El Cocotero

We have a Venezuelan friend who has cooked for us, which we love. We decided to give this restaurant a try. We ordered the typical Venezuelan dish. It came with shredded beef, rice, beans & plantains. The flavors of the dish reminded us of our friend’s cooking. We tried to eat slow so we could savor every taste. The restaurant is small so it can fill up quickly. The service was excellent. We look forward to returning to this restaurant.

My husband and I absolutely enjoyed everything about El Cocotero! I actually envisioned that is what a restaurant would look like if visiting Venezuela. Quaint, colorful and just a great atmosphere! Service was great from start to finish!
To start my husband had the Black Bean soup, and we both agreed it was the best we’ve ever had! We also split a spinach and feta Empanada, which was very light crispy and flavorful.
My husband had the Pabellon Criollo
Venezuelan national dish. white rice, black beans, sweet plantain & shredded flank steak. It was delicious, and not a scrap was left when he was finished. I had the Pepito pressed sandwich, which is Skirt steak, sautéed onions and tomatoes. I truly enjoyed this.
We finished our meal with the coconut cake. If you like coconut, you will love this cake!
We will definitely be back very soon!

I came here on a Friday night around 7pm and there was no wait at all. This restaurant is small and cozy. The atmosphere makes it good for a night out with a friend or a date. However, I would not recommend coming here if your party consists of more than 4.
Fried yucca– Delicious and perfectly fried. The sauce provided paired perfectly with it.
La Chiquinquira Arepa– Crispy, fresh and absolutely amazing. I would definitely recommend getting this if you have not tried an arepa before.
La Bandeja Dona Barbara– I was extremely disappointed with this dish. This was honestly $ 23 down the drain. The pork rinds were extremely hard and not crispy. The meat was tough.
Overall, the appetizers were great, but I was very disappointed with the entrée. I may return in the future, but will definitely skip ordering the platters.

Solid 4 stars — this place has awesome Venezuelan food!
Décor has a nice homey feel to it — perfect for a low-​key night with friends or a date.
I shared a sampling with my boyfriend ($ 10), which came with 3 bite sized arepas and two mini tequenos (basically fried cheese sticks) — all of which were very yummy, but overpriced in my opinion.
We each ordered a patacon (plantain sandwich — about $ 12 – 13) — it was my first time trying this, and it was great! The outside was very crispy and the one I chose in particular was the Pabellon, which had shredded beef, black beans, cheese, and plantains — so yummy!
We also got a side order of fries ($ 5) — not impressive and pretty forgettable.
All in all, this is a solid spot in the city if you’re looking for some really authentic Venezuelan food — I can’t speak for all the menu items, but the patacons are a must-​try!

A solid 4-​stars with potential to go +/​-​a star depending on your order. The ambiance is lovely, latin music playing, nice décor. We ordered the Black Bean Spead and Miss Venezuela Arepa to start:
— Black Bean Spread — Small dish of black beans smothered in some sauce with fried potato chips, good but not something I would order again. It’s something I’ve seen put on tables with bread at Spanish restaurants. The fried potato chips were delicious though.
— Miss Venezuela Arepa — Awesome, warm fresh arepa with guacamole, a lot of avacado and tomato. It was big, big enough maybe for lunch for one person. I miss that thing.
Dinner:
— Lentil Soup — Seemed to have too much cilantro for my liking a possibly a sour tomato. Wouldn’t order that.
— Vegetarian Special — Plate of peppers, onions and tomatoes sauteed to perfection with rice, black beans and some plantains. This dish was delicious, and very large.
I would give it a try and I’ll be back for those Arepa for sure.

I love this restaurant! I found it here on Unilocal.I was attending an event this evening and saw there was a restaurant listed right next door to the venue I was attending.
Well, it happens to be a Venezuelan restaurant (love their cuisine) and I thought you know what… why not try it it’s literally right here! So a friend and I walked in. It was a bit too dark inside where we were seated but they turned up the lights for us.
Great service and waitstaff! I even got to meet the chef!!! They were all sooo friendly and just lovely and the food was *I*N*C*R*E*D*I*B*L*E*!!
So good I ordered a plate to go and dessert to go!
My friend had a Carne Pastelito (in the photo putting extra hot sauce on it! Lol). I had the Passionfruit Mango Rum Punch, Criollo con negro habichuelas and Tres Leche’ cake to go!
YES I will be going back with a few more of my friends!

Setting: Lunch time with a former coworker.
Service was a bit slow for lunch time it seems only the owner was in to take orders. By the time the food got to us it was cold and too late to send back.
The food was good. I would try the chorizo apps.

