I've been craving Spanish food for a long time, and my friend recommended Lo Nuestro Dominican…read moreRestaurant in Albany, NY.
When I looked up their address, Apple Maps stated that the restaurant was closed today (Sunday, August 18th, 2024). So, I searched for the next best option, and Yelp suggested a restaurant in Crossgates Mall, Albany.
Listed currently as Latino's Cuisine on Yelp is actually Lo Nuestro's 2nd restaurant! Formerly known as Latino's cuisine, the owners of Lo Nuestro has expanded their family owned restaurants and now occupies this restaurant and space in Crossgates Mall as their 2nd restaurant.
Crossgates is a huge mall, so I used the directory map to find the exact location of the restaurant.
It was the same restaurant my friend recommended! Lo Nuestro's SECOND location is located upstairs in Crossgates Mall, next to Pandora Jewelry and in front of the "Going, Going, Gone" Dick's Sporting Goods clearance store.
If you're trying to avoid the mall and a lot of walking, you can park as close as possible to Going, Going, Gone and then go upstairs. Lo Nuestro is on the right-hand side next to it.
As soon as I walked in, the food alone made me want to try everything pollo. There was a line of about five other customers ahead of me, Spanish music blasting in the restaurant a few tables and booths for friends and family to dine in. A dessert case with a variety of desserts and all the food you order is behind the counter in steam table pans. I ordered a large stew chicken (which they didn't have much left of), and I see why! (It tastes really good and was exactly what I was looking for).
I asked the pleasant and English-speaking young lady (Franchesca) if she could give me small portions of both types of their chicken so I could try a little of both after she apologized for the near empty pan of stew chicken, and she kindly gave me small portions of each in my large order. Both were so good! I also did the same with the tuna pasta salad and the potato salad.
While I've had better-tasting potato salad, (needed more seasoning or salt and less mayonnaise) it's still edible and delicious. (At the time of this writing, I hadn't tried the tuna pasta salad yet.)
Their passion fruit juice is a little on the too sweet side for me but still great tasting. Nothing a shot of lemon juice wouldn't fix.
At my grown age and being Jamaican , I'm just now starting to appreciate why everyone eats and asks for plantains, and the sweet plantains here are actually good.
Would I come back like the young lady working the counter encouraged? Absolutely.
She mentioned they are going to fix their listing on Apple, Google, and Yelp because they own both restaurants located in Crossgates Mall and on Central Avenue in Albany.
This review is for the Crossgates Mall location.
I had a pleasant experience, and the food did what it needed to do.
I ate both potato salad and the tuna Mac salad after editing and now I am back to give an update, I enjoyed BOTH salads and I wished I had more. I licked the salad container clean. Don't judge me.