Elsa La Reina del Chicharron

So far, the best Dominican Cuisine. As I said many times, Im picky with freshness of food. This is the Only Dominican spot I love to eat at. Other places cooking seem to no use fresh food or cook with love. As a Dominican, I grow up with home cooked meals. This place used to be in NJ area only. I am so glad it is in NJ as well. My best advice is to get Buttered mashed plantain with fried white cheese and with longaniza (thin fried flavorful sausage) also fried eggs in the morning. In the afternoon, get the chicharrón (Fried Cubed pork layered with skin, fat and meat) with classic white rice and red beans. Duh! That’s why they call her, La Reina de Chicharrón!!!

I’ve been here a total of 4 times. New to the area and excited to find local Dominican food! First couple times food was good, chicken a little bland/​dry but rice and beans, great. They also have great natural lemonade. I enjoyed their Dominican breakfast as well. The last two times I’ve been there, HOWEVER, things have taken a turn. 3^rd visit the rice was under cooked, crackling in my mouth as I ate it, this 4^th time (tonight) I ordered chicken soup which is SPOILED. Smells foul, pink chicken and grease floating strangely on the top, too much separation. I could tell it had been reheated too many times. Its my last time ordering takeout from Elsa, or I might catch a stomach virus.

I’m Very disappointed of the restaurant, service was slow and horrible! We waited more than 20 Minutes for water and waited an hour for food. The Food was cold, the maduros was overly fried and the roasted chicken was dry and tiny. Gave us the wrong order and they forgot to put in our TO GO orders. The charged 18% gratuity automatically and it was lunch time. The Price for lunch was too expensive for the amount of food given. They gave a lot Maduro and very little meat.

Service is horrible ! Waited an hour and half for the food to come, then for them to say they ran out of pork. Only half our table (10) was accommodated because mostly everyone ordered pork. The music was terrible. It was rap music which I like but not when you’re eating with family. If I wanted to do that I would of posted up in parking lot and blasting rap music from my car and ate by the car. I will never come back here. The mofongo de chicharron was really good. Sancocho was horrible. I will never come back.
Another table of 10 walked out because of how horrible the service was.

If you go here and order anything besides the chicharron you’re just doing it wrong. Chicharron is the best I have ever had in the states. Sides are usually great. Can’t speak for any of the other entrees, as I’ve never bothered.
Staff could use some polishing. As a caucasian who is not completely fluent in Spanish I have been treated poorly by staff on several occasions. Not just rudeness, but workers letting their friends come in and cut the line.
As others have said, do not dine in, do not get delivery, brush up on your Spanish and get the chicharron with rice, beans, avocado, yucca & some pickled onions. Squirt some fresh lime and hot sauce on top and it’s worth what you just put up with to get your food. If you follow those guidelines you’ll soon be addicted and after your 5^th visit or so the staff will start to warm up to you.

Terrible service did not have things on the menu ran out the food that we wanted to ordered except for the soda that was good. Rice tasted as is it was reheated and the soup was oily and the mofongo was dry needless to say won’t be going back

If I could give 3.5 stars, I would. I’ve never had the misfortune of dealing with their service for an actual sit down meal. I came to the conclusion that I’d save myself the arguing and being ignored, after calling for delivery the first time.
While the wait for delivery is almost unreal (an hour and a half is crazy), the food arrived and tasted scrumptious. Its pricey. But for the amount of food we get (delivery), there’s always a dexently sized lunch of left overs for my children and I. I save a bit by making the rice myself (their rice is definitely a bit too salty for my family’s taste) and making sure that all sides accents (avocado, salad, tostones) are stuff I can make at home.
Essentially we just order the meats (chicken, chops and chicharron) and beans now. With less muss and fuss my food arrives within 30 minutes.
Now this is only for emergency dinner days that I order the bare necessities from them. But I find that if I place a full order with them, I get more headache than needed

Have dined at Elsa’s quite a few times during the past 6 years or so and it has never been a greAt experience. The food is just OK, service is never great either.
Decided to try yet again a few weeks ago after some time and it was awful! We were overcharged due to lack of experience and menu knowledge of the female server, which she admitted to but did nothing about to correct or credit us. We ordered chicharron de pollo that was super dry, hard and overcooked. We also had a fresh pineapple juice or shake that was not very good AND we ordered chicharron de pescado which was well done but really tasteless (surprisingly because their food is mostly too seasoned as the chicken was). Needless to say, we will NOT be returning after the mistakes made by the server (there were quite a few) and by the food that was not good.
Try Lulas in Bergenfield. MUCH BETTER FOOD, SERVICE AND PRICES! i really do not like to knock places down like this but c’mon get your act together! Lulas is soooo much better in Bergenfield!

