Exquisito

This place was good. The beans the rice the fresh perfectly seasoned pork roast. The price was insanely low and the service was very nice. There are a lot of kind and smiling faces behind the counter. Mouth is watering just thinking about this place.

Food has improved a bit… less salty than before. Still to much grease with some of their dishes. Can’t eat it everyday unless I wanna get heart attack.
Customer service is less to be desired. Not very professional. They tend to argue back with the customers and cop an attitude if you call them out on something you clearly did not ask for, which is often, instead of just say Oh sorry let me fix that for you right away sir, my bad… you know, quality control and attention to customer service! Maybe if they paid more closer attention to customers instead of walking away while you speak or try to explain your order, or their not in such a hurry to tend someone else when its your turn then maybe they’d get the order right for once! In other words… focus one customer at a time!
In this place that’s never going to happen cause its ghetto as ghetto can be, but their prices are cheap and portions pretty large, but mostly rice unfortunately… unless you oder your meats separately in one of those tubs they fill it in.
And also going back to poor customer service and speaking of tubs, the girls need to be more clear with their customers on whats the difference between a 3 or 6 dollar? Like WTF does that even mean… They assuming everyone is going to know they mean to say those plastic cup containers you typically get your wonton soups in at Chinese restaurants. Not everyone that walks in is going to know what you mean or how you typically server your food unless you educate your customers and don’t ever assume they all going to know how you serve your food and how are they priced when you don’t even post price over the counter… only on the menu which no one ever uses unless their sitting down for a table. Would also help clear up any guessing or customer confusions and arguing back and forth on prices if they’s just post up what their fixed plates and tubs cost etc. Mind you this is all take out food and you order from already prepared food you get in line for… Again, thats just lack of training, lack of professionalism and education in good restaurant etiquette and service which should be number one priority with any business if they plan to survive… cause sometimes even good food isn’t enough to make a person want to come back… not if their going to be treated like their business doesn’t matter to you! People like to get what their paying for since it isn’t free, and as fast as your will take their money too. Its the least you can do to to at least say thank you for coming to my very crappy place if you cant say it, at least show it!

I love this place! The food is delicious and the ladies behind the counter are always nice and smiling. I’ve tried the oxtails, baked chicken, pasta with red sauce, pasta with garlic, beef stew, beef and chicken empanadas, Moro, rice and black and red beans, and Maduros. I’ve loved it all. The pasta with garlic is amazing with the baked chicken. The stew and oxtails are off the bone melt in your mouth deliciousness. The Maduros are ripe, sweet, crispy, and yummy. Every Time I go there I’m greeted with a smile, and leave with a lot more food than expected, paying a lot less than I thought, with a smile on my face.

The Latin American presence has always been noticeable in Queens, but in Astoria the variety is picking up. The Colombian contingent that continues to rule Jackson Heights /​Corona as well as its lesser densely populated Ecuadorian, Cuban, and Dominican counterparts have made Astoria another hood where it’s suddenly available. Exquisito is among the latter, dubbing itself as a neighborhood takeout spot and has recently dived headfirst into the world of delivery.
One thing that should be praised immediately are the prices. Their lunch specials for instance feature a nice glob of rice/​beans/​protein for somewhere between $ 4 – 8. The heaping for a small is certainly enough for a person with the most gluttonous appetite. Their pasta dishes are also in the $ 4 range and an entire cheese pizza is $ 9.99. Budget friendly seekers, you’ve found the right spot.
But the honeymoon ends there unfortunately. The menu is a scatterboard of Dominican specialities, Italian, pizza, and meats. It’s already somewhat of a red flag to feature all of those things, but if they were all amazing then there would be no problem. Sadly nothing I’ve tried has been worthy of much praise.
Pastas are shoddily put together, the pizza is bland and dry, and the pork chops /​steaks are also dry. I had a decent mofongo here in chicharron con queso fashion, but that’s the sole highlight. I am not terribly fond of their pernil or the carne guisada, and the empanadas were too doughy for my preferences.
I’m all for Latin joints doing well, but it’s just so hard to justify subpar food *with* ridiculously long delivery. I’ve done better when going in and ordering straight from the counter, but the food fail even makes that a chore in itself. Not a big fan of the service either, but that’s not a priority in establishments like this.
2 stars for now, fingers crossed they step it up in time.

Consistently I have ordered here for lunch. My coworkers only order here because of me. And I just noticed after my last order that this is place is the restaurant across the street from my home that I never go inside.
When I order I always get the beef stew. Usually I get a small but a full container of white rice with about 5 pieces of beef just doesn’t cut it for me. So i try a large but a bigger container full of white rice with about 6 or 7 pieces of meat was not good either. I can get white rice anywhere.
On this day I decided to order a small with $$ 2 extra beef stew. That should eliminate the too much rice not enough meat problem. An hour and 20 minutes later I get my delivery. She accidentally sends me a large with the 7 pieces of meat and a whole container of rice. When I call to inquire about my extra meat she admits they didn’t give me what I asked for. Her remedy was to send me the rest of the meat in 4 hours or for me to wait until the next day. Not seeing how that helps with my lunch break now. She expresses to me that she is the owner and I order all the time and should let this one go. Um, what kind of backwards customer service is this?
I insisted that since it was the store’s mistake they should send my food. She insists that a small comes with 3 pieces of meat (I would not pay for 3 little pieces of meat) and that a large is basically the same as just paying for extra meat (after already admitting to having to send me more food)
After 15 mins of talking to this lady on the phone and a whole bunch of «oh my god“s and «really“s (from HER) later she concludes with «I’m not sending my driver back so you can wait the 4 hours, call us tomorrow, or come get the stuff yourself».
The food isn’t even that great to have such bad service from the owner. (I only ordered so often because they have beef stew everyday and other places only have it on a certain day of the week.)The one star is for having beef stew everyday otherwise no stars would be given.