El Nuevo Portal

Honest to God bang on with my mom’s cooking. This is real Dominican food as it gets. I am very happy that I found a Dominican spot around my workplace. Their portions are on par with like if you were being served at home. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ would return again.

This is a type of restaurant that’s the litmus test if you are a real New Yorker. This is legit Latino and especially Dominican food. Why the yuppies don’t really come here is that it’s not the coolest to them or has some new type of drink or their type of décor or hasn’t been highlighted in time out New York. This type of restaurant is common in many Latino areas. Cheap, good, filling food, unpretentious. It’s my go to for tostones and chuleta frita.

Really really good Dominican food. They make good chickens and beef stew! I order delivery from here most of the time but I finally decide to eat at the restaurant. It’s not a big place it’s pretty small but you can smell the good food down the blockkkk! I always either order the beef stew or oxtail with rice and beans and my BF ordered the half chicken with rice and beans. We also ordered a side of avocado salad! It was reallllllllly good and the people there were really nice! Officially love this place and this is my to go Spanish restaurant in Brooklyn! Must come and try out their stews!

The only reason why it gets one star was because of the service. I order take out the chicharon de pollo was good, the pernil was half cooked. With a lot of red spotting. They gave me the WRONG RICE. I called them 2 times to make sure they got my order right and they still got it wrong, I called and told them «hey can I get the rice I asked for, I haven’t touched this rice «Instead of them being curdiest and saying ok. The lady screamed at me over the phone and spoke to me very inappropriately. I immediately hung up the phone. The food is ok but these people have no class and need to be trained for customer service. Would only recommend this place if the had better and well trained staff to not treat paying customers like that.

My favorite Dominican spot in the neighborhood — breakfast lunch or dinner. And to top it off you really can’t beat their prices. I have never had a bad meal from here and delivery time is very reasonable.

Been here three times. We always eat in and order the same thing– pork chop and Cuban sandwich. Delicious! The portions are massive and it’s really cheap. Don’t each too much of the paninid butter bread they start you with, save your appetite for the real meal.

I’ll never eat from here again. I ordered takeout about 4PM… not too late so food should of still been fresh. I ordered pepper steak, yellow rice with beans and sweet fried plantains. The best thing was sweet fried plantains. The rice was well just rice. The beans didn’t have any taste very bland. The worst of the worst from any Spanish restaurant I had ate at was the pepper steak. It was very under cooked, nothing but tough gristle, it was so unbearable it wasn’t edible just so I didn’t waste my money I made my own chicken to go with the plain yellow rice and bland beans. NEVER again. I mean never again. If you plan on going or ordering from here don’t. There another Spanish restaurant a block or 2 – 3 blocks down. They are about 3 bucks extra to your order but at least your getting good quality food. That’s what I get for going the cheap route.

Worst food I have ever had.
Do yourself a favor and eat somewhere else.
Ordered a Cuban sandwich from this restaurant, received it with MAYO. Since when does any Cuban sandwich have Mayo on it instead of mustard?
Called them to complain & the girl tells us that due to the neighborhood the «white people» prefer it that way!

Some of the Best Foods are from the lil joints that’ve been around *Forever*!
Generous portions!
MouthGasmic Flavors and Many selections to tantalize!
NOTE: This is NOT for people on a Diet!
The Vegetarian selection is Minimal!
Sometimes the staff is a lil snippy; Especially when they’re Busy… handling newbies, or Rude people!
For Omnivores… It’s a Bountiful Cornucopia!
Some of my favorites include:
Breakfast Mangu with fried queso blanco (granted-​some times they Dont fry the cheese) and onions! Aaagh! Just thinkin about it has my mouth watering! Lol
AND, if you can manage to eat the whole order; you’ll likely be sated til dinner! =D
Carne Guisada aka Beef Stew — the sauce oooh the sauce! Carrots, potato, the sauce! Tender chunks of beef! The sauce!
Pollo Al Horno aka Baked Chicken — the meat nearly falls off the bone! The aroma, the slightly crisp skin… Oooh! (You need to place in a toaster/​real oven to get it crisp again if you order*Take Out*…which is better than delivery for This dish)
All Entrees come with choice of Rice n Beans (YES!) OR Plaintains n Salad OR Fries n Salad
Shrimp with Garlic SAUCE… The scent wafting into your olfactories will intoxicate you! The shrimp has a slight *snap* texture and the delicious sauce just glides down to your tummy, as it drips down your fingers… Oh…well…I eat them with my fingers…
I almost ALWAYS Take Out; cos I don’t want any *strangers* to see me Licking the plates…

This place is great l. Nice people and really good value. Had grilled pork chips which come w 2 sides and Cuban sandwich. Both were top notch. Will def be back.

