Las Palmeras Restaurant & Bar

I’m hesitant to write this review because I fear it would not capture a typical experience at Las Palmeras. Therefore, I will preface with, this is probably not a good place to bring groups. In fact, Las Palmeras seems like your neighborhood restaurant/​bar that I bet many local Hondurans visit. They probably were not prepared for our size (20+), having to call in reinforcement, despite Daniel B. having made a reservation.
The restaurant is located right off Shallowford in a pretty random shopping complex. The inside is surprisingly large, with a bar area, slot machines, and also an entire back room with a pool table and a pretty large dance floor.
They arranged us Last Supper style and the wait began. The presumed owner came out and took our orders… Drink orders. We asked if we could order food and he said no. I assume he wanted to do things systematically and wasn’t anticipating everyone only wanting water.
It was another 20 minutes before we were waited on and then asked to order. Most people ordered the traditional Honduran breakfast (chorizo) or dinner (skirt steak). I unfortunately fell prey to «avocado» and also ordered one of these plates. It was probably the least appetizing thing that I tasted that meal, but more on that later.
To tide us over, they brought out tortilla chips with a crumbly, white cheese (similar in appearance and taste to feta), and it had a vinegary sauce on top. I wasn’t a fan but many at the table enjoyed it.
50 minutes and a pack of (grandma) saltines later…
Our food arrived! Pamela C. was not impressed with the baleadas or her tajadas con pollo. I think this is similar to any Chinese/​Korean/​Indian/​etc thinking the homemade stuff is better, or restaurant grade just not living up to «how mom makes it.» /​shrug
I thought the baleadas were pretty tasty. The baleadas are basically Honduran tacos with a thicker flour shell and eggs/​steak/​avocado any or a combination of them all, with refried beans and cheese. The tajadas con pollo was a dish with crispy fried chicken on a bed of plantain chips with lettuce and chimol (similar to pico de gallo). This also had the weird vinegar sauce so I didn’t even bother trying it.
I would say besides the baleadas, I really liked Praveen’a beef soup. It’s reminiscent of a Chinese beef stew with similar flavors. I was one of the last ones to receive my food. It was surprisingly warm, but I honestly wasn’t impressed. — crumbled scrambled eggs, rubbery steak, random side of cheese, and some rice. I’d pass on this next time. I think the maduros would have made this a tastier option but alas they ran out and offered us the salty plantain chips in exchange. (They were good, but I didn’t think it paired well with the dish, nor was it what I was looking for)
There were a couple of flukes on orders but all in all, most seemed content with their food. I will probably have to come back with a smaller party and try something else. I haven’t given up on you yet, Las Palmeras!
TLDR; get the baleadas, skip the traditional meal. Expect a wait.

We came here for the 49^th UYE and I was very much excited about trying Honduran food for the first time ever but was a tad bit disappointed with the entire experience.
It was a large group of 20 of us and since we’re used to this type of meet up, we quickly checked out the menu and was ready to order yet the owner asked us to hold our requests until he served us our «waters.» Time was definitely killed during the time we were seated to the time we actually received our entrees. It took well over an hour and half to receive our food and by that point, we were all starving and couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on.
They tried to give us these tortilla chips with Chihuahua cheese and this sweet tomato sauce that tasted like the sauce from a can of Spaghetti O’s. Since I was famished, I pretty much ate about 2 full baskets of those darn chips! It was waaaaay past my dinner time. Regardless, my Honduran dinner was pretty good and the meat was definitely seasoned well.
I was completely turned off by the slow service and the fact that they took a dollar off my tab because they ran out of plantains that typically come with my order. I would rather have the plantains than the discount but oh well. Not sure how they run a business if they can’t support a group of 20 diners, especially since we were the only group there other than 2 randoms eating in a booth across from the bar.
Not sure I’ll be back again but if I do, I hope the experience will be better than our last. Shout out to Daniel B. for staying calm and collected throughout our UYE because if I was hosting, it would’ve been a different story all together. ;)

