Diablo Royale Este

Came here for an impromptu brunch with two friends this past weekend. I had been to the one in the West Village, and was surprised when we stumbled across this location. I had the granola with fresh fruit and yogurt. It was great! My other friends had the huevos benedictos and the huevos rancheros. Both were good. The cheese grits was also flavorful, but a little too runny for my taste.
The one problem we had was with our waitress. We had a couple of questions on the menu to which almost every response was, «I don’t know… I don’t eat that stuff.» We were all waiting for her to say something like, «let me go ask,» or «let me get someone who knows.» Nope. Nothing… just stood there waiting for us to decide if we wanted it even though we didn’t know what some of the sauces or other ingredient were. Now, don’t get me wrong… in a place that is packed for brunch I would understand (not really) the waitress being rushed and wanting us to just spit out our order, but that wasn’t even the case here. The place was half empty. It was around 12:45p when we went. Don’t get me wrong, she was nice… not pushy or anything like that, but just not very informed on the menu.
All in all, the food was good. Service was not. Would go back if in the area again (and hope to either get a different server or hope that the one who helped us this past Sunday learns the menu better). Nice décor. Some big tables for a big party. Great back patio for when the weather is nice.

Way to be the chillest spot on the block and another reason for me to travel downtown. i’ll have another RICKY, please and thank you Xo
(if you don’t order a ricky and the grilled fish tacos, you should contemplate your life)

Dinner is solid — nothing special.
The margarita pitchers are $ 45, they’re just okay, and they only salt a third of the rim. It’s weird.
House-​cut chips and chunky fresh salsa are the highlights of the meal; everything else will do but is overpriced.

Though this east side Diablo isn’t as popular as the West Village original, I find myself here pretty often for their happy hour on weekdays from 5−7PM. Heck, I’ll go anywhere for a $ 5 frozen margarita!
It’s true what others have mentioned about the dim red interior and cavelike atmosphere, but with the warm months a’coming their garden in the back is a nice place to pass a few hours. I’ve only grazed their menu really but the nachos are a delicious and not to pricey option. I’m not sure how they manage to charge $ 19 for two tacos but if you’re interested in throwing money toward a major mark-​up the shrimp and steak are both good bets. Fortunately, the first round of chips and salsa comes complimentary so at least they give you that.
The service can be hit or miss as well. Sometimes they are completely absent but I’ve been going so often lately I recognize our regular waiter and his attention has improved. All in all, happy to have them here to keep me in frozen marg happiness.

this review is simply for the bar and drinks…
I’ve heard from others that the food here is nothing to write home about so I came here with a friend to predrink before going out on a friday night around 9pm. The place is really cool nice décor great ambience (love the stairs with the candles). The staff is energetic, lively and semi hipster (which is expected for the area). the cooks and bartenders were dancing and you can see directly into the kitchen there are no walls separating the kitchen from the rest of the bar. Its more of a chill bar not a dancing sort of place but more of a good place to catch up with friends or go on a date. If someone took me here on a first date i might fall in love.
get the margarita with jalepeno infused tequila … your welcome ;)

Cool place, great service, tasty drinks, and delicious food. This is my go to for mexican in the EV. The place is a really nice size so we have never had to wait to get a table (suck it Barrio Chino… although your drinks are the best). It is nice that they let you mix and match your tacos instead of making you get all of them the same kind. My gf and I usually split an order of 3 tacos between the two of us and they are plenty of food. The enchiladas are also really good.
If you haven’t tried this place… do yourself a favor and check it out!

When I walked in here, I felt like I walked into a Dead Weather music video.
The décor is pretty interesting, with kind of a shady vibe, but in an intentional, not-​at-​all-​bad way.
My party had a few delicious margaritas, and then we ordered food. I sampled a few of their tacos, and the one that stood out to me was the fried oyster taco… Mmmm…
It was pretty expensive, but overall it was a great experience. I would probably go back.

