Oh man, I don't know what happened to people's orders or service before, but today? Perfection. I actually had Bloomfield as my destination, but the Leña website doesn't list Bloomfield! So I went to the O.G. location, where I learned that one spun off to a different owner. I always appreciate O.G. so I'm glad to find that this one is thriving in Passaic. A little off the beaten track, Leña does offer a parking lot if the street is full. Not too crowded inside - well, see my photos - they sat me at a nice large table of my own and brought over that delicious large corn with spicy green sauce. I don't know the names, but this is delicious. The waitress happily walked me through the menu options and, being Ecuadorian, informed me to what was the most traditional here. I went with Tacu Tacu con... technically Pechuga. * Purple drink: Delicious, authentic, large glass, fresh made, fruity and refreshing. Guy at the other table had a whole pitcher and I might have wanted that over just one glass! * Side of fried cassava: Was told that's how Peruvians like it, and that matches my South American recollection. Delicious with that green sauce. * Tacu was on top of a large fried rice patty. Well, not really a patty, it just broke apart into delicious bites bursting with flavor. Wonderful and authentic. * Tacu chicken itself was pounded thin but seasoned so nicely I couldn't put it down. * Large meal accompanied by lettuce and onions. Even those were somehow delicious - okay, more green sauce was used - but my plate exited my possession completely empty. Wish I had room left to try the dessert, the flan or coco version thereof, but too full of delicious Peruvianism. Glad this was on my must try list, glad I chose this location - I'll be back! read more

See all

There's no reason to mess up an ARROZ CHAUFA (chicken-pollo). Peruvian chaufa can't be this.. the rice was good but the chicken is like breaded hard old chicken strips. I think LEña y Carbon are getting too big that the quality of the food ain't hitten !! This can't be.. look at this chicken.. if Leña y Carbon reads this comment, don't come with an apology. Yall wrong for playin people with this hard azz chicken read more

Leña Y Carbon - Arroz chaufa with hard breaded chicken.... No good - Peruvian Near Me - Passaic, New Jersey

See all

It is frustrating to receive poor service( no exist), especially with an automatic 22% tip added,no warning about tip added. Is crazy how this entailed restaurant does this to customers. read more

WOW! We will refer this place to EVERYONE! Amazing FRESH delicious food! Ordered for pick up Lomo and beef soup wow wow wow the food was just absolutely delicious! Fast and hot! Don't look any further we drove from Hackensack, and it was well worth it! 10000000+Stars! read more

Girl friend of mine shared her food with me and I have fo say, I loved it! Good comfort food and with chi Ken, you can't go wrong, very healthy choices and food items like salad, rice and beans. I'd give e them a shot . read more

I have been coming to this place for several years, but last month when I went I was so disappointed that I will not go back there again. The leche de tigre tasted like pure lemon, it was so acidic I couldn't eat it. The soup and the chica were good but then the ceviche had a bug in it! I called the waitress right away to show her and she just stared at my plate and said she couldn't see it. She then took the plate to the kitchen and said it must have been a fly that go in the plate. I wish I would have taken a picture before she took my plate but in the midst of the moment I didn't think of it. Then the waitress said she can offer us a free drink or chicken, but would not be able to take the ceviche off the bill. After that I lost my appetite and I wanted to do was leave the place. read more

See all

What awful food truthfully. I'm peruvian, been in NJ for a long time, paterson is usually the go to spot but Rachi is NOT DONE IN AN OVEN. It's on a grill. A GRILL. Grilled foods don't leak 2 cups of grease. This is true serrano cooking. Absolute trash. I can hash it out to a bad day but this is the third order in a row where they just suck. This isnt peruvian food. This is dog food. Hire better chefs or just chose the restaurant down. I'm disgusted i had to pay for this. 22 dollars to NOT eat my food. The chicken is also marinaded with cinnamon which I want to ask, "what the fuck is your problem?" read more

Leña Y Carbon - If you can't grill, don't put it on your menu - Peruvian Near Me - Passaic, New Jersey

If you order from this restaurant beware and check your food first before eating it mine came with flies i ain't ordered. read more