Las Palmeras is a Honduran Restaurant and Bar right off Shallowford Rd off right off of Buford Highway. I was told it just opened Summer of 2014. It’s pretty easy to find. They have a large sign w/​the restaurant name. Not going to lie… this area looks a little sketchy, but it’s probably b/​c it was dark… and b/​c of the homeless guy chilling right in front of restaurant when we first got there
Restaurant has a large bar, some restaurant seating, and a large area in the back with a pool table. They also have a jukebox and a few slot… machines (People actually there playing too)
Came here on a Thursday night with 20 or so other Unilocalers. With so many people, I wasn’t expecting the best service in a place that’s probably never had more than 20 people in the restaurant at once to sit down and eat. Drinks came out a little slow, and it took a while for them to take our order. They did feed us tortilla chips with a tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese though which was pretty tasty. Overall service was decent.
Food wise they offer a variety of popular Honduran dishes. On the menu you can find items such as Baleadas (a thick flour tortilla) & Carne Molida/​pollo con Tajadas (ground beef/​chicken with fried plaintains).
The baleadas can be served plain or you can add some sort of filling such as steak, huevo (egg), aguacate (avocado), or Todo (All of the above!). Thanks Google Translate! I had the baleadas with just the steak. You get 3 of them for $ 8 and they are HUGE. Way bigger than what I was expecting for $ 8. It was a complete meal. The baleadas were really good and the steak inside was pretty decent. It was sprinkled with some cheese.
Not thinking the baleadas would be so big, I also ordered the Ground Beef with fried Plantains for $ 9. Also a huge serving. The ground beef w/​plantains was actually pretty tasty. The plantains are soaked in some sort of tomato sauce and they have a texture almost like french fries. The ground beef was really well seasoned and also had some cheese sprinkled on top. I kinda wish I had the ground beef on a baleada; that would have been pretty tasty. Thinking back at it, this plate was pretty good. Simple, but good.
The girlfriend had the Seafood soup. It’s a pretty lite soup, but the broth isn’t bad. They have mussels, shrimp, imitation crab, squid, and a whole piece of tilapia. Only thing I didn’t like was the imitation crab. Everything else about it was ok. Overpriced really.
They have other items on the menu such as a whole fried tilapia, pork chop, fajitas, and grilled chicken and breast. A lot of people in the group got the «Traditional» Honduran Breakfast/​Dinner which is eggs, beans, chorizo/​steak, rice, & sweet plantains. Not a lot of food on the breakfast/​dinner plates, but I did Google it and it is indeed a traditional meal.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat here again, but if it were down the street from where I lived or worked, I could see myself stopping in every once in a while.
Happy Hour from 1−3pm w/​$ 2 beers and they supposedly have free wi-​fi, but forgot to check/​ask.

Las Palmeras is a Honduran restaurant and bar that opened June 2014 on Shallowford Road near Buford Highway. The restaurant is in its own small standalone building next door to the Em & Toi Vietnamese café. The business proudly displays the Honduran flag on its storefront.
The restaurant essentially consists of one giant room with a bar, booths, and several tables. The bar seats six, there are five booths that comfortably seat four, and there’s a collection of small tables that can seat about 40. The dimly lit space has a bar atmosphere with multiple TVs (great for watching futbol/​soccer matches) and big speakers that can play loud music. One end of the restaurant has a music jukebox and four digital slot machines. The other end has an open room off to the side with a single pool table and additional seating.
Las Palmeras serves a variety of traditional Honduran cuisine including baleadas, pastelitos, and tajadas con pollo. Similar to tacos, but uniquely Honduran, baleadas consist of soft wheat flour tortillas with various fillings. Pastelitos are similar to empanadas. They’re fried pastries filled with meat, except pastelitos use corn flour instead of wheat flour for a distinctly different taste. The restaurant also serves Honduran breakfast and dinner combination plates and Hispanic foods like fajitas, steak, pork chops, fried whole fish, pechuga a la plancha (grilled chicken breast), and soups including mondongo (tripe/​stomach soup). Expect to spend about $ 12 – 15 each for most dishes.
Outside of beer, beverages include horchata (sweet rice drink) and juices such as pina (pineapple juice), jamaica (purple hibiscus juice), maracuya (passion fruit), and nance (a yellow fruit from Central America). Like other Hispanic restaurants, Las Palmeras has fountain machines behind the counter where these drinks are constantly being mixed.
Here’s a rundown of the foods I’ve tried:
* Tajadas con Pollo — chicken and fried plantains
* Ejemplar Hondureno (Honduran Sampler) — taco, enchilada, baleada, pastelitos
* Baleadas — Honduran handmade tortillas with beans, steak, and eggs
* Sopa de Res — beef soup with carrots and potatoes
* Cena Hondurena (Traditional Honduran Dinner) — white rice, beans, cheese, egg, steak, sour cream, sweet plantains, avocado
The Tajadas con Pollo consisted of a lightly fried chicken thigh drizzled in a special, mildy spicy, somewhat creamy sauce. The chicken was A-​OK. It was served atop a shredded cabbage salad and fried plantains. The fried plantains were sort of like potato chips — crispy, but thicker. There was a side of chimol, which is Honduran/​Salvadorian salsa, much like pico de gallo with chopped tomatoes, onions, and peppers.
The Honduran Sampler was a bit of a letdown primarily because the food on this plate came out cold. The enchilada was piled high and there was plenty of ensalada (of cabbage, both red and green) on this plate. The pastelitos tasted alright to me. The ground beef inside each pastry was savory, but the exterior breading seemed overly greasy and perhaps maybe even overcooked. The highlight of the Sampler was the simple bean-​only baleada, which had been cut into two halves. The handmade tortilla was soft and the bean filling satisfying.
And while the «plain» bean baleada is good, you have the option to add other ingredients (e.g. steak, eggs, avocado) if you order a set of baleadas separately. I sampled the steak and eggs baleada and it was pretty good. The eggs were fluffy and the small slices of steak were tasty. The freshly griddled tortillas were the best part though.
The Sopa de Res (beef soup) wasn’t bad. It was a simple soup with bone-​on chunks of beef and large slices of carrots and potatoes. A small plate of white rice was served on the side. The thin, slightly oily broth, was nice and comforting. The version I tried didn’t look nearly as complete/​fulfilling as the one posted to Las Palmeras’ Facebook page (
). That one contained corn with a slice of lime and a tortilla on the side.
The Traditional Honduran Dinner was mediocre. Usually dinner plates at Hispanic restaurants are packed with tons of food and meat, but the Honduran Dinner (and Breakfast) here seemed to be lacking. The only difference between the dinner and breakfast plates is you get steak on the dinner plate and chorizo sausage on the breakfast plate. The tiny slice of steak I had was very rubbery and chewy. Also, the kitchen apparently ran out of plantains/​maduros. The salty Honduran cheese was interesting, though I can’t say I’m a fan.
The Carne Molida con Tajadas (ground beef with fried plantains) and Fajitas Mixtas (fajitas with chicken, shrimp, steak) looked great with generous portions.
Service is slow, but the staff is nice. This is a family-​run business. Douglas is the owner and his daughter, Michelle, is accommodating and takes care of her customers.