The cool/​dark/​hip ambiance is lounge-​y red luxury. It’s creates a sleek vibe that feels nothing like a tex-​mex (or mex-​mex) restaurant. Although we didn’t eat there, just swung in for drinks, the menu is chockfull of food options. They also have a large margarita selection. My friends loved their LUCI Margarita, I stuck with the smooth silky Diablo original.
The prices seemed fair for the East Village and there was ample space for our growing group of straggling friends who kept joining us (there’s also a large downstairs area). The bartenders and waitstaff were all friendly, smiley and attentive, which surprised me, as we only got drinks.
My only critique is the music — on Saturday night it seemed to be blasting — and I mean blasting — some heavy alt-​rock muck, that felt really out of place. That, combined with the oh-​so-​darkness, tilted the scales for me just a bit along that fine line between Diablo and Hell.

Came here for dinner last Friday with a group of five other girls. We started out with a couple pitchers of blood orange margaritas which were ok but nothing I’d crave to come back for. We started our table out with a couple orders of guacamole, surprisingly decent as were the chips and salsa. I must say though that its SO LAME that they charge extra for more chips and salsa. Booo!
The Basics:
Way OVERPRICED and not at all good quality. The only real reason I gave two stars instead of one is because the service was good and the guac and margs were decent.
Ok so as my usual disclaimer being from san diego causes me to be incredibly picky about Mexican food, even this trendy B.S. Mex.
So a friend and I decided to get a good sampling of items and split them. We ordered the nachos with chicken, the corn on the cob, and the three tacos meal. The rest of the table stuck with the taco meals and one girl got a salad.
1. The Salads: Ummm what was really on the plate except for cheap shredded lettuce and a little chicken — EWW! One of the worse salads I’ve ever seen.
2. Corn: This was a trendy ok version, I’ve had much better even out here in ny. Yes I do love café habana corn!
3. Nachos: If I were ever forced to go here for dinner again I think I might just get this as my meal. Kinda gross that they put beans on the bottom of the plate, making the chips get all soggy :(… (might want to consider foregoing the beans). The rest was ok, at least these were not over the top expensive.
4. The tacos: EW! Even without being from san diego they were EWW! The tortillas were flour and they were not good — stale and processed tasting. Hardly any fillings –and crap ones at that– and strange combos/​flavors. We ordered the crispy fish — kfc could have done a better job it was like fried chicken and honey??? wtf? the shrimp taco a couple of shrimps in a marinara like sauce — no! the chicken taco was bland and blah too.
Side note, Friday was the hottest day of summer so far and the restaurant was so warm in there! We were all uncomfortably too warm.

This place is disgusting. Went for brunch on saturday and the sangria tastes like franzia mixed with sweet and low and the bloody marys taste like wood chips. Although the décor is cute i guess, no one at my table drank their drinks and everyone was highly disappointed by the food and it took forever to get a check. they clearly are inattentive because one of my friends put her head on the table for a good 15 minutes because she was hungover, youd think theyd give us our check wanting us to leave but nope. we had to wait to pay 25 $+tip each for not drinking or eating really anything.

My friends took me to Diablo during my last visit to NYC. Mexican food and all-​you-​can-​drink brunch for $ 25? Yes please!
They bring out a basket of chips to each table as every Mexican restaurant does, but these chips are a cute above the rest. They super thick and crunchy and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.
I ordered the sauteed shrimp taco and the chorizo & egg taco. Both were phenomenal, packed with flavor and spice. They are not shy about using the peppers and chili oil, which I love.
It was the best brunch I’ve ever had. I’ll be back for frequent visits!