Prices are unbeatable, and the portions are unreal… We bought an arroz con pollo platter for around $ 8 I believe, and it lasted 2 people two meals … crazy! Granted, we were eating other things on the side, but still. We also ordered the grilled cheese. Unexpectedly was on sub bread, and just had melted cheese in the middle, but was strangely so good and addictive. Wish I had some of that right now.

My favorite Spanish restaurant under $ 20 if you order the lunch special all together in one plate for $ 8 if you order separate it’s $ 1 extra yummy”

Great food, service without a smile! We were in a rush, but wanted something light. Ordered up a Cuban and a plate of rice and chicken. Cuban sandwich was awesome, tons of shredded pork. Rice and Chicken had a great line flavor, really enjoyed it. Food & atmosphere would make this an easy 4+ star, but our server copped ‘tude from the get go. Not really sure why, she had it from my first ‘hello’, to when we left. She was smiles to other patrons tho, so it came off very intentional.

Ordered lunch from here. Got the Chimichurri sandwich which really didnt taste much like Chimichurri at all. Just tasted like a regular steak sandwich. Not terrible but not what I expected. Meat was tasty but the sandwich had too much mayo and mixing with the tomatoes it got pretty sloppy. Bread was nice and crisp on the exterior though. Go a side of Yellow Plantains and they were pretty good. Flan was pretty tasteless, my coworker said it tasted like the cup and yes a piece of Flan in a paper coffee cup is a rather odd sight.
Overall took a bit for delivery but being in Red Hook everything takes long, I would give them another shot when the Latin craving hits again.

This place isn’t bad at all. They usually take forever with a delivery but today they were pretty quick. I like them becuase its super cheap good spanish food. I got the fried eggs with potatoes for breakfast and I also ordered a side of grilled chicken. I need my protein. The coffee is always super strong-​AMEN. The food is a little greesy so you need to make sure you tell them to be light on everything like the butter and olive oil because if not you can feel the heart attack with each bit.
Over all good cheap and tasty.

Still love them because their sandwiches are tasty and I prefer supporting small business over chains, but — if you order around prime lunch /​dinner time — expect to wait at least an hour for delivery although the quoted delivery time is 30 – 45 minutes.

Grilled pork chops delivered to your door, served with a wedge of lemon and lime. I don’t quite know what they use for seasoning but they were tender, juicy, and tasty as hell. At one point I found myself gnawing at the meat closest to the bone like a rabbid dog. I’m already thinking about when to order them again.

The dominican breakfast of mangu, fried eggs, cheese and salami is one of the best I’ve ever had! This breakfast can be hard to find in this part of brooklyn. Asked for an extra egg and extra cheese for $ 9 total. So worth it!
They also have a good variety of food for lunchtime. They have delicious beef empanadas that are $ 1.50. Fresh squeezed orange juice. Soups are yummy too.
All the waitresses here are dolls.