Nacho chips drizzled with a light tomato sauce and cheese. Add some hot sauce for flavors and kicks.
That’s all I’ll review for now. Still waiting for the food an hour later with 20 other Unilocalers (I don’t think they expected us).

Las Palmeras is a relatively new restaurant that serves traditional Honduran and Latin cuisine. They have been open for business since June 30, 2014. So on 12/​11/​2014 several Unilocalers got together for a Buford hwy UYE at Las Palmeras, thanks to our Host Dan for finding this place. I have been to only few Honduran restaurants before, when I used to travel on work.
The restaurant is very close to Buford highway, which has myriad Asian and Latino restaurants. ‘Restaurante Guatemala’ used to be at the same spot before they closed. The restaurant can be accessed via Shallowford rd and but one can also enter from entrance of ‘family dollar’ on Buford hwy (closer to chamblee-​tucker rd) and drive through the strip mall to go to other side. And there is plenty of parking available at this strip mall.
When you enter, you will see special board right away. The place is huge with so many wooden plank booths, tables and chairs, big speakers for loud Latino music, jukebox and bunch of arcade gaming machines. They even have a pool table.
With all this, when I entered the restaurant was completely empty, devoid of any customers. But few did come in later.
At Las Palmeras, menu has familiar sections — appetizers, house specials, entrees and drinks. It wouldn’t be an Honduran restaurant with out Baleadas in the menu and you will see it everywhere in the menu here as well.
Baleadas is kind of Honduran street food, which is basically a large flour tortilla folded with refried beans, sour cream and other variant ingredients like veggies, avacado or ground meats depending on the cost and needs. At Las palmeras, they have Baleadas with meat (Baleadas con carne), eggs (Baleadas con Huevo), avacado (Baleadas con aguacate) or with all the above ingredients (Baleadas con Todo).
There is one single fish item in the menu — spiced deep fried fish. Other than that they have items you will find in menu of any other latin cuisine like pastelitos, enchiladas, Fajitas, grilled chicken & steak and different types of soups (yes, they also have tripe soup). And other than soft drinks, they also serve variety of beers.
Talking about soft drinks, they have horchata, piña and Jamaica displayed right in front. So we know it’s available. :)
So I arrived first and the manager/​host seemed surprised when I said that we made reservation for 20. I guess, they never really thought we would show up. Then he frantically started making few phone calls and mentioned that his daughter would be here very soon!(I think she was our waitress) No harm done.
Then we waited for someone to come give water. After about 20 mins, when the manager came to take drinks order, we asked if we could order food as well. But he wouldn’t take food order, just kept repeating that he is only taking drinks order first. We then realized that the kitchen isn’t fully ready for us yet.
When they finally took out orders, it took about 50 mins before the food started coming out.
I ordered,
1) baleadas with steak and eggs (I just asked for eggs but they brought one with steak and when I said mine was supposed to be eggs, the waitress just added some scrambled eggs to it). But the baleadas was good — the refried beans, steak and egg combination was delicious.
2) beef soup with carrots, potatoes and nice chunks of beef. It was flavorful and delicious. If I come back to this restaurant, I will definitely order this again.
I really want to like this restaurant, they are low profile and my food was decent. But the service was kinda bad, despite having called ahead and made reservations, they weren’t prepared and some of us waited for 90 minutes to get food.
They are open hours are 11 am to 9 pm on tuesday through thursday, 11 am to 11 pm on friday through sunday and closed on Monday.
3 stars.