Cafe Con Leche

Best breakfast hot sauce I’ve ever tasted. Made my eggs sing. They even sold me some in a tupper ware. I eat breakfast here every time I’m in NYC.

It is closed — hence one star for not being around

We enjoyed drinks, fresh chips, salsa, guacamole, & chicken quesadillas tonight. Service was excellent, food was very tasty and the wait staff was very friendly and attentive. We’ll definitely be going back!

It is ok… not amazing.

Decent food but terrible service.
Apparently the word toast gets lost in translation… morons!

Cheap, excellent cuban food. The bread they serve with the garlic sauce and spicy sauce is a great way to start the meal. The roasted pork is so simple but so delicious. And the meals come with a lot of rice and beans. Great place to swing by or for delivery.

one of the better cuban restaurants in nyc… food is close to the real thing (i know… i’m cuban)… the sangria is awesome… the wait staff is friendly and always willing to make suggestions…
tables are a little close to each other, but it’s new york.
i say go.

Best avocado salad ever!
Love the decoration

Ok ok, so its not the fastest service, but its bearable.
My friend got the Dominican breakfast and I got the roast pork benedict. I tried her fried cheese – omg so good, but heart attack in the making! The roast pork benedict is an interesting twist, it was ok. However, you have to understand what makes each meal is the sauce they serve. The white and orange sauce is slightly spicy with a kick! Taste that, and POUR it over everything! It just makes everything SO YUMMY. I’ll go back just to taste the sauce!
It reminds me of La Vic’s Orange Sauce in San Jose!

The café con leche is great! I’ve had it a couple times as I live in the neighborhood.
We ordered empanadas though to get our day started — and they were… pretty gross. We ordered the meat ones, but instead we got something that had a bunch of mush inside — I think they may have given us what’s supposed to be the «vegetables» instead by mistake. They are also deep fried, not baked. My boyfriend remarked, «These look asian…» and indeed, they did — they resembled a crab rangoon or an eggroll type of dough instead of the typical flour dough used to make empanadas!
Can’t fool a latin chick. Sorry!

I really enjoyed dinner here. The portions are large. The food is well seasoned and delicious. The quality of ingredients surpassed what I expected for the price. Our service was very friendly, a little slow on the taking our order and giving us the check – but it wasn’t because they were just twiddling their thumbs.
We ordered the seafood soup which took a long time but arrived as a bowl overflowing with big sea… stuff
Bacalao pa… something was like mofongo with bacalao– absolutely delicious. I wish I had some right now.
Cubano sandwhich– great. A solid sandwich with real meat with flavor. Pressed and toasted the way it should be. I threw a little of the table garlic sauce on it and I just wanted to unbuckled my pants, lay back, and moan for a while.
I’ll be back for a brunch and dinner again. It’s a great spot to just go and eat.

My sister lives close by, so we walked down on a warm October day to enjoy brunch. We sat outside, and our server came over fairly quickly. She was a bit off though; she wasn’t super attentive and seemed confused when we asked questions about the menu.
The brunch menu is great. Dishes are around $ 12 and all come with a (small) mimosa. I ordered the pork eggs benedict, and I was happy with my choice. It contained a lot of meat, the eggs were perfect, and to top it off the dish came with fruit and delicious plantains. Laura ordered an omelet with greens, tomato, and goat cheese, which she also enjoyed.
Bottom Line: This isn’t the most amazing place, but I liked it. The prices are great for the location, the coffee is good, and you aren’t likely to wait for a table. Convenient location and good food get two thumbs up from me.

Chicharon pollo is exactly what it is. I just don’t know why I couldn’t remember what it was until it finally came out. Deep deep fried chicken, cut up into pieces.
I ordered a pitcher of their sangria, which according to one of the waitstaff «It’s much better than our happy hour.» I think it’s because $ 30 for a full pitcher (the size of those plastic water pitchers) with some tasty and potent red sangria. I think there were 9 glasses worth? He’s a smart guy. I may have to FB request him.
Portions here are huge.
The garlic bread is as aroma worthy as it can get. But don’t load up on it or else you’ll be full by the time you’re on bite 3 of your entrée.
Their white and red sauces are tangy with a little heat. Douse everything you eat with it. Spray some on your gf/​bf if he/​she lets you. Blame it on the alcohol.
To be continued ’til I try more of their other goodies.
And this place feels a lot more comfortable than Pio Pio. Not sure why, but just sayin’.

Not sure if our late-​night dinner visit last night was typical, but we entered to the smell of garlic bread on the press and enjoyed everything about our visit thereafter. The dual sauces — we all wanted to bottle and steal the hot spicy red and the cooling white sauces that accompanied the garlic bread, and the entrees were great.
We had empenadas (chicken and beef) as well as arroz con chorizo. Everything was fresh, hot, tasty and deelish, and the service was really solid. Not over-​the-​top, wipe your chin-​chinny-​chin foofy, but friendly, attentive and beyond criticism.
We had a good time and all of us would return in a heartbeat.

