Cafe Salamanca

This place never disappoints. I have been coming here for the past 20 years. They have the best paella. Superb service by the staff. Sangria is great and I would recommend this to anyone.

Service was ok but the food was horrible I ordered the paella with lobster and my husband the cat fish. the rice was weird the taste of an old seafood my husband and I got really sick we both were in bed for two days vomiting diarrhea fever from their food definitely not coming back here any more for sea food

Café Salamanca is a nice little restaurant that feels like it’s tucked away from the rest of the world. It’s perfect for a weekday evening with friends. Also, kind of because there were no other patrons there at 7PM on a Wednesday. Worry not, families trickled in some time thereafter. Here is a blow-​by-​blow of the food we ordered:
— Bread rolls. Yes, I know people comment that the complimentary bread was day old toasted hero rolls, but this isn’t Fig & Olive. They were fine.
— Pulpo a la gallega. The octopus was decent, they didn’t go overboard with the olive oil.
— Calamari. Again, decent. Could’ve been more crisp.
— Croquettes. I’d say decent, but after you got past the probability that they were pre-​frozen.
— Vegetable Paella. Pretty good! It takes about 25 minutes to prepare, so load up on the appetizers.
The service was excellent — they really take care of you here.

Came into the restaurant expecting more of what the higher reviewers were stating. To my dismay, I was completely disappointed. For a restaurant that appears to look fancy, the food was nothing but poor.
* Complimentary bread was day old toasted hero rolls.
* Salad was plain iceburg lettuce with a slice of tomato. Note: the house dressing that came with it was a combination of ketchup and mayo.
* Paella was mediocre at best
Save your stomach and your money from a wasted night. The only saving grace was the service, which I am providing the 2 stars for this place. I would not recommend anyone.

Great staff and service. Waiters are very friendly and knowledgeable. Reasons for 2 star is the food. They are on the list of «best paella in NYC». They were mediocre at best. I have had way better paella from other places. As salad they served iceberg lettuce with a slice of tomato. Side vegetables were straight out of Goya cans. For a somewhat fancy place, charging fancy price one would expect some fresh food. Never coming back or recommending anyone.

The food here is usually delicious, anything in green or garlic sauce is awesome. They start you off with the usual fare of cold mussels in a sweet garlicky salsa and the iceberg lettuce with tomato salad, for free. The sides that usually come with the meal weren’t that good. Arroz was on the under done, drier side. The veggies were the standard frozen or canned variety. The homemade chips were far too greasy and oily. With that said though, the main dishes were still very good. I’ve come here for the past 15 years and their seafood in the secret green or garlic sauce is still worth coming back for.

This was a quiet nice restaurant with good food and the option of having a large party. We ordered the pitcher of sangria, which was awesome for about $ 20, the calamari, the veal salamanca, the filet mignon combo, the tres leche cake with one café con leche. All that came to about $ 70 with a
coupon. The calamari were large, crispy and the sauce was chunky… just the way I like them. The veal was soft and well prepared and the filet mignon was also well prepared. The meal came with rice, salad, vegetables, and these interesting homemade potato chips. I am not a huge fan of tres leche but this one was probably the only I would eat. Also, the waiters were great and always refilling our drinks. Overall, great service and great food. Will probably come again.

I don’t understand some of these comments. I am a Spaniard I had one of the specials which included a soup, «caldo gagello» it tasted just like Mom’s. The staff was on top of their game quick with a mussel appetizer to die for (my daughter also dined with me and all we can keep saying was «it was like Spain». The paella Valencia was very good included the chicken as is the tradition. Also the lobster is very good and the price was awesome. I don’t understand what you are use to. But to me it took me back to the traditional food from Spain.

I am very surprised by the negative reviews posted on this page.
I went to the internet after my second visit to Café Salamanca out of curiosity.
My food experiences were pretty consistent as well as the service for the two times I dined here.
Foods experienced included, but not limited to fried calamari appetizer (very tender), paella with lobster, mariscada in green sauce, paella valenziana, flan caramelo.
All the food was pleasing to the palate and tasty. The caramel sauce with the flan had an over-​caramelized after taste, which I also found at many other Spanish restaurants serving this popular dessert.
Perhaps the persnickety reviewers had other issues on their shoulders that skewed their evaluations.

