so amazing, but because I went once and it was fine, and when I needed a brunch spot sometime after that because Sweet Chick had a wait and ended up there.
Uhm.
I don't think I will return. The food isn't that great. The service is ok. But overall it just isn't a dining experience I need to have again.