The food tasted really good! They just need to improve in the facility. The facility looks weir, dark and uncomfortable. F — for the facility and A+ for the food.

My first experience with Venezuelan food and I am absolutely impressed. The waiter was extremely kind and understanding with my ignorance. I had the Queso Con Mermelada Pastelitos and Queso Paisa o Guayanes. Super good, super filling! Oh and don’t forget to try a Malta Polar to drink!

Everything from the arepas to the sweet corn empanadas are absolutely delicious. These items are certainly worth the trip. I also enjoyed the pernil patacon and could probably eat two or more them: D
El Cocotero is small but provides a cozy environment for a group of friends. A couple negatives, there is no drink menu and it seems like you drink whatever they have that day. Also the furniture needs some replacing although you don’t come here for the ambiance. Reasonable prices, great service and tasty food makes El Cocotero a great choice when in the Chelsea area. Also love the classic salsa songs playing in the background.

Location: Resided at 18^th Street westside, El Cocotero is very close to Westile, which locates also at 18^th street as well as City Bakery. Don’t be surprised why 18^th street becomes the home of some great dating spots. I mean, it’s chelsea, the new interesting area.
The place is very southern American like. Few spots for outdoor seating and the inner decoration made me feel like I was back to Ecuador again. In fact, nah, back to Venezuela again.
Inside, it’s a very tiny place to host a lot of people but they do have a big heart to host tons of people. I guess that’s why they are squeezing every inch of the space to allow so many tiny tables.
I am lucky enough to arrive early without waiting outside.
Food: I got the arepa Miss Venezuelan, and empanadas (carne)
Both are delicious, very filling and flavorful.
They made it fresh for sure because I did take some time to wait for those food. But the waiter is very nice and when I stopped playing my phone, she’s like, the food is coming. I think they are very caring.
Price: cheap dinner place for sure! I ‘d like to try something else, their appetizer menu seems awesome!
Overall: gotta take someone with me next time. Very great south american experience.

I had a great time with a couple friends here for dinner the other night! I’ll make no pretense of knowing what «good» Venezuelan food is all about; however, the meal I had was delicious and the drinks were exactly what the doctor called for.
The Food/​Drink: We ordered the Arepa taster, which was delicious (although a little small,) and then for my meal, I had the Arepa de Pabellón (beef and plantain) and the Patacón de Pernil (pork), and they were both DELICIOUS. And a lot more food than I expected, which was great, because I had lunch for the next day, which made it feel like a great deal, too. For drink, I had a rum and passionfruit punch to start (delicious and fruity… almost TOO drinkable…), followed by a Venezuelan beer, Polar Bear, which was fun to see on the menu! Everyone was thoroughly pleased with their meals, and we rolled out the restaurant very happy and full!
Experience: The restaurant is tucked into a cute block in Chelsea where the smooth latin music and dark, intimate interior transported us out of New York City. Would definitely be a great place for a date! Our server was attentive, without being overbearing, and super friendly describing questions we had about the menu. Overall, it was a really nice place to have dinner and catch up with friends!

I’m Venezuelan myself so I really wanted to like this place but was somewhat under whelmed.
Pros: cute/​intimate atmosphere and really kind staff. The empanadas are delicious, they have that sweet flavor to them. They have polar beer! The tres leches dessert was great.
Cons: some of the food lacked flavor and kick. For instance, the black beans were pretty disappointing with the arepa de pabellón.

We’d the nicest waitress! So helpful.
Fun place. Easy going, casual crowd. Great music. Drinks were meh. Stick to the bear.
Interesting and tasty food (it was my first time trying Venezuelan food).
Reasonably cheap.