Delivery Order Review
It has been quite a long time since I have had any Cuban food, but I was looking forward to trying this place eventually.
We decided to order the fried green plantains to split. They were not too greasy, but I wasn’t overly impressed with them.
For my main dish I ordered the roasted pork sandwich. It wasn’t the best choice as the bread was a tad bit soggy by the time it arrived, but the pork inside was still hot and tender. The sandwich came with yucca fries which are one of my favorites. They were quite good and not greasy.
My wife ordered a vegetable in coconut sauce. It unfortunately did not come with the rice and beans, ONLY beans. This was a big error and may have bumped this review up. Messing up an order… not good.
I also ordered a rice with chorizo and chicken for the next day’s lunch. This portion was huge. I mean easily enough for two. I had it for lunch and some more for dinner. This was sort of a fake paella, as they also have that on the menu. This dish was also only $ 12, a stellar deal.
With our order, you get a free potato empenada. That was ok, but free, so i can’t complain.
Overall, I think this place would be more enjoyed in person at the restaurant, but I think if you get a rice dish or something similar, you will be ok for delivery. I will give them another chance to redeem themselves, but it was still solid food for a good price. All the above was $ 32 or so, plus tip.

We were running late to brunch. I mean– VERY late. So, the plan was to get off at 96trh St and sprint to the nearest brunch locale. That just so happened to be Café con Leche. And they just so happened to still be serving.
It’s a fun, not too busy place/​Fairly unassuming. And then came the food. Eggs Benedict cooked perfectly? And, what is this? White sauce? Red sauce? I mean, I love condiments, but what are these things? Soon, I come to find out that they are Café con Leche’s gift to the world. Tangy, spicy and they are good enough to drink.
In addition, the service is super attentive, and the food is perfection. Overall a great combination, made even better by the mouthwatering condiments (okay, yes, I am going on and on about them, but they really are that good… :))

I’ve come here twice now, and neither time for the food. The first time was after a concert in Central Park to escape the rain. The later was last night because my friend wanted coffee and upon seeing a sign displaying «Café Con Leche» she knew she had found a coffee shop. Sangria does that to you.
The service was good and they let us howl our heads off. Next time I will try the food.

Restaurants in the UWS fall in one of two categories when it comes to the weekend brunch.
(1) Specialize in it and do it well. Join the powerhouse brunch cartel (e.g. Sarabeth’s, Nice Matin, Popover Café, Fred’s…etc)* to collude on price fixing strategies: the $ 13 omelette. the $ 5 cup of coffee. the $ 9 yogurt parfait.
(2) Take advantage of spillover crowds refusing to wait 45 min at above category 1 restaurants. Cobble together makeshift brunch menu regardless of cuisine type (i.e. Chinese). Still command premium prices because it’s the UWS and you can.
Café Con Leche falls in the latter category. It’s a Cuban restaurant with Dominican /​Central American influences; all regions where brunch is a
foreign, nonexistent concept. I mistakenly ordered an exotically named dish which turned out as greasy eggs, soggy peppers flanked by a side order of dry fibrous yucca and oily onions. The coffee was disappointingly watery for a restaurant named…
On the upside, our group of 8 was seated immediately at a prime location in front of the bar. On the downside, we waited 40 minutes for our order. Management did however reward us with a free round of mimosas.
I will note service was very friendly and attentive; the music and décor were also charmingly festive and local in feel. I’m sure their dinner mainstays are more authentic and better executed; brunch however is a different story.
* Just a little joke brunch cartel. I will continue to pay $ 13 for your eggs please don’t blacklist me.

I have always loved both branches of CCL. The roasted chiken or Arroz con Pollo is the real deal. Delicious Bloody Mary’s at brunch-​time and of course — my raison d’etre — the MADUROS, baby!!!
Such a great place.

Came here once when my roommates were being a little rambunctious and I needed a little time outside of our paid walls.
Sitting at the bar was fantastic — I ordered the sampler platter and a couple of El Presidente’s (explained to me as the Bud Light of the Dominican Republic — which is right up my alley). The bartenders were fun and explanatory of the things I was eating and the vibe was chill and relaxed on a Saturday night.
Came back for brunch a month or two later and was less than impressed. The place was empty, giving us a very eerie vibe and it appeared someone had opened the windows extra wide, with the resulting feeling that someone had put a spotlight on us on a Sunday morning. I only want that feeling at an arraignment or that crazy Amsterdam coffee house.