See all

The quality of the food is good, their BBQ chicken never fails. But, the customer service just lacks in promptness and attention. Not organized when you call for pick up at the location. Hopefully it gets better. The other platters they have are pretty decent. read more

Food was cold. And I asked for utensil and none. Did not like it. Never again. No goooooooooooooooooooof Don't buy food here

Wife and I ordered via GrubHub a whole chicken with double sides of Chaufa for dinner. It actually came with another small container of Chaufa as well. The food is good and plentiful. I had better but this isn't bad whatsoever. I would order again when in the mood. read more

muy mala atención con este pollo que me trajeron jamás vuelvo a ir a Lena y carbon encima la mánager me dice que está ocupada read more

Leña Y Carbon - Peruvian Near Me - Passaic, New Jersey

I've been craving chicken from this place for quite a while but never have cash on me since they don't take credit cards. So I went to go grab lunch and I must have been really hungry because I took the turn into their parking lot too quickly and got a flat tire. Luckily the owner's nephew and another guy had just pulled up and jumped to my rescue and helped me out. They even told me to go inside and eat while they changed the tire, which of course I didn't. I thanked them so much for such great customer service and then went inside and got my food. I have to add, their chicken is the best I've ever had and not to mention that amazing green sauce! I'll make sure not to turn so quickly next time but I'll definitely be back. read more

Leña Y Carbon - Peruvian Near Me - Passaic, New Jersey

Sorry but no. The food is "good" but it's not made with the traditional ingredients. We ordered leche de Tigre and chaufa de pollo. Although both of them tasted "ok/good" (code for mediocre) it was not a "typical" traditional Peruvian food. Or the chef is from another country or they just don't know the recipes. The chaufa didn't have eggs, the chicken was cut in big long chunks (like saltado) and barely had any chives. I give it a 3 out of 10. The leche de tigre was VERY disappointing. First of all the put AMERICAN CORN!!! Which is sweet!! Anyone who eats Peruvian food on the regular knows this is a NO NO. This restaurant is in Passaic, next door there is a Peruvian bodega, the bag of Peruvian corn is $5, we paid for the leche de tigre $9, you only need a sprinkle of it. Not enough LIME!! They used lemons!!! Another NO NO or they tried to "watered it down" , not enough juice, CELERY on it!! Gosh! It had more reminiscence to an ECUADORIAN Ceviche, but not Peruvian! I'm never ever coming back! Sorry. With so many good REAL PERUVIAN restaurants in the area, this place better change the name of the restaurant to: Everything but Peruvian. read more

The food here was excellent,especially the chaufra rice (yimmy). I look forward to going back there very soon.

I gave this place a try since I been trying to eat Peruvian food so I order the chaufa de pollo and a whole chicken with sides Of french fries let me start with the chicken was not cooked well the chaufa had bad smell and a bad taste don't recommend this place wasted 40$ to the garbage and the place smell really bad ... read more

Yikes! to some of my fellow Yelpers experiences here. Sheesh. I tried this place before coming to Yelp and now I'm glad I did because, I probably wouldn't have tried it at all. The food is pretty good. I've ordered a few times now. The Chaufa with Steak and Chicken is excellent. Lots of meat (though I agree with another review that states cut more so like saltado style) but lots of flavor, egg and scallion in mine too. Huge portion. It lasted me 3 days and tasted better every day that passed. The fried Snapper platter is also huge and the fish is well salted and crispy. Came with Yuca frita, white rice and salad. I love their Peruvian green sauce, like I could put it on everything and love it type of love-ya know? Lol for real though. Damned good. The Jalea was amazing. A load of mixed seafood like fish, shrimp, calamari, crab and mussels. Came with the red onion cilantro mixture that goes on top. Definitely fresh food, always good-though I'm not versed enough in Peruvian food to state authentic, and large portions. read more

