El Palmar Restaurant

I have no idea why so many low reviews because me (Peruvian nationality) and my boyfriend (American), LOVE this food ! Lol we haven’t tried anything else, but we ALWAYS order the arroz congri (black bean rice), the pernil (pulled pork), and the yuca (cassava with onion and garlic)… We always make two orders (one for him and one for me) and by the time we are both done eating we have leftovers for later !!! I love this place… And yeah delivery is always like 45 minutes but then again I live all the way on the opposite side of Elizabeth… Like by Morris ave. so I have zeros complain! This place is sooooooo yummy !

This is probably my most ordered from restaurant on Grub Hub. I absolutely LOVE the croquettes I always order several of them because one is not enough. I just wish there was a cheaper option like 5 for $ 5 instead of paying $ 1.25 for each one. Still worth it though. I almost always get the costillas de res a la plancha or the vacafrita. The vacafrita does not come shredded. It confused me the first time but its not hard to pull it apart yourself. The bistec sandwich is great as well. It usually takes them like 35 – 40 minutes to get here which is nice because a lot of other places take an hour or more.

Thanks to El Palmar Restaurant, we were able to partake on a Christmas dinner catered by their establishment. The rice and beans were exquisite, chicken done well with nice taste and the yucca was phenomenal. If you like Caribbean, Puerto Rican or Cuban, this place will be what the doctor ordered.

I have ordered from here a few times now. The ox tail is alright, not the best I’ve had but maybe it’s because of the delivery aspect. I wonder if it’s better at the restaurant fresh off the line.
The arroz con pollo is really good. And I think now will be my go to order.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the chocolate smoothie. Not sure I’d order that again. (Then again who orders a chocolate smoothie from a Cuban restaurant?! This weirdo here.)
I also had the flan and that’s amazing.
There is always plenty of food (really each order lasts two meals) at a pretty reasonable price.
So, all in all, it’s alright. Not the best Cuban I’ve had but alright.

I believe the most important aspect of an eatery is consistency. Every time I come here to eat, the food is always good. Always! 5 Stars! At good affordable prices you can not lose. The service is served with a smile. Also, Eddie always greets you with a smile! So go and have great food!!!

Very poor service and customer care. I placed an order through GrubHub and was misled about delivery times. 15 minutes after promised delivery time I called and the person that picked up the phone said it would be another 10 minutes. I expressed my concern and told him I would be reporting on GrubHub and he said «you could do whatever you want do you want me to cancel your order?» He had no remorse or concern and sounded like he didn’t want my business. I will never buy food from here again as it is already 2 hours after I placed a small order and 30 minutes after promised delivery time and the food is still not here.

The goat dish was hearty and flavorful and the rice that accompanied the dish was super addicting. However, the lettuce, avocado, tomato salad was disappointing. The lettuce was shredded, the kind they used for burgers which made the dish really off-​putting. Also, there delivery service is horrible, if you really want to order from here, I suggest you go to the restaurant or order at least one hour prior to when you really want to eat.

To start off i was looking for some great spanish food and seen mixed reviews on this place… now that i finally ate here i dont know why their were some low reviews, i myself am a picky eater… and i always want to try the food myself to judge… i came in around 3ish during lunch hour and found parking few stores down by the metro PCS phone store, as i walked in, plenty of seating and there were a few groups already eating and two people waiting for food to go, the man at the counter helped take my order, and yup… i already knew what i wanted… i went with the ox tails, maduros (sweet plantains), and yellow rice… the portion for one was enough and im a big boy! Lol… the oxtails were so juicy i would come back again to elizabeth new jersey for the food with the drive from jersey city (you know theres hella traffic now that there is construction for the skyway)…the total was $ 11.72…not bad, for a big portion and very juicy tasty oxtails… so to the person who reviewed about the «minuscule portion» i really dont know what you were talking about… i myself am a foody which means i try foods of many places… and you should have taken a picture of your portion because i actually did of mine and the portion i receieved was well enough for one person sir… if you are around the area this place is worth the try for authentic spanish food, i would come again just to try their other dishes

Let me begin by saying that 12 yrs in restaurant management have given me the distinct wisdom of how to give great guest service. My girlfriend and were checking out some restaurant options for dinner and we came across El Palmar as an option so we decided to give them a try.
I perused the menu and we made our selections. She chose the oxtail rice dish and I had the mofongo (smashed plaintains) and shrimp. We had 2 side items as well. We placed the order online and they called to confirm which I very much appreciated. They said 20 mins, so we waited then left to get the food.
We arrived at the restaurant and our meal was ready. A man we believed to be a manager processed our order and we received our meal. Everything was in one bag and I found that odd but we left and went home. Upon arrival we unpacked the food and were shocked by the miniscule portions for a dinner of $ 35! My girlfriend then shared her same feelings about our whole order being in one bag???
I decided to call the restaurant to inquire about the portion size and spoke with whom I believe to be the same individual that processed our order. I told him we just picked up our food and was this the normal dinner portion. He then asked if we received everything we ordered and I said yes then I itemized the order. He then rudely starts running off prices per pound on shrimp and oxtail as if I can’t very easily find those numbers. Never once did I here an acknowledgement of our dissatisfaction with our finished product. That’s all I would have needed to hear to be ok as I know an individual restaurant’s products are what they are.
Lesson here is treat every guest as a treasure and they will share your product with at least one to two people. Ultimately a bad experience (which we definitely had!!) will be heard by 10 to 20… in this case million people, the average that social media affords us…

Last night I ordered and wasted money it was. my drinks were spilled all in the bag the food had a funny taste I called and then they said call tomorrow we are closed the service for me sucked, I guess I got bad luck with this one.