Met a friend here for lunch… looks tiny from the outside but once you walk in, it opens up into a larger dining room. We were the only customers in there for lunch.
Our waiter was very nice and attentive, took our drink order and proceeded to also bring glasses of water and an amuse bouche of cold mussels with a pico de gallo like topping. I don’t know how far in advanced they made the dish and had it sit in the fridge but it tasted way fishier than it should have so it was off putting…
Order the cod croquettes, which were decent… but needed more cod… nicely fried though. Ordered the Paella Valencia for 2. The seafood was cooked nicely, the chorizo also nice but the chicken was bland… no color on the skin or anything. Also the rice was cooked perfectly buy hate that they subbed tumeric for saffron threads.
This place is no where authentic and the price was stupid high for the location.
It was an experience but doubt I’ll be back.

I must say. I went to this place twice, first time it was kind of ok. the food was not great but the only spaniard place we knew, we had no choice. Second time made me never go back there again. We waited 15 minutes for a waiter to get us water another 20 minutes to get our order. My family was very aggravated we decided to walk out… Told the waiter forget our order and we left. We will never go back there again.

This is my favorite place for paella and sangaria. I went this last Friday and had a wonderful dinner.
The restaurant creates an old style spanish inn atmosphere. It is very quant and cozy. I think the restaurant should get rid of the fake flowers hanging around the ceiling window as well as the TV in the dining area. The TV was not on when I dinned there.
The meal started with a complimentary mussels with cerviche sauce. It wasa perfect start. I skipped the appetizers since my main dish was Paella Valencia, and the portion is alway large. This is a great paella that is filled with shrimp, claims, mussels, chicken, chorizo and rice. I highly recommend it. tSince he portion is very large, make sure you have a big appetite the night you go. With our meal, we had a great sangaria. They provide a small pitcher of sangaria if you order from the specials menu. You will want more so I say skip the small pitcher and order the large one.
The Waitering staff is excellent. They are very friendly and responsive. If you order Crêpe Suzette, the Waitering staff will make it tableside.

Just AWFUL. What they call «paella» consists exclusively of unidentified frozen fish parts and God knows what else — worse than my mother’s gefilte fish. The University of Salamanca Dept. of Mortuary Science should research this place. Stay away at all cost!

I used to come here about 10 – 15 years ago and decided to come have dinner today. I’m glad I did. It really is one of the better authentic Spanish restaurant’s in Queens and NYC. Aside from the various classic Spanish dishes on the menu, they have a great prefix dinner option for $ 59.95 for two which includes a pitcher of sangria. Something you shouldn’t pass up on.

As a lover of paella and a resident of Jackson heights I’ve been wanting to try this place for years. I must say, the paella was a big disappointment. Extremely salty. The rice consistency tasted off as well. You can get far better paella at La Gloria a few blocks up on Northern or Urubamba on 37^th. My wife had the filet mignon for $ 30 and found the taste fishy. The flan tasted like the caramel was burnt. The ambiance feels old and the muzak playing didnt help. With so many great latin restaurants in the hood, i don’t see the need to return.

Man, I really wanted to like this place. It’s a block from my house and my partner is Spanish, so we went there for a special celebration. We dropped $ 80 and the food was NOT good. We both took one bite of our dishes (garlic shrimp and paella) and reached for the salt and pepper. The shrimp’s sauce was just awful, clams were so chewy, they wouldn’t even go down. The chicken soup appetizer was straight up campbell’s. And they played a pervuvian pan flute CD the whole time that had «My Heart Will Go On» and other gems of institutional music torture.
On the plus side, the wait staff was super-​nice, the Caldo Gallego was good, and the little mussels appetizer was tasty.
For the same money, you can eat at La Nacional on 14^th street and have your socks knocked off.