After a long two days of entertaining. Enough was enough! Happy Mother's day to me :D I took a day off and checked Uber Eats. I told everyone every man for himself. I opened the app and found this place. I ordered a arroz con mariscos, jalea and tostones. The order arrived hot and fresh. First off as someone who has eaten in North Bergen. I know what good Peruvian tastes like. This food was delicious. There was good mix of seafood in both dishes. My only complaint is where my lime at for my jalea? The arroz was yummy and well seasoned. The rice and seafood were done perfectly. The seafood wasn't chewy and the rice was fluffy. The tostones were huge and crispy. A small salad and two sauces were included. The best part? Is it feed three adults perfectly and there was still leftovers. I was happy to support a small biz. I would order from this place again! read more

My parents WERE frequent customers here. I know they have a cash only sign but they do take debit/credit card but there's a hidden fee in there. We found out when we placed an order and were told the total, when they swiped the card I got an alert for $30 more than said price. When we asked why we were being charged an extra $30, they denied it of course. I showed them the text alert from the card issuer and they still denied it. They only told us about the "small" fee because we made a scene in front of customers. SHAME ON THEM. I understand times are hard during the pandemic but scamming customers is not a way to do business!!!!!!! read more

This place has great lunch specials with large portions, affordable prices, and quick arrival of the food. The restaurant itself is large but not cozy, and its not in the best location of Passaic. It took about 10 minutes until I was acknowledged, they are pretty busy with call ahead orders so I remained seated patiently. When the gentleman arrived to take my drink order, he only spoke Spanish so there was definitely a language barrier. I proceeded to order a Diet Inca Cola (Peruvian soda)..10 minutes later still no soda.. The language barrier was pretty bad! Once my friend arrived who spoke Spanish, everything went smoothly from there. I ordered a quarter Pollo a la brasa which is chicken prepared rotisserie style that came with 2 sides, so I choose the fried yuca and salad. The chicken itself was moist but not flavorful. It had a strange taste that I can't put my fingers on. The fried yuca was great and the salad was decent it was probably enough for 3 people to share it was that big! The green sauce served for dipping was absolutely delicious, it had a nice spicy kick to it with a light creamy consistency. Overall, it was an ok experience. With many restaurants around serving the same food, I highly doubt I'll be returning, service and food is crucial and it didn't satisfy here.. read more

Leña Y Carbon - Pollo a la brasa - salad, fries and rice - Peruvian Near Me - Passaic, New Jersey

Ordered delivery through Grubhub, papa a la huancaina and arroz chaufa de pollo, the best part of the order was that it arrived on time and the items I ordered were delivered. The huancaina was good, but the arroz chaufa was very stale and dry. It also had a very weird taste, the chicken felt as if it was fried once, and then fried again even though it wasn't fried. Just weird and disgusting overall. This is most likely due to the rice being cooked the day or night before, (I hope the night before). Unfortunately this place left much to be desired. $30 bucks down the drain. read more

Leña Y Carbon - Extremely dried and smelly chicken. - Peruvian Near Me - Passaic, New Jersey

The food in this place is amazing!!! Unfortunately the staff is horrible, they are very disorganized, every time I order we have an issue with the order. Even one time when I went to pick it up they didn't do it right. So make sure u check and double check. The stars are just for the food ok this one. It's amazing. read more

For an out-of-towner like me, pulling into Lena Y Carbon's neighborhood may be a different experience than usual, but it's worth it to get great seafood at a very reasonable price. I drive out from Montclair just to get my ceviche craving satiated. Where else can you get good ceviche for $12-$15? NOT Montclair, I'm telling you. My companion had a fried seafood platter that was heaped with fish, shrimp and squid - super delicious. I tried their flan, which is denser and less creamy than what I'm used to, but still very good. Bring cash with you (I would not try looking for an ATM in the neighborhood unless you're acquainted with this area of Passaic). We found the service for take-out to be friendly and pleasant; ordered in English with no language barrier problems. Street parking only. read more

Food very tasty I love they chicken if you guys do go tell them to make sure the chicken is well done

Food was good server was amazing before his shift was over he came over asked if he needed anything else as he was leaving so I tipped him at the moment once I had to pay I explained the person who was left in charge but wouldn't removed the tip from my bill said it was automatic from the register meaning they stay with the servers tip which is very unfair waiter should be the one handling their tip not the restaurant. read more

