La Abundancia
La Abundancia
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Under $10
8 reviews
Rate and write a review Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
This is one of the many many 'Abundancia' bakeries there are in queens. Its okay. Its a spot to walk in if you're really hungry & have nowhere else to grab a bite, or if you're really craving Colombian food & simply cannot wait.
Took a star off because there empanadas are reheated & some are from the day before. You can tell by the stale corn. Another star off because the lady giving me the food was a total snob. She did everything like it was a chore & not her job.
Their pan de bono was really good & cheesy and I could tell they were fresh because they were very soft and warm. The ladies there need to step up their game & be a bit nicer to their customers. The pricing here is off, they should charge less for the empanadas if they're going to be giving them reheated.
In honor of Queens' new CM and my lovely neighbors' enthusiasm about all of Jackson Heights and it's surroundings, I have decided to Yelp a little about something I have a weakness for: bread.
My friend Jess M and I have a saying that you can really judge a restaurant by it's bread basket. La Abundancia has a whole counter, case, and shelf devoted to bread and it all looks delicious! alluringly shaped! and carbalicious!
Every time I walk into La Abundancia, it is filled with people chowing down on meat and rice, slurping on soup, savoring stews, and enjoying their pandebono with a cup of coffee. Pandebono is Colombian cheese bread. It's doughy, salty, and somewhat resembles a bagel. I buy them to go and like to get the sweet variation as well. The sweet ones are more like a roll and they have a crusty outer layer while the inside is soft and sweet. I can never get past the bread so I have never tried the real plates of food but everyone who is eating at La Abundancia seems to be satisfied. It is an inexpensive fast food type place and is family friendly. Spanish is the preferred language here but they do speak English. If my Spanish were better, I would probably be ordering more.
Sadly, my purchases have been as limited as my Spanish vocabulary (pandebono, jugo y empanada*).
__________
*The empanada dough is made of cornmeal. They are a bit chewy, fried, and filled with either chicken or beef. I buy them, eat them quickly, then wake up in the middle of the night with stomach pains but I attribute the pain to also eating way more pieces of bread than one person should have.
I may not be an expert on pandebono but I can say it is damn good and addicting- a guilty pleasure for sure!
The empanadas here are not good. They do there best to keep them authentic (I'm Colombian/Puerto Rican) however their fillings are always dry, not very flavorful and the cheese that they use in their cheese is this awful, pepper-y, spicy sour cheese.
The chicken and rice here is OKAY. Nothing to write home about, but if I really had a bad craving and was standing out front of La Abundancia I'd possibly go for it. What I DO really LOVE here is their lentils with their steamed white rice. The lentils are so, SO amazing. The bandeja plates (a rice and beans platter with a fried egg on top, as Colombians do, with pork and steak) is pretty tasty as well.
The baked goods I've tried here are pretty meh, although their prices are pretty great. Jackson Heights is a great neighborhood for South American and Latin American/Carribean food, this place is pretty meh overall in a sea of amazing other places.
Except for the lentils with white rice. Come here for the lentils, lol.
I popped in here on a Monday around 2pm. Despite the busting hour I was still able to find a seat. I would guess most of the customers in here were from South America or descended from there. Everyone in line seemed to be ordering in Spanish. At first I wasn't sure the servers could even speak English. I'm Chinese-American, so I stuck out like a sore thumb, but they accommodated my order, took my tray to a table for me, and even gave me a container to take home the leftovers. I don't know if the other customers enjoy this place, but they frequent it.
I guess you can order a typical platter or you can get a lady to serve up a choice of three dishes from the hodgepodge of a hot-buffet. Mine came out to around $9. I ordered the lentils, paella, and stewed pork- the lentils being the only "vegetable" option after potato salad. I found the pork surprisingly good. Their thinly cut chops were pulled-pork tender and quite flavorful. I've never stewed pork chops- or had stewed pork chops before. I also enjoyed the paella. The yellow rice was weak, (I grew up in the South Bronx where an elderly Puerto Rican neighbor spoiled me for anyone else's Latin cooking) but it was chocked full of chorizo, chicken, peas and carrots, and possibly more shredded pork. I really didn't like the lentils. They're another reviewer's favorite, but I found them washed out and flavorless.
I guess $9 is cheap for such a large portion that I had to take part of it home, but somehow I didn't feel as if this were such a deal. Still, I'd return again if I was hungry, craving Latin cooking, and in the area.
COMO que una tiendita asi y no hay nadie que pueda decirme que es lo que hay aqui? POR FAVOR!!!!!!!!
Primero lo primero, el servicio de aqui no es tan mal, el problema es que ellos no hablan muy bien el ingles porque es un restaurante / panaderia colombiana que abren 24 horas!
Tiene 2 opciones aqui: para comer or para postres.
vine con mis amigas porque tenian ganas de comer postres y escogieron esta tienda. NO tienen muchas variedades pero todo se ven ricos!
4 personas, 3 postres (escogimos el FLAN, El Pan con Guava y una torta con Dulce de leche y coco rayado) Todo por $ 7.25 (vea la foto)
No sentamos, y probamos el postre, pero QUE RICO, me encanto mas la torta con Dulce de leche y el Pan. El Flan no me gusto mucho porque estaba muy duro!.
Si estas cerca de la tienda, tienes que probarla.
Reminiscing about an earlier trip this year to Central America, we got a hardcore craving for the food…
La Abundancia is a cafeteria with other locations in Queens. We've walked by this one a hundred times without paying it much mind, but we finally decided to check out what they had to offer.
The empanadas and such sitting under the heat lamp didn't look so great, but the choices at the steam counter looked too good to pass up. The lunch ladies didn't speak much English, but our limited Spanish got us through!
A full plate with your choice of a carb, meat, and vegetable was $8. We took 2 plates with rice and beans, one with roasted chicken and the other with pork ribs. I also ordered a Caldo con Carne which was a simple yet flavorful beef soup with chunks of lean beef and topped with cilantro.
Portions were generous and everything tasted comforting and homemade– just like in CA. Our cravings and stomachs were more than satisfied. I'm not sure why the reviews are so low, but we will be adding this place to our list of neighborhood staples!
This is a Colombian restaurant/bakery conveniently located near the 74th Street stop. My friend and I both tried the Mini Bandeja Paisa and enjoyed it very much. Despite the fact that it is a "mini", it was a large portion size and more than filling. It comes with rice and beans, a fried egg, a piece of pork chicharron, and a thin steak – all for only $8.50. The meat and all here has been premade and is scooped out for you. However, it all tasted very soft, moist and fresh.
Every now and then, I have an avena caliente craving. This is an oatmeal concoction made of cinnamon, cloves, and a ton of sugar. I love it so! They also have chicarron, empanadas, calentado, rice & beans, as well as lunch dishes. There was plenty of seating when I came around 7 pm on a Sunday. Located conveniently next to the 74th Broadway train stop, it makes me happy especially since there is a place to rest my weary bones.