El Sabroso

Great authentic Puerto Rican food at a reasonable price. Highly recommended the alcapurias and mofongo however, you won’t go wrong here.

heaven on earth good lawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwd the food here is so good!

Want traditional Puerto Rican food. This is the place to go. Flavors that are authentic to Puerto Rican cuisine. The escabeche con guineo was amazing. A dish I had long ago not eaten. It brought memories of my mom whom was the best cook ever. Sabroso came very very close to her cooking. Everthing I ordered was what I expected and even more. The restaurant was clean and nicely decorated, inviting. I highly recommend Sabroso.

Quick place to go to get take out food. It’s great, yum! I love the avocado and tomato salad, great side dish!

I have been here twice! the second time I tried it didn’t even get my food after waiting for 45mins. I just got up and left! how hard is it to serve rice and beans and a sandwich? Customer service is null! food is tasteless and over priced!

This is my favorite spanish food place ever. The service is so shitty though! They never have my food ready when I call for pickup everrrrrr! Dining in is another crazy wait most of the time– service is too lax. Still my favorite place though… Sigh.

Great food. Especially love the ropa vieja!

Food is good but the service SUCKS! I can’t sit there and watch the «server» pass me by 20 times and never came to take the order. Got up and walked about after 20 minutes of being ignored. just because your Tia is good as tending to you at her house doesn’t mean she can handle being a waitress.

I tried this from a store that was ordering their lunch. I decided to order with them. Our order took two hours to arrive at store. They assured me it was going to be worth my wait. I proceed to continue working while I waited .
It finally arrived and the order was short a serving. My friend was kind enough to give me her food. I had ordered the same plate which was pernil with mofongo and accapirria.
It was amazing!!! I just had one bite and I couldn’t resist. The mofongo had chunks of crispy pork skin and tosino. It was sitting in a delicious garlic sauce with Side of pico de gallo. Absolutely divine, just like I landed in Puerto Rico.
I called my friend next day drove 1hr to visit this great restaurant myself in jersey city.
I ordered the steak with onions with rice and beans.
It was delicious. Since I ate in the restaurant the portion was huge. Definitely taking left overs home. I also ordered more food to go. I can’t wait to try later.
Love the food highly recommend eating here for authentic Spanish food.

One of the best Spanish food restaurants in Jersey City, andy favorite restaurant to visit over the weekend. I recommend going for the ox tail with yellow rice and empanadas. My favorite restaurant to visit over the weekend.

Food is outstanding! Service not so much but once you take your first bite you forget that you’ve waited a little longer than normal. The price is reasonable and the portions are just right. Definitely recommended if you’re ever on Central Ave.

They do not deliver on Saturday! SERIOUSLY?! The food is ok, a couple of times they have forgotten to put the sauce with the tacos, I paid extra a few times for sauce for my platanoes and guess what? Even though, I paid extra, they sent me my order with no sauce at all!

I have been coming to this family restaurant since they were just a small tiny store on Lincoln. When I say tiny, I mean corner tight. Five customers and it was crowded in there. But their food is what keeps us coming back for more. Best Puerto Rican food in the area
My favorite dish? fried chuletas with white rice and coleslaw salad!

Came here for lunch with a big group of coworkers. I read some Unilocal reviews before going so I was pretty excited based on what I read. The prices are definitely reasonable especially for the amount of food served. However… What I ordered wasn’t that great. Based on reviews, I tried the alcapurrias which was just okay. A little burnt on the outside. I also had a small order of oxtail and rice. I’ve had much better. The server was very nice and very attentive of our big group. Id come back to try something different before writing it off.

Best puerto rican food in jersey city heights, i always get the large portion of pernil, arroz con gandules and a side of potatoe salad… the pork is well cooked, i love the peice of crispy skin… i could probably go for seconds even with there generous portion #fatboyproblems

My favorite restaurant of all time. On a bad day, the food is merely really good. Otherwise, it is freaking spectacular, particularly the empanadas. My one regret about my marriage is that I did not hire El Sabroso in time to have them cater the reception.
Sometimes the service is indifferent, but honestly, who cares when the food is this good? Cheap, too… you can get a nice big plate of meat, rice, and beans, plus an empanada, for under $ 10…a little more if you want to order the large, but that’s really not necessary. The small gives you a lot of food.
El Sabroso. The name is totally accurate.