Okay, so I have to be really specific here with my rating. This was easily a 4.5 experience, but until Unilocal gets with the halfsies program, I’ll keep the 4 star rating up…
So needing a much needed nerd day to watch 2 nerdy movies back to back (Catching Fire and Thor 2) Ingrid S. and I needed to first get some breakfast fuel. We looked for boozy brunches but places in Brooklyn weren’t catering to us on a week day so we had to be creative in order to achieve our lush needs.
In a sea of hip bars and cozy dining establishments all along Smith and Bergen streets I spotted this no-​frills Latin food place and my lil Hispanic heart began to flutter. I knew this could be the start of a yummy, inexpensive breakfast with at the very least a cold beer or 12.
Upon us seating ourselves our waitress brought us a menu. Lots of yummy Puerto Rican/​Dominican dishes on this menu but we opted for more traditional breakfast fare.
Then out of nowhere (okay, it came from our waitress) a complimentary (yeah, FREE!!) basket appeared with warm, buttery bread. We gobbled up that bread as if we had never had buttered bread before. But in all seriousness — that was some bangin’ ass bread, possibly homemade. Mmmmm… buttered bread.
I ordered a sausage, egg and American cheese sandwich, they don’t have conventional rolls so my options were regular bread, I think an English muffin and Italian bread — I went with the last option, I mean… dah.
My sandwich came pressed as if by a Pannini presser — YESSSSS. Also they did that thing where they made the eggs with the cheese in the center so that it melted and oozes out with each bite. I kind of hate when people make an egg and cheese sandwich with jut plopping the cheese on top of a cooked egg and the heat doesn’t melt the cheese — I mean DAMN, this isn’t fillet minion, thankfully El Nuevo Portal got it right. Also, my sausage was delicious and not burnt… huzzah.
Ingrid ordered a Western Omelette which came with green bell peppers and ham. Her eggs were slightly over-​cooked and I personally think it would have been fantastic with some mozzarella cheese, but sometimes dairy products don’t agree with her sooooooooooo she was content being cheese-​less.
Her meal also came with fries which I happily assisted with, I mean — I was just looking out for her calorie intake and decided I would take one from the team. What kind of friend let’s her friend inhale all the delicious carby, starchy, potatoey calories by themself? Let’s just say it wasn’t much of a sacrifice as much as it was a labor of (yummy, fried) love. The fries were good. Actual potatoes in there and they came out fresh from the oven. Om nom nom nom!
I also developed a special relationship with the Jamaican Parrot Hot Sauce that they had on the table. My attachment to hot sauces is still very, VERY new and my taste buds are still no0blets in the wide world of spicy things. This hot sauce was spicy and I didn’t think I could handle it, but then I drowned the inside of my sandwich in it and mixed a healthy amount into my ketchup and I was set.
As far as our quest for beer went we both ordered Presidentes only to be informed about 10 minutes after placing our orders that they were fresh out. We each ended up getting Coronas instead. Bottles were plopped in our midst and large wine goblets followed alongside a generous bowl of limes for our pursual. CORONAS IN LARGE WINE GOBLETS? YES PLEASE. We were the classiest broads in all of Brooklyn-​land.
Need a cheap, tasty, no frills breakfast in this neighborhood? Want it to come with beer in a large wine goblet? Then this is your place :).
At the end of our meal we each ordered an empanada (yellow cheese and white cheese) to go as we went off to our nerd movie jaunt. They were decent, probably better had I eaten them warm but instead we noshed on them enthusiastically about 2 hours after getting them. They were still tasty and at only $ 1.50 each, pretty comparable with some of Queen’s finest empanada establishments.
I’d totally be up to coming back here to try some of the actual Latin food which is their focal point. Plus beer in wine goblets… MAY BEER IN WINE GOBLETS BE FOREVER IN YOUR FAVOR!!! :)

WOO my 100^th post.
This restaurant was delicious! First off, I would have to say that the staff were very hard-​working. Although there were more customers than the staff could seem to handle during the lunch rush, they still pulled it off with a smile. Kudos to you, El Nuevo. Because of that, there were not enough free tables that were clean, but our waitress apologized before we even had any thought of complaining.
I looked at the place and I wasn’t expecting fancy décor, but expected family-​oriented atmosphere and completely received that vibe. The portions were huge and hot off the fire.
The bread that the waitress gave us was fresh out of the oven it seemed, with lots of butter flavor. More importantly, it was not soggy, but crisp to the bite. Yummy!
My Rice with Chicken arrived and was completely overwhelmed by the mountain I had on my plate. My first thought, «Oh I cannot finish this», and it was a true statement… The chicken was tender and I loved the onions. I realized that it was listed on the menu as «Rice with Chicken» insinuating that there was definitely going to be more rice than chicken. However, I was still not disappointed! Hot and FRESH.
I enjoyed the breaded beef steak! It was a nice new texture to explore on sandwiches. At the end of our meal, I took a portion of the rice and a small bite of the sandwich, home, so I could eat it the next day. Even still, the flavor kept and was equally nice to my taste buds.
When my boyfriend and I were leaving, I was peering over to our neighbor’s meal at the next table. Dang, he ordered some kind of stew. It smelled so good and we could tell that he was a regular there. Next time, we shall try that!
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