El Gran Sabor

I love everything about this place. Great food, excellent service, inviting and clean environment, live music several nights per week. This is my go to in Elkins.
Favorite dish: surf and turf cachapa. I get it almost every visit.

great food. sub par service. but by far the best restaurant in elkins. don’t leave without getting the queso!

Great place with fantastic Chile Relleno!

We love this place. We have been eating here from day one since they were in another location. They have live music a few times a week. The food is excellent. You have to try the Cachapa for lunch or dinner. One of the best places to eat in Elkins.

Very good. Had the El Tigre chicken with rice and yucca. Food and ambience was great for lunch. Would come back for dinner.

Without a doubt the best dining experience my family’s had in a long time. The food is mouth wateringly flavorful, and not just one dish, but everything. We ordered the chicken cachapas, plantains, yuca, and the tostones. Delicious down to the very last bite, and then you order seconds. Also an awesome craft brew selection and fun vibe. Service was fast and friendly. This place is a must!

My favorite restaurant in Elkins, hands down. The staff is wonderful and the food is delicious. I can be seen here devouring nachos grande, squash soup, enchiladas and a strawberry daiquiri on a near-​daily basis. The coconut flan helped me finally understand why people like flan.
My partner is gluten and dairy free but still has plenty of menu options. There are a few less-​flavorful items on the menu, but in general the food is spot on, and has considerably more variety than most places in town. The lounge area can get a little loud – I prefer to sit up front, but that’s a matter of personal taste.

The menu was not specific to gluten sensitivities but the waiter was very helpful in determining the choices and then providing recommendations. My husband had the Cuban sandwich with fries that he said was very tasty, especially the different dipping sauces for the fries. The chicken with salsa, yuca, and corn was also very good. The food tasted like it was freshly prepared and not from a can or box.
Would we go there again… yes, we would.

I had the chicken cachapas and it was delicious. Must try if you’re in the area. With the lack of diversity in Elkins it’s nice to find South American food here. It’s a bit noisy inside so I got take out.
Note during spring/​summer they are closed between 2 – 4:30pm, Saturday lunch, and on Sundays and Mondays. I had to come here 4 – 5 times before I found a time they were open.

worked and stayed in Wilkins for a few months in 2014.
the food is great and the owner is the coolest dude, puts on live music almost every night.
I wasn’t a local at first, but Rob made me and my co-​workers feel right at home.
get the friend plantains!

Inviting atmosphere, generally attentive service (can be a bit slow when they’re swamped, but where’s that not the case?), affordable prices, live music, good beer selection, and some of the best food this side of Venezuela. Rural West Virginia is not blessed with a plethora of ethnic dining options, and so this is certainly a welcome change of pace from the standard bar– and diner-​fare, but this menu would hold up against most any restaurant in a bigger city. I still fantasize about the pork cachapa.

A very interesting, well done South American themed restaurant. The service is attentive, the food is prepared well and has some variety. The price is reasonable, and the décor, filling a lovely antique home, is relaxing and pleasant. I will return here, Deo volente, on my next trip to Elkins

Yikes! Right out of Deliverance, beginning with the kids standing on the front porch shooting at people with fake automatic rifles. Should have given up then, but tried to get a table. And was ignored. And ignored. When we stopped a waitress and asked to be seated, the waitress looked right at the empty tables in the main restaurant, shrugged, and said we would have to eat in the back. What’s in the back? The waitress shrugged again and wandered away. We headed to the back and found a drunk crowd and a loud football game. This wasn’t going to work with 2 tired kids, so we gave up. Maybe the food is fantastic, but are you brave enough to deal with the terrible atmosphere and rude service?

Amazing! The food is delectable, the atmosphere is quaint and the live music was superb. It was incredible hot in there, though. A lot of people were complaining and I was sweating, but the food is totally worth it. Don’t go on a hot day I guess, still worth 5 stars because it’s just that good.

Absolutely love this place.
We normally get the chicken cachapas, which are delicious. A sweet corn bread type shell with cheese and yummy seasoned shredded chicken. The meal comes with black beans, rice, and some sauces. All of it is delicious.
We usually order chips and salsa as an appetizer, and the fresh salsa is perfect.
Live music is very common here and this is a fun place in the evenings.

