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    El Palmar Restaurant

    2.8 (93 reviews)
    ModerateCuban, Puerto Rican
    Closed 7:00 am - 10:00 pm

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    Mac F.

    Today ,my wife asked to try out this spot she claims she saw them on news 12 and like their story . The place is in a so so area of Elizabeth Nj . The parking is street and meters which .25 cents gets you only ten minutes at a clip . The place is a whole in the wall type of joint . We ordered the steak sandwich with fries and a Cuban sandwich . The steak was under average and a little chew for my taste . The wife Cuban was good but average at the best . The place was clean and the staff was very pleasant to deal with . Just food was ok !

    Bacalao, congri & maduros
    Elizabeth B.

    Local Cuban/Puerto Rican restaurant with authentic food that is very reasonably priced.

    Nasty mofongo.
    Danielle R.

    A disappointment. A big disappointment. I came across El Palmar months ago, and being Puerto Rican, I understandably get excited about Puerto Rican and Caribbean Latin restaurants. My fiancé was hungry before he was going out for his overnight shift, so we ordered delivery. I got arroz con gandules, mofongo, and an empanada. He got a cuban sandwich, alcapurrias, and lemonade. I should have known something was up when I couldn't choose what kind of empanada I wanted. We ordered at 9:20PM, as Eat24 didn't tell us they were closing soon. Eat24 said they would get here at 10:24PM. We didn't get our food until 11:10PM. I could brush it off to an extent, but honestly I wish they did us the courtesy of telling us they wouldn't take our order -- would have saved us some disappointment. First thing I opened was the mofongo -- NASTIEST dish ever. I've had mofongo made by my family, I've had mofongo on my island, I have NEVER had mofongo that was chewy, tasted like old pork, and SO. DAMN. GREASY. It was like these weird bits of really stiff plantano within the mashed platano, in a pool of oil. I moved onto the empanada -- I still have no idea what it is. Is it chicken? Is it pork? It IS salty, though. And yellow, which I'm brushing off to sazón. I couldn't finish it. Next up, arroz con gandules (my favorite). It's the only thing I actually COULD eat, but that doesn't mean it was good. It's very, very bland. When I was eating it at first, I said it was missing pork or ham. Then I came across a piece of VERY dry pork within the rice... it was paper dry. It's just a really sad excuse for arroz con gandules. My fiancé had his cuban and was NOT thrilled with it. It was bland, the pork was over cooked, and it's a huge sandwich that wasn't cut in half. The lemonade is Okay, but it's SO SMALL. $3.50 for a 12 oz foam cup of lemonade. I cant judge on the alcapurrias cause I've never been a fan of guineo, and he's never had alcapurrias de guineo before, so.. I'm actually OFFENDED they're going around with the Puerto Rican and Cuban flag. This isn't authentic. This is a let down and is doing an injustice to my cultures food. DONT EAT HERE.

    Michelle S.

    I've been going to El Palmar for a while and it's still my favorite place to go to for Puerto Rican food in the area. This is a small family owned place on the super popular Elizabeth Avenue. Parking can be difficult to obtain - so be prepared to search. The owner, Eddie, is very nice and always greets his customers if he happens to be in the dining area (and he usually is, from my experience). This is a no-frills kinda place. Place mats are paper, napkins are grabbed from a dispenser, and utensils come in a paper package. If you're like me and care less about the particulars and more about the food, you won't be disappointed here. I am a mofongo lover. Mofongo all day, please. I really enjoy the mofongo here and I prefer it to other places in the area. This place is also one of the few Caribbean places in the area that serve jibaritos. A jibarito is a sandwich that can come with either chicken or steak, but instead of bread, it's nestled in between two thick pieces of platano (not the sweet ones). Yum, yum, yum! I was so happy to find that menu item because it's a favorite of mine. You can find the typical Puerto Rican/Cuban fare here. Rice and beans, bistec, pollo guisado - you can even find puerto rican pasteles and other cuchifrito type food like pastelillos and alcapurias. Waitresses speak both English and Spanish (so does the owner), so English only folks will have no problem getting what they want here. El Palmar is an Old Elizabeth favorite that many people have been visiting over the years. In the past few years, some changes have been made, but it still remains a staple here in Elizabeth. They even offer delivery service now, which is a huge bonus!

    a meal in a styrofoam container

    Nastiest Food Ever. 90% went to the trash. Pork was flavorless. Bacalaitos and rest of frituras are so so salty. Watery beans

    Really  $35 worth of food? ?
    Mortimer C.

    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........

    Alexa B.

    I usually don't write reviews on restaurants however this is crazy.. I ordered a Media Noche sandwich and while eating it I bit into a huge bone so I spit it out and noticed a huge plastic in my sandwich.. I will not be ordering from here again!!!

    Mofongo con Lechón
    Marcel G.

    Food was amazing everything we ordered was the bomb. Staff was very pleasant and ready to respond to you request. Everything is made fresh when it is ordered and worth the wait.

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    Heriberto R.

    Thank you so much for your review I hope to see you next time :-)

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    6 years ago

    Best Mofongo! This place is as authentic is at gets they take the prize for mofongo!

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    9 years ago

    I order delivery from here all the time and love the food and the customer service. The food is always hot and always tastes amazing.

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    Cha Cha Cha Cuban Cafe

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    This is my second time coming here. It was a yelp event that brought us here first and it was…read moreamazing. I will say parking is street parking or side streets and can get a little crazy on weekends. Service is always great and you feel like you are a part of the family here. Food is always fresh and amazing. Anytime I am near here we stop regardless of being hungry or not. I absolutely am obsessed with their vaca frita and black beans. It's a huge portion so leftovers are always good. My boyfriend always orders their cubano as he said it is the best one he has ever had. Their Maduros are also sweet and crisp and never greasy. We also tried their choripan sandwich and it was awesome. We've never had thinly sliced chorizo which eliminates the usual oil and messiness. Always an amazing meal. We also tried their pineapple Cuban smoothie and ended the meal with their delicious flan.

    From when you walk in and take a seat the atmosphere is nice, family oriented and super cozy. The…read morefood is made fresh to order and its worth every second. Not that the wait time is long. Everyone is so welcoming! We ordered a pan con bistec and chicken sandwich. One of the best sandwiches I've ever had! Bread was toasted to perfection with the hint of garlic that gave it the extra touch! They gave us an order of croquetas since it was our first time there..and they were delicious! It came with two small sauces, a red one which was a bit spicy to my liking...but the green sauces was on point. Even saw that the sell the sauces if you want. Later we got a flan and an empanada of guava and cheese (freshly fried!) The flan was sooooo creamy. Not a huge flan eater, but boy! That was delicious! We finished up with a cafe con leche...made fresh and you could taste how good it was. A little pricey yet can't beat the homemade, fresh food & the great service! Will definitely be going back!

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    Outside

    El Palmar Restaurant - cuban - Updated May 2026

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