I came here with a group of six friends one night before we went out to a nightclub nearby. We wanted some filling mid-​priced food in the area and this place seemed right because of the variety and price. I split an arepa with chicken and the orange roasted chicken, which came with yucca fries and a salad. All of my friends loved the arepas they got, although they were not very filling for the price of $ 9 – 11. I definitely think that they should come with a small side or be less expensive. The chicken that I got was alright, but reminded me of the chicken that I would get at my middle school for free for lunch. That was not the type of quality meal I was looking for. On the other hand, the yucca fries and the salad were delicious, and I was content with the taste of the arepa.
The service was lacking throughout our whole time there. We were the only table in this small restaurant that was waiting for food, two other tables were just drinking, and we waited for a long time for our meals. We all arrived around 9:30/9:45 and received the meals around 10:30/45. We had to hurry to finish them by 11. Not only did they take long to make, my friend ordered two empanadas and she only received one. Lastly, when the food finally came out the waitress did not know who ordered what. So, my friend and I had to look at the menu again to figure out which arepa was whose. All of the staff seemed a bit unprofessional and not sure of how to deal with a group of our size.
We also felt like the waiters were pushing us to purchase drinks. The restaurant doesn’t have a drink menu, and we were told the drinks and prices out loud by the waiter. From what I remember, I believe the pitchers of sangria were around $ 29 and the beers around $ 6 – 8. That’s no fun. There are nicer establishments on the east side that have pitchers of sangria for $ 15, such as San Marzano. In Queens, Las Margaritas in Astoria has pitchers of margarita for $ 35.
So, if you’re looking for a place on the budget around all of the night clubs — I would opt for Artichoke Pizza instead. It’ll come out to much cheaper and everyone will leave full.

A what great little cozy place and the food the stuff and Lucho wow .my boy Lucho the owner was fantastic

Saturday afternoon brunch can be tough in the city, especially when wanting to try new places that have limited seating. Thankfully this spot had no one inside when we got in (also a bit of a bad sign).
After getting a seat at the corner, decided to get the Guacamole+chips appetizer first ($ 7ish), along with a mango milkshake ($ 6) and a hot toddy ($ 5). Toddy was advertised as a hot milkshake, which seemed interesting, what I got served was a regular hot chocolate. The mango milkshake wasn’t as thick as I hoped but better than the toddy. Guac came out next and the chips were lightly fried and hardy, but the amount of guacamole served was barely enough for the amount of chips. Though concerned about what we’ve already ordered, pressed on and got the Tuna Arepa ($ 8) and the La Chiquinquira Arepa ($ 9). Both arepas really looked promising, as each were overflowing with ingredients. Unfortunately the entire meal is very bland, a lack of seasoning and everything is put together but not blended in any way.
I really liked the ambiance here and the service is quick and helpful (hence the 2 stars). The food just isn’t very good, so won’t be back.

I dunno. Maybe we ordered the wrong thing. The two of us ordered the appetizer for two. The waiter told us that this was going to be small and we should order something bigger but it was actually a large appetizer. The taste was definitely there.
We also ordered a small bowl of soup to share. Again the waiter recommended we should order two bowls of soup. The one bowl was fine and was actually quite tasty.
Finally we ordered two entrees. I guess we should’ve had the arepas like everyone else, but we had the plates. They were below average– very similar to the appetizer we had earlier, but maybe not quite as good.
The real kicker is we ended up spending like $ 90 after tax and tip. This was definitely not a $ 90 meal. Combine that with the annoying «upselling» of the waiter and I feel confident that we’ll probably not come back here.

I don’t know what was up with the air conditioning that evening that I dined here — but it was SWELTERING. And it only became progressively warmer as more patrons filled the dining area. However, I must say that the food (and drinks) managed to distract us from our meal…
We tried two different types of empanada’s, the Pabellon (which was killer), Carne and sweet plantains. As for our entrees, we got arepas (to share), the La Chiquinquira was my favorite. The La Morillo was good too. There was also a sweet meat version that the server recommended that I didn’t love.
Do NOT skip the rum cocktail drink. It’s made of rum, passion fruit and mango juice (I think) and I have to say, it’s worth just coming here for this drink (alone).
I’ll be back!

My first Venezuelan food experience and I loved it!
I can’t speak to the authenticity, but I know good food when I taste it. My boyfriend and I split the Pabellon Criollo, after a recommendation from our server. We were having a tough time deciding, so she recommended this Venezuelan national dish — shredded flank steak stew, white rice, plantains and black beans. The beef was super flavorful and went well with everything else on the dish. I wish there was more rice, but that’s just me. (I’m Asian — whatever, lol). I also really enjoyed their drinks! On a hot and humid day like today, their mango milkshake and watermelon slush really hit the spot. The flavors actually tasted like mango and watermelon, no artificial flavoring here!
This place seems pretty intimate. Monday’s are generally slow days for business, but I was a little surprised to see people doing paperwork in the otherwise empty restaurant. It feels very homey to me. Kinda dark, and the tables are close together. Sitting by the window, there was a nice breeze coming through.
Service was great! Our server really knew what she was talking about, and explained the menu to us. She checked on us a couple times and kept refilling our waters. She was patient with us, and always very polite. Another plus? Our food came out quickly!

Arepas y cachapas buenas, pero no las mejores… Espacio pequeño y algo oscuro. Se demoraron un montón en darnos mesa…