This pre-​Cinco de Mayo watering hole should have taught me the lesson that the concoction of Corona-​like-​beer and margarita mix make for funny walking mistakes. Speaking of CdM, never take drinks from strangers with nice shiny bottles (it’s not water).
DRE has a late (11−4PM) brunch on wknds that includes one entrée with complimentary sangria & (which is prob an «or» in disguise) mimosa.

came for brunch on a sunday. the only thing that sucks is that i was way too full to finish my delicious food. almost all tables were filled when we got there so fortunately for us, we got seated right away. we were right under the speakers and the host let us know that he was turning the music down right away so we wouldnt go deaf.
we got these cinnamon nachos while we waited for our order to be taken which were bomb.
my friend had the french toast n a dos equis, i had the huevos rancheros and a make-​ur-​own bloody mary, and we shared medium spiced guacamole n chips. everything so delicious i wish i ate it all. my friend housed his food right away. my bloody mary (which i made at the bar with vodka, tomato juice, horseradish, and a dash of habernero sauce) was so good i had to have another! they were only $ 5. had to leave right away before i was tempted to order a third…

For a group of bachelorette, this was an awesome place to eat dinner and be rowdy.
Working with Jarvis, our reservation was ready and on time, and because we chose the pre fixe menu, we didn’t have to worry about ordering food between 8 girls, this made the night very easy.
With the pre fixe menu, they served us more food necessary, we were stuffed before the main dished arrived. With 3 pitches of margaritas and a round of tequila shots at the table, each of us only spent about $ 90 (we covered the bachelorette)… Amazing deal!!!

One of the greatest surprises in life is when you go into something expecting to be let down and you end up pleasantly impressed!
It was a Saturday night in NYC, and while trying to decide where to meet up my only suggestion was that we pick a place that wasn’t so loud & crowded that we wouldn’t be able to talk and hear each other. When my friend suggested Diablo Royale, she read my mind (which isn’t surprising since we’ve known each other since we were rugrats in preschool) and came out of the gate saying «I know… I know… Mexican in NY, but this place is cool.» I have never even considered having Mexican food in NY since I’m from CA, but so is she and if this place passed her CA Mexican food standards then I was willing to give it a try too.
Upon walking in I was apprehensive and likened this place to being the NY equivalent of Velvet Margarita or El Carmen in LA. The host and our waiter were hipsterish guys with zero NY attitude. The table we were originally seated at was right under a speaker and we couldn’t stop laughing because it was the loudest spot in the whole bar area and all we wanted was a place we could talk. I would have been annoyed had the music not been totally my bag of chips, but even before we could say anything our awesome waiter came and told us another table was leaving and he was going to move us. He also recommended some interesting tacos that were on special like the fried chicken taco which piqued my interest. If this is how NY does Mexican food I can handle it because it’s better than really trying to get it right and messing it up.
We had a couple pitchers of the house margarita throughout the night which is odd because it wasn’t good, but for some reason we didn’t say anything or switch to something else, but I don’t recommend the house margarita.
The food was ok and the ambiance perfect so this place didn’t let me down. We had a great night and enjoyed catching up in a lively place with good music and friendly staff.

This is a 3.5−4 star review.
One of the things I miss most are all you can drink brunches, aka drunch. So every time I revisit my one and only alltime hometown, I have to do some drunch. Anna H suggested coming here, though she’d initially wanted to visit the W Village branch that she’d been to before. Since it was full, they redirected our large party of 7 to their E Village locale.
The space is actually quite large, and great for groups. Sadly, there was an odd draft coming in, which did not make for my now subtropical body happy. I loved the mexican brunch options, and everyone was downing the food very happily. Who cares if it isn’t «authentic,» it fills you up and goes well with UNLIMITED mimosas! (I think we paid a small extra charge for this free-​flow, but not a bad thing when some of us could not drink!)
One of us was keen to serve up his own special bloody mary mix, and the bartender gladly allowed him to step behind the bar to mix it up himself. Overall the service was very very friendly and accommodating.
So, not perfection by any means, but basic elements for good times met. A-​OK!

