El Caribeno

“Ordered again today, pernil and arroz con gandules, this time with a pastelito.”

“Predominantly Spanish speaking clientele not surprising given this is pretty much East Harlem I guess but staff speak English .”

“While traveling from Florida to NYC, and being engaged to a Puerto Rican, this is place is authentic and delicious.”

El Caribeno

Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes

Price range.

$$ Price range $11-30

5 reviews

  1. tasty and reasonably priced Dominican food in a friendly environment.. You can pick hot items from the display case to go or sit down abd order from the menu. they have a full bar selection of liquor and a few bottled beers including Presidente, but this is a restaurant not a bar. a couple tvs tuned to Latin channels. Predominantly Spanish speaking clientele not surprising given this is pretty much East Harlem I guess but staff speak English . Service is good, I have been here like 3 times and had consistent results.. some quite nice looking desserts in the fridge which i have not yet tried

  2. 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.

  3. delicious neighborhood gem! great food great prices, how can you go wrong?

  4. 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 1/2 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 1/2 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 1/2 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.

  5. 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.

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Lexington Avenue 1675
New York 10029 NY US
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Monday, 8:00 am - 12:00 am
Tuesday, 8:00 am - 12:00 am
Wednesday, 8:00 am - 12:00 am
Thursday, 8:00 am - 12:00 am
Friday, 8:00 am - 12:00 am
Saturday, 8:00 am - 12:00 am
Sunday, 8:00 am - 12:00 am