My family and I are regulars here at Café Salamanca. This place seems to have been around forever even since I was in elementary school. What amazes me is that the staff has barely changed and the restaurant has been well kept. The food’s consistency hasn’t changed either!
My favorite thing about this restaurant is the mussel appetizers and mixed bread basket they give you in the beginning. We normally get the paella which is a decent portion for 2 as well their steak.
Its great place for a big group gathering since they have large tables as well as romantic dining.

We went there with another couple on Saturday. It was a very pleasant place to spend time with friends. We ended up talking over dinner and sangria for almost 5 hrs. and never were we rushed or received dirty look for occupying the table.
There was a singer/​guitar player who walked table to table performing Spanish songs. This added to a pleasant atmosphere in the dining room. However, since the music was not amplified, it did not preclude us from continuing our conversation while he was performing at other tables. The crowd was very mixed. Anything from jeans & t-​shirt to jacket & tie. The waiters were polite, helpful & spoke good English.
The food was decent, but I would not recommend their gazpacho. All the main courses were tasty. My wife and I ordered the 2-​person prix fixe dinner for $ 60 (including a pitcher of sangria) and our friends ordered a la carte. All in all we spent $ 160 for 4 people for dinner, including 2 pitchers of sangria.

3.5 Stars
My other half and I was craving for some good Paella but didn’t want to head to the city. A friend of him originally from Spain highly recommended this place.
Looks very small from the outside, but inside is pretty spacious, friendly staff with a romantic feeling décor. Mostly local residents who live around the neighborhood goes there. Wasn’t a big fan of the Synthetic Roses in every table. Serenade music so it’s more of a romantic place to go if you’re on a date.
The waiter*** immediately attended us and brought us glasses of water and Distributed a plate of 3 mussles filled in with Ceviche flavor for every person. Then gave us couple of minutes to decide what to have.
I ordered the Paella Valenciana ($ 16.95). And he warned us that it will take about 30 minutes to cook this special dish. So before hand, we ordered Stuffed mushrooms for appetizer ($ 7.00 ??*). And he ordered the same one with the Lobster combination ($ 19.95).
Didn’t order the Sangria this time since it was on a Sunday night and didn’t want to drink. Maybe will try that next time.
Stuffed mushrooms came — 9 pieces of Hot mushrooms, it was not great since it was just breaded «stuffing» on top of the mushrooms and it wasn’t marinated. So for me, that tasted it just O.K.
Minutes later the waiter pushed a cart with 2 Metal pots and plates delivered to the table. Poured the rice and the seafood around the plate and served us the first portion**… I only had 2 rounds and I was full!
Results = The Food is contains high temperature, be aware of burning your Tongue. The Mussles, shrimps, were not bad, Chorizos were not fully cooked (was a bit chewy), Chicken was pretty good. Rice was a bit hard and too much sauce, also a tad salty instead of more «flavor» in it.
At the end we skipped the Dessert, too much Food…
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* = Can’t keep up with prices nowadays, maybe I should write it down next time.
** = The portions looked average, but multiply by 3 that means it’s a lot of FOOD!
*** = Waiters are Actual Spaniards, they have the Castellano ACCENT!

To quote Bettie Davis (do any of you know who she was) — what a dump.
We keep wanting this place to be good — this is the fourth time we have tried. In the past it has been OK. Tonight — Feb 14^th — after a change of plans; we decided to go out for dinner. All the usual places were full or had loud music which we were not in the mood for. So we decided to try Café Salamanca. It was only half full — we should have realized what that meant.
The host — greeted us at the door after a long pause. He remembered us from our previous visits (a good sign). He sat us at a two top and left. Bread arrived, complimentary pickled mussels too but that was it for the next 20 min. No water, no waiter asking for a drink order.
There were plenty of staff rushing around too — hard to know what they were all doing. One table that arrived just before we did, had their order taken and salad arrived. And at least two tables, seated after we were, had their orders taken.
So we got up put five dollars on the table for the bread and mussels and went home and cooked. No one tried to stop us not even the host.
We won’t be back and hope that the site is soon another restaurant.