Went here for the first time ordered the grilled chicken lunch special with yellow rice and black beans, my boyfriend ordered the fried chicken with same yellow rice and chicken soup the food was good not amazing but pretty decent I’ll definitely come back. It’s byob

This place has nasty food. I would give it zero stars because I ordered spaghetti and meatballs and got burnt nastiness on my plate. I ordered it to go to so I wasted 10 bucks for nothing

Food is good but make sure to order an hour ahead of picking up. The wait time is always ridiculous. I’ve been standing here for 15′ minutes waiting for an order I placed over 20 mins ago over the phone.

The food here is ok. Hackensack has some better options in terms of authentic Latin food that isnt going to give you high blood pressure. They really pack on the salt here. Everything is super salty. I enjoy salt so its really hard to discourage me with a salty dish. But I must admit that my mouth is always sore from the salt everytime I eat here. This is my friend’s and I default latin place to eat if we are in the area and are feeling to lazy/​tired/​hungry to drive to Hackensack.

I ordered the stew chicken on the lunch special menu for $ 7. I got $ 6 worth of rice and a chicken leg cut in half. FOH

Place is ok. Nothing really to brag about. Food was salty reminds me of a typical caridad that you would find in Nyc

I went here after work and got the monfongo a la reina. The owner was the one to take my order she was super nice and told them to make mine really good. I took my
Order to go and waited like 5 mins for it to be ready. It was great really fresh the chicharron wasn’t greasy like In other places I’ve had. I will definetely go back the food speaks for itself and I really want to try the shakes and get some mangu and breakfast ! :-)

Went here yesterday with one of my girlfriends, and by far the BEST mofongo in NJ!
We waited for a bit for the food which is why I’m giving it a 4, but otherwise, YUMMY
my friend had the mofongo de chicharron and I had the Mofongo de churrasco, both great options!

I’m reviewing this based on delivery only I have not eating in the restaurant itself.
Roasted chicken here is the bomb. Fall off the bone and for a half chicken with rice and your choice of side how can you beat that for $ 7.99. They offer a mini lunch option which is just a smaller portion with a can of soda for $ 4.99 from 11 AM-​6 PM.
Delivery time depends on when you order. Naturally peak hours will have a longer wait time but they are usually pretty quick.
A lot of the guys at my job love the oxtail stew they serve there. I’m not about that oxtail life so I stick with the chicken. Their chicharon is really good here, big fat meaty pieces of fried pork. Worth trying out!

Hands down, the best Chicharron you will ever have. I have tried Chicharron from numerous places in several different cities but nothing compares to the freshness and crunchiness of Elsa’s. My favorites are the Chicharron Mofongo ($ 12), the Fried Batata with Chicharron combo ($ 10) & the Chicharron de Pollo combo ($ 14).
This location is a sit down restaurant unlike many of the smaller take out locations that Elsa has in NYC. They even have karaōke on some nights.

I was hesitant to write this review because we eat here so many times but I feel this place took a downward turn.
We ordered a to go order of mofongo and porkchop with white rice and beans.
The porkchop was not even a whole chop. It was literally just the bone part of the chop, with maybe 3 pieces of gristly meat. Oh, and no beans in sight.
But why Elsa’s gets one review today is the mofongo which was inedible. The mofongo was obviously pre cooked and refried you could not stick a fork into it. I am not exaggerating when I say this was like sticking a fork into a brick. It reeked of old grease and even my stoner boyfriend (who defends them all the time) would not eat the shards of concrete that he managed to scrape off.
I also noticed their chicharrones have been a little on the stale/​crusty side the last few times I ordered them.
Elsa’s, I know you know that you’re the only Dominican spot in this area, but please stop taking advantage and serving old/​bad food.

The food is everything here. It is too good to be true, but its true. Arroz con pollo was delicious! So much flavor in the rice and the chicken was super soft. The mofongo with chicken was delicious also.
I would only do take out here because the service when you dine in is horrible. You have to hunt for the server.