Mela’s Cafe & Restaurant
“So I came here before years ago when it was the Dominican diner .”
“Mofongo with fried cheese – fabulous !”
“Love the place looks great the service is awesome prices are good and the food WOW!!”
Mela’s Cafe & Restaurant
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
3 reviews
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Our table of 4 ordered the Chef's special that goes for $55, for the amount of food I guess the price is OK. You get a soup, a small pasta dish, an appetizer, a main course, and desert.. but what human being can fit that much food in themselves who knows?!? They haven't received their liquor license yet so the BYOB really helped with the price. We all got different dishes which allowed for a good menu tasting. The seafood soup was filled with flavor, but was only broth no seafood. My calamari was interesting in not good way.. the squid was cooked well but was paired with an extremely sweet sauce, but w/o the sauce there was no flavor. The men at the table at lukewarm asian flavored ribs. For main course, we got the entire stuff red snapper, filet of halibut, and two steak dishes. The steak were cooked well done.. even the prime rib, WHO DOES THAT?!? The snapper was baked so it was soggy, but the halibut was very delicious. Finally we ended with bread pudding made two different ways. I can see the Chef trying to experiment with flavors, but some of them were not good combinations. When I looked at the prices for the steak and prime rib off the menu ($30+), it's definitely a steal to get the Chef's special instead.
The restaurant looks pretty big from the outside. It is spacious inside. There were two women waitressing (I say women because I saw dose wrinkles on dat faces) when I went in today. We were seated right across from the front doors, which let in cold air each time someone stepped in and out the place. It was raining today and windy as well so it was not a pleasant seating option for us.
The food we ordered from the lunch menu were the skirt steak ($14) and shrimp scampi ($14). We waited almost 25 minutes for both dishes to come out, which I didn't mind after I saw how aesthetically pleasing the dishes were presented (photos attached).
Before the food came out, they provided us with a basketful of tortilla chips and a side of salsa. It was all fun and games until I discovered a chip with a weird dark green fungus moldy kinda thingy (don't judge my choice of words right now) on it (photo attached). I just put it off to the side.
I asked specifically for medium well done but my steak was so overwhelmingly well done to the point of a burnt mess (photos attached). There were yuka fries that came with it which was delightful at first but were like bricks to chew on after a while. The steak was okay for well done (I guess), despite my difficulty cutting through it and chewing it.
The shrimp scampi was also okay. The five pieces of shrimp we were served (clap. clap. clap.) were great. There was a huge chunk of mashed potatoes in the middle of this huge plate, which was good – but it's hard to mess up mashed potatoes. $14 lunch price for this little guy? Mm. I think not.
Finally, we ordered the tres leches ($6) for our dessert. Normally, I would expect something amazing for the price. It was incredibly sweet and good but definitely DEFINITELY not worth the $6 they charge. Apparently it's $6 in-house and $4.50 for take out. So basically the little chocolate syrup squeeze on the huge plate cost $1.50 more. What a disappointment.
Only came here because one of my best friends live close by and gets bombarded with the take-out menus that gets sent out.
We may come back again but… eh, I'd like to spend my money and time elsewhere. But then again, I may come back in hope for a better experience.
This place is a renovated and reimagined Dominican Diner which was previously here. Menu is about the same serving Dominican favorites like chicken stew, ox tail, chalets, pernil, steak and onions, etc.
Interior is updated and nice and sitting is a nice experience. The majority of business however is probably generated through their steam table serving the usual lunch specials. Portions are enormous and incredibly reasonable in price. What would I do without Latin restaurants like this? Highly recommended.