This place is going down hill. I have been 4 or 5 times dating back to June or July, pretty close to when they opened I think.
Food isn’t bad and the drinks are all right, but there are a few problems, including the service. I ordered a Chile Relleno Friday night. After noticing it was really different after a few bits, I asked to see the menu.
Waitress: I know what you are going to ask. We changed the Chile 4 days ago but haven’t updated the menus, it is now vegetarian (menu says it has pulled pork and sausage). I should have told you.
Me: Seriously?
Waitress: I should have told you. I can offer you a beer on the house.
Me: This isn’t what I ordered though.
Ws: Do you want me to bring you something else?
Me: The chicken
Ws: we’ll rush that right out.
20 minutes later
Me: why don’t you just wrap up that chicken to go.
They are pushy their too, and their are like no good tables in the entire restaurant because of a bad lay out, and it is expensive for mexican food.
Hecho en Dumbo is much better.

This place has some kind of «hot guy magnet» that attracts the hotties from far and wide to congregate here on a Thursday at, say… oh…10:00 p.m. Not like I was planning to come back at that exact same time every week from now on but…
OK, on to the important stuff. I’ve seen and smelled the food and am looking forward to coming back and actually ordering something other than my all-​time favorite Diablo drink– The Cactus.
Warning: The Cactus can get might spicy (jalapeño infused tequila), but if you let the bartender know your spice-​tolerance, you should be fine.
And this place now carries HOPSICLES! Basically it’s frozen beer. Unfortunately, they had sold out of them yesterday before I had a chance to try.
All in all, this is one my favorite East Village places because there’s a decent amount of space (venture away from the crowded bar and you’ll see they have a patio — oh and a basement!), the people who come in are young professionals (which is refreshing in the East Village where most bars scoff if you look like a 9−5er) and The Cactus is the best spiced-​up margarita I’ve had. (And the hot guys).

Wild Wild West is what the door is proud of when you face it. As his partner at the West side, Diablo Royal East is a saloon, well a Mexican Cantina to be faithful. The look is exactly like the ones presented in many Hollywood Western movies but with the add of hundred, ok maybe just a few tens of candles to emphasize the Mexican character about religiousness. Like El dia de los muertos (Day of the Dead). Or at least is what I thought.
This makes the place quite dark. But still you can appreciate the large dimensions of the bar area, the space where you will walk first upon entrance where some red stools and rounded metal tables are distributed in a side. The lamps are funny. Colorful, in red-​orange like a mini version of that red Arachnid? at the Financial district close to The bull. But not, not only the bar areas is big, as a few steps through the back you will see a large space occupied with large tables for dinner. And I read that Diablo Royal East has a downstairs bar and a 30-​seat garden.
A few beers and a few wines. Very few. But this is a Cantina: Mexico, Saloon, Men. Tequila is the right thing to order. Margaritas and a few other cocktails, all Tequila based, are offered as well. But even the Tequila menu is quite short if you compare with Mayahuel. The Cactus and Michelada were our drinks. The Cactus is variation of margarita, raspberry in particular, and jalapeño infused tequila while Michelada is a negra modelo beer improved with spiciness and lime. The cactus was very very average. I didn’t notice any spiciness, it was too sweet, but artificially sweet, and rapidly become watery. Half of it as left in the glass.
And the Michelada was awful.
And spiciness rocks most of my meals*; except for Indian food, I can tolerate it pretty well from wasabi, to the Korean spiciness to the Americanized Thai, to jalapeños, chillies and others in the family. And I don’t mind to cry eating it. But I don’t like to drink Tabasco sauce. It can be black because the Negra Modelo beer. Negra modelo that by the way was quite bland and watery, when it use to be a strong beer not as intense as Guiness, but still pretty tasty. The excess of ice could be a reason The rim was a nice kick but the lime was also way too much. But no matter how the other ingredients were, the fact is that it was drinkable tabasco sauce … well not really. Undrinkable tabasco sauce.
and I had a Michelada before at Mayahuel and it was pretty awesome.
* this could be or not a dramatization of my intakes.

Speak of the devil…
Another West side gem hits my hood! This is soon to be my friends new local watering hole. With its dark interior, red accents, antler chandeliers, rock DJ, and awesome menu, how can it not be the new hot spot on ave A?
I drank my dinner, and have to agree that hell was empty last night, all the devils were at Diablo!