Merengue Restaurant

If you love, hold-​in-​the-​wall foodie spots serving up authentic ethnic cuisine, you should definitely give Meringue a try for awesome Dominican food. Despite being the only ones in the place (located in a random off-​the-​beat-​and-​path location in North Charleston), we thoroughly enjoyed our experience at Merengue as the wait-​staff was friendly, cost was very reasonable and food was excellent. I ordered a Puerto Rican specialty– Mofongo, which I recommend everyone give a try should you find yourself here. Both sweet and savory, Mofongo is made by mashing fried plantains together in a wooden mortar with pork cracklings. Super filling, a little Mofongo goes a long way so this is a good dish to split with the rest of the table. I also ordered the goat stew, which was served with rice. Slightly gamey but overall had great flavor! While I am surely no expert on Cuban cuisine, I can bet you anyone would agree that Merengue is serving up no-​frills, authentic, down-​home Dominican food. If you do plan to make a visit, keep in mind they are closed on Tuesdays. And also keep in mind, you are going for the food, not the atmosphere, which is nothing more than a few tables and chairs with Spanish TV playing in the background.
Must-​order items:
Fried Plantations
Chicharrones
Mofongo
Goat Stew

Drove up to a hole in the wall that had promise of delicious Dominican food… Just walked in and walked to find that there was no food avail-​the long awaited mofongo would hv to wait. how does one run out of a key ingredient! When will my people learn that in order to succeed in this country we do have to offer customer service too?!

My friend and I were looking for a place to eat and this Dominican restaurant wasn’t far from us. Any chance I get to eat Cuban, Puerto Rican (which is more often, thanks mom!) or Dominican food, I jump at the chance. Probably because there just aren’t enough of these sorts of restaurants nearby.
This area is in a strip mall, seems to be family owned. They are closed on Tuesdays, have daily specials, as well as standard dishes. Just a heads up, there might be times the menu shows an item that they’ve either run out of or haven’t made that particular day. If you go there with an open mind, you won’t be disappointed!
I ordered a side of tostones and 2 beef pastelitos and we enjoyed both of these menu items.
I was torn between trying the mofongo or the sancocho. I think sancocho is shown on the menu as Dominican soup. I’ve always described it as the Puerto Rican version of beef stew (my mom’s version). I decided this time around that I’d order the sancocho because I’ve never had it anywhere except at my mom’s house so I figured that’d be a good test. It was different than my mom’s in that the broth was more soup than stew (so their description makes sense!) and they used chicken and beef. Maybe some pork too? The chicken were on the bones but I didn’t mind. I have no qualms with using my fingers when good food is concerned! The soup came with a side of white rice and avocado salad which was basically a slice of avocado, lettuce and tomato. The tomato wasn’t ripe so I didn’t mess with that, which meant the lettuce was left alone too. The avocado I cut into chunks into my soup cause that’s what I wanted to do! It was yummy! I can’t lie, I still prefer my mom’s, but I enjoyed their version of sancocho. Oh btw, I always add the rice to my sancocho. Just FYI.
My friend ordered the goat stew which was goat meat cooked in sauce, served with rice & beans and avocado salad. My friend had them hold the lettuce and tomato because all he was interested in was the avocado. When ordering a stew, you get your choice of rice and beans. If I recall correctly, they had 3 types of rice — white, yellow, and moro. I think moro rice means the rice and beans are cooked together? Not sure. My dining companion originally wanted the moro rice with red beans but it was being cooked and wasn’t ready so he switched to white rice & red beans. I had a taste of the goat stew and it was tasty but a bit gamey which is to be expected. Pretty good but goat is probably not my thing! He seemed to enjoy his meal.
Overall, the service was good, they were very friendly, I enjoyed the meal and look forward to returning! Hope this place sticks around… they’ve got several items I want to try!

Food was fantastic! Great service. This place is very authentic! I am originally from miami and I’ve had my share of dominican food and this was amazing!

Ok… They say there are Dominicans and those who wish they were Dominican. And truth be told, I suppose I fall into, «those who wish.» Imagine my surprise when I recently discovered this gem of authenticity — a totally wonderful Dominican Restaurant in North Charleston, SC! Open for three months at the writing of this review, I have eaten there every day since my discovery a scant three days ago. The décor is a bit spartan, but the food and the warm staff more than make up for any lack of décor. On Friday I had the fish. Amazing! On Sabado, I had Chicharron de Pollo ($ 6). Great! And on Domingo, I had Sancocho. Authentic and tasty with fresh zucchini from the garden of the chef! You will be almost embarrassed at the reasonableness of the pricing, so tip well and tell them El Jefe sent you. You’ll no doubt get a smile and a wonderful meal as you contemplate «la noche y calidas playas dominicans» (the night and warm dominican beaches).
Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day but Martes (look it up). :-)