The new girl that works there now is very rude! She hung up the phone on me when I was asking her about the new prices. I used to go there for years. I won't be a returning customer anymore. I don't appreciate rude people! If I'm gonna spend my money I better get treated RIGHT! read more

Review is based more on service than anything else. Service: on a scale from 1-10...I would give it a -5. We walked in and the waitress walked right by us, didn't even greet us so we went and found a table. Only reason why we didn't just walk right out was because my parents were with us and they were hungry. We then had to go to the counter and get our own menus because once again the waitress didn't do anything. Ten minutes later she finally came to take our order and when my father asked to substitute the rice for french fries she said it couldn't be done and when we asked why she said "idk I have to ask someone in the kitchen" ok so we told her to go ask and then come back. So it turns out you can substitute food like in every other restaurant you go to (what a surprise!) After she took our order she didn't come back to the table at all. We had to go to the counter and ask for our drinks. Needless to say I will never visit this restaurant again. The food was just ok and as I looked around it was evident that if you're not a regular they won't treat you well. read more

Very disappointed with my experience at this location. The food is good, amazing chicken a la leña. However, for a Sunday afternoon it wasn't busy. The waiter had a nasty attitude since we walked in. After taking our order, he never came back to check on us, had to flag him down to order another drink, had to ask another employee to find him for us to ask for the check and to-go containers. The other employee ended up bringing the check to us and we noticed the tip was already included! We were a party of 4, no need to include the gratuity for that size. I guess they know the horrible service they give and want to get their tip money although they don't work for it. Also, when we were packing our leftovers we noticed many flies. They need to get that checked out!! read more

here's what you do - call them and order the whole chicken, fried rice, and beans. Make sure you get the green sauce. pick up your order and come home. cut up the chicken and mix it with the rice and beans and top it off with the green sauce - and enjoy!!! I have picked up from here about 2-3 times now and I will continue to do so for a nice dinner when I don't feel like cooking. then I have leftovers for days! read more

It is sad to say this because this use to be one of my go to's with my family, but the new employees they have in the registrar ARE THE WORST. They are rude, they hate their jobs. They were eating and licking their fingers and then attending their tables afterwards. That's disgusting. I came in to pick up an order for an event and these ladies were eating and didn't bother to wash their hands before attending me. They gave us the food without any cardboard or anything - mind you the food was burning hot. I've had other restaurants supply your order with a box so you pick up without burning your hands - Chinese restaurants even do it. I'm really upset because the restaurant serves great food but because of the service and cleanliness I ADVISE YOU NOT TO GO. read more

Another gem found in our exploration of Passaic. Read the Yelp reviews and stopped in to get takeout around 8:30p on a Saturday Night. We ordered the ceviche de pescado and 1/2 chicken with chaufa. The chicken itself is worth the 4-stars, perfectly cooked, flavorful and juicy throughout. It was well-seasoned though they really just let the wood & charcoal provide the flavor. The chaufa was very tasty but just a little bit on the dry side...we'll probably opt for the fries and rice as suggested in most reviews. As serious ceviche lovers, the ceviche de pescado did not disappoint. Generous chunks of fresh white fish were complimented with a nice variety of vegetables: red onion, sweet potato, potato, choclo (pervuian corn). The woman who took our order was very sweet and spoke more than enough English to make things very easy. In general the staff was very nice and helpful. Our order took about 15-20 minutes so we sat at the bar/counter in front of the ovens to wait. There were several families, a few groups of friends and some couples dining and a variety of Latino music and videos playing on a projection screen at background volume. Overall it was just a nice, clean atmosphere and I'd feel totally comfortable staying to enjoy the delicious food in-house. As for the area, I'm not from Passaic so I don't know police stats or anything... but personally I think the "wrong side of tracks" concerns might be more a matter of perception. Yes it's in a predominantly Latino neighborhood, so if you're white and not comfortable possibly being the only white people in the place, well then that's just on you. You'll be missing out on nice people and really great food though! read more