My wife and I ended up in Elkins as the sun was going down when we were getting tired of the road. We decided to spend the night and started to look for places to grab dinner. We had been to a smaller WV town the night before and options were limited to fast food so our expectations for Elkins were very low. We Unilocaled the top restaurants in town and came across El Gran Sabor and I’m glad we did. My wife and I both loved our food and the very affordable margaritas! The service was very friendly and helpful and they didn’t mind our shoes were covered in mud from hiking Dolly Sods Wilderness that day. If this place was in Chicago I would dine again and take guests there as well which I think is high praise. So if you ever find yourself in Elkins go to El Gran Sabor!

There haven’t been many times when a strong positive rating on Unilocal has led us astray, but this is definitely one of them. Perhaps we went on an «off night»?
I won’t go into the entire sordid affair, but the highlights included COLD nachos (the shredded cheese on top was cold to touch and the beans goop made the chips soggy and cold as well)… no napkins, plates or utensils brought for at least 15 minutes… the entrees were brought by someone talking on her cellphone the entire time… chicken fajitas which were overpriced considering they did not come with any of the usual items (no guac, sour cream, etc — just some chopped chicken which had already been mixed in with onions and peppers)… undercooked yucca… overcooked plantains (but cold — now that’s a trick)… and the waitress seemed completely unprepared to answer questions ranging from what drinks the bartender could make to any menu recommendations.
Let’s end this by saying if we hadn’t eaten in almost 24 hours we wouldn’t have stayed, and I recommend others not bother unless they too are so hungry even a table leg would taste good.

Was in Elkins WV (Where?) with my Motorcycle group. Someone local suggested a Venezuelan Restaurant, hidden away near downtown.
Venezuelan? In West Virginia? Oh, no… is it going to be a Del Taco?
Saturday night, we made a reservation for a large group, and went off to find it.
When we find it, it’s an old house, tucked off the main drag. Free on street parking out front. The patio has nice outdoor seating. From the outside, it looks too small to be a restaurant.
But walking inside, we discover the place is huge! And it has old creaky wood floors! They bring our group out back to the bar area, and seat us all together by ourselves. Awesome!
The waitress, who was a real doll (and is probably the owner’s daughter) took good care of us. The owner came out and explained the items on the menu, and we ordered up a storm.
Margarita was excellent, and frankly, dirt cheap. The food was WAY better than expected. I had the #4, pulled pork something or other. It was a corn cake with Pork and cheese, and It was delicious. Many of us shared our meals and appetizers. Everything was amazing, and my tab was $ 10. Seriously.
Elkins is fortunate to have someplace this good. In fact, it’s far too good for Elkins. Belongs in an artsy college town near me.
As always, to keep my reviews fair, I have to point out the bad things. The front stairs are very very tall, especially after that Margarita. Oh, and the waitress refused to marry me. Heartbroken.
Five big chrome stars!!!

Going here and eating the food just makes me feel awesome to be from here (and where we had our tenth high school reunion– have events in the back!). The food is fantastic and inexpensive, and the Cachapa with pork was one of the best things I’ve EVER eaten.
Must go here if you come to Elkins.

This place seems more than a little out of place in Elkins, WV! El Gran Sabor (EGS) resides in a large old house on a residential street in downtown Elkins, WV. Only a brightly colored sign out front identifies the place as a restaurant. That sign also identifies a bar inside.
I skeptically entered ELS seeking only drinks — I inquired about the bar. Expecting a small, simple bar, I was directed down a hallway. At first I saw a small bar-​like room, and thought that was it – but I was told to «keep going» and after walking a bit more came to the back of the house which was quite large — that was the bar/​lounge. The bar itself would sit maybe 20 people, but the rest of the room was what surprised me. There was a sunken area of the room where they presumably host live bands. There were a variety of instruments, including large «bongo-​like» drums (I don’t know exactly what they are called), and even a grand piano!
I enjoyed some drinks and decided to try their food. The friendly bartender recommended one of their house specialties — a cachapa. I had no idea what a cachapa was, but the bartenders description sounded good, so I went with it – I chose a pork cachapa. In case you’re wondering, a cachapa is a Venezuelan thing that’s sort of a cross between a pancake, taco, and quesadilla. It was quite good, although the pancake-​tortilla-​like-​thing was a little mushy. Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
I’ve spent several weeks in Elkins for work and have drank/​eaten at pretty much ever place in town — I rank EGS as one of the top two places in town (the Jabberwok is the other).