I have been coming to this place since they were the little restaurant with just a kitchen!!!
Their pernil is out of this world but i mostly go there for their delicious alcapurrias!!!
Their place now has a nice atmosphere. Food is preprepared so no wait time.
I would definitely recommend them for lunch and dinner!

buenisima comida pero tiene un pesimo servicio con los clientes. deveria ser mas amables con los clientes, son muy rudos y poco profesional.

So I have a rule in Jersey City. Anytime a restaurant has a bunch of glowing Unilocal reviews, serves «ethnic» food (ie, NOT generic American fare… Hoboken, I’m looking at YOU!), and has one $, it’s bound to be good. I can think of countless examples. And this formula has never steered me astray. It’s like this: if it’s a local ethnic place that has not succumb to gentrification enough to jack up the prices to $$ or $$$, it’s got to appeal to the local crowd. So it’s tasty and authentic. If it has a bunch of reviews on Unilocal,that adds to its appeal and makes me wonder why all those other Unilocalers have beat me to it!!! So I slip my size 5 shoes on and get moving. :)
Having scoured downtown JC from top to bottom (reviewing all the while!), Bald One decided that it’s time to get busy nosing around other neighborhoods in our diverse city. We decided a Latin American tour of the Heights was in order. El Sabroso was top of our list, having met the aforementioned criteria.
Let’s keep it simple: Puerto Rican food. 5 stars. One $. Go.
Let’s drill down: we ordered 1 chicken empanada, 1 alcapurria (fried mashed plantain/​banana appetizer), 1 «small» chicken stew that came with a huge side of arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas), and 1 20 oz diet Coke. Price? Less than $ 10 for the TWO of us.
And the food was amazing. Empanada and alcapurria melted in our mouths. I was new to the alcapurria and it was savory, sweet, and had the best texture. Mmmm!!! The chicken stew was AMAZING. It featured bone-​in chicken breast cooked til tender with an amazing sauce that was velvety over the yellow rice and pigeon peas. The potatoes took on the flavor of the sauce and tasted slightly tangy and earthy. I could have eaten this for days!!! And beware of the descriptors — this «small» stew was definitely enough to share for 2 people, especially if you order apps (which you most certainly should.)
The establishment was spacious, clean, and baby friendly. And if I could have given a 6^th star for service, I would. They were patient as we navigated the menu with zero Spanish speaking skills. And the busboy chatted us up about our daughter (and like any proud new papa, showed us pics of his chubby 9 month old). Just our first time there, and we already felt like we’d been going for years. I walked away with warm fuzzies and a full belly. And Baby D slept the whole time… paradise less than a mile from home!

El Sabroso used to be a hole in the wall that moved to this location… and everyone followed them. This is one of the places you can get a true Puerto Rican alcapurria. I’ve also had the mofongo with shrimp that was pretty good too. They have different specials daily and it’s cheap.
I like to go here to have the traditional Puerto Rican meals I don’t want to put the time in to making myself at home and it’s always good. So I haven’t had the more basic meals like the ribs or ropa veija that I can get anywhere so my review is geared to the PR looking for traditional foods your grandmother made for you back home.
It’s true the service is poor when it get busy but this is a mom and pop operation. Everything is fresh and homemade.

We’ve been here a number of times. I first came here because I thought it was run by the same people as a hole in the wall in Manhattan with the same name (I don’t think it’s run by the same people).
The place is pretty large — I think they could actually squeeze more tables in there. One time we went, they were really busy and had to wait for a little bit.
Now onto the food… I guess the food is Puerto Rican? I don’t really know a lot about Latin food beyond Mexican and Cuban. It was a nice change of pace to have some something different.
Our first time, we didn’t know what to get, so the waitress spent a good amount of time with us, answering all of our stupid questions. We’ve ordered the mofongo, pernil, empanadas… they’re all really good.
We love coming up here from Hoboken and look forward to many more trips here.