Solid spot for Peruvian good. There are many options in passaic which I grew up on but moving away from el chèvre was hard a choice but I was glad I did it. Lena y carbon has a few locations around north jersey and is a cash only spot but they have an atm inside. Parking can be tough mostly street but they have a small spot behind them. The chaufan is very tasty and full of flavor. My go to meal is half a chicken with fries and the chaufan rice. ( I may be spelling it wrong so apologies) it's a soy sauce based rice which shows the Asian influence in Peruvian food. On a cold day go for one of the soups and it will take all the cold away. Everyone always says good things about the green sauce but ask about the red one to really put a spice to things. The salad dressing has its own character as well. Quick service and a clean place as well. read more

Leña Y Carbon - Peruvian Near Me - Passaic, New Jersey

Honestly the food was not fresh and lacked flavor. Clearly frozen fish and seafood. Ceviche had substitution seafood, fake is just not acceptable. Better options around ... Save yourself the trip. read more

Yelpers were right!! their chicken al carbon is to dye for , perfect French fries, and their green sauce is delishh , came all the way from queens and was worth it ,if you have a craving for pollo a la brasa, smokey style, like in Peru this is the place !! :D. I'm not too crazy for how the place looks is decent not amazing, but is clean, and the food is the star here , I don't give 5 because there's one restroom for men and women, and because the chichi morada was served in a disposable white cup, other than that the space is huge , nice and neat read more

Family came over for New Years, and this is one of the spots we came to eat at. From the moment we went in the host greeted and seated us. Appetizers were served shortly after followed by our entres. The food was mouth watering from the Arroz Cahufa to the Chorros a la chalaca which I highly recommend to any seafood lover who would like to try seafood on another level. Unfortuantely I had to leave ealry due to an appointment but will be returning to stuff my face very soon!!!! read more

Leña Y Carbon - Choros a la chalaca - Peruvian Near Me - Passaic, New Jersey

Bad bad bad !!!! First of all what restaurant doesn't have lunch specials?? With that being said I wanted some comida peruana and this place completely disappointed my taste buds .... I don't know if they were in a rush but I took my food to go and after I dug in and devoured my food I noticed the chicken was raw... I guess I should of since known the skin was completely soggy and not crispy( for u chicken eaters u know what I'm talking about, the best part is the crispy skin )... So I ordered rotisserie chicken with arroz chaufa .... The chicken if it would of been well done would of been good because it actually had a smoky flavor... The arroz chaufa - they were so stingy with the rice like WTF.... Also got hubby an order of white rice , beans and grilled meat .... They actually wasn't stingy w the white rice but it was salty as hell , the grilled meat was tough and had no seasoning, and the beans were literally straight from a can I mean I know peruvians are not known for their frijoles but would it hurt to add some adobo , sofrito and garlic in those beans ??? Only the green sauce was good let's just say I didn't enjoy my lunch and was still hungry! read more

Leña Y Carbon - Need i say more - Peruvian Near Me - Passaic, New Jersey

try the chicken with green sauce... salad with dressing...rice and beans...chaufa is good too

When you first see this place from outside especially from outside at night you think to yourself "oh hell no" or "is this place even open?" I have to tell you this place is great!!!! The food so soooooo good and flavorful! We ordered about 4 dishes between myself and my family and all inhale to say is NomNom My favorite was the pesto pasta chicken!!! Again!!! Yum!! Give this place a try. Just bring cash (they do not take cards ) read more

Avoid this place at all cost. Got spoiled beans and upon complaining the waitress told us that vinegar had accidentally fell on it...what? Read the negative reviews and avoid a bad experience. read more

I rarely leave reviews. But, in this case, something needed to be said. I tried to order from a neighborhood restaurant figuring a lot of them are struggling and I should support. I also do understand that it is a Peruvian restaurant and that most or all the employees are spanish speaking. But you're telling me no one speaks English?! So what you're saying is that you are not interested in any business that comes from anyone that doesn't speak Spanish? This is very disturbing. read more