El Pilon Criollo

When I say this place is the shit! Delicious food the pork is amazing and it’s served with a piece of skin! Their hot sauce is pretty bad ass as well. I live in Buffalo but drive out here pretty regularly for work now and we always stop by. I even know how to get here without GPS now because it’s so good!

I love this place. I rarely get a chance to come to this side of town. I follow their Facebook page and they post what they are serving lunch each day and it varies.
I ordered small rice and fried chicken for $ 5. My fiancé ordered the large rice and beans with fried chicken, it comes with bread and a side salad. The bread is really soft. The food was delicious. We also ordered a potato ball, beef and cheese empanada and chicken and rice empanada. The beef and cheese empanada was amazing.
The women that work there are so nice. I can’t
say enough things about this place. I highly recommend this place if you are crying Puerto Rican food.

Great Caribbean carry out. Reasonably priced, clean, and friendly. And yes tasty too.
Warning: Unilocal wrongly classifies this eatery as Spanish. It is Caribbean.

Solid Puerto Rican noms. Not nearly as good as Sabor de la Isla, but still hit the spot. I got a medium order of yellow rice, beans, and pernil. The medium, as at Sabor and other spots, is huge — but here, it was mostly rice and beans. The portion of pernil I got was adequate, but definitely not as generous. That could be because it was the last in the serving tray — as I was paying a new, fresh tray came out. The taste was great, though, and the $ 7 meal was enough to last me for two days’ worth of lunches.
I see that other Unilocalers have commented on how friendly the service is – that was NOT my experience. In fact, the woman who served me was verging on rude.
Would I come back? Maybe. It’s closer to my work than Sabor, but I think the drive out there is worth it. There are a few other joints I want to try first, too, before I make up my mind about who’s got the best pernil and rice-​and-​peas plate in town.

I’ve never been to the new location, but went to their old Avenue A location whenever I was in the North Clinton area. Solid spanish food to fill you up.

By far a gem and hidden secret in Rochester bc it’s not on Park or East Ave. I promise you will not be disappointed. $ 5 small will fill you up, $ 7 medium will put you to sleep, and don’t even try the $ 9 large bc it’s a lot. Get the small with yellow rice, beans, and pernil. And get the skin with the pernil, you won’t be disappointed.
This place is delicious, the empanadas are great, and you won’t be disappointed. Enjoy.

I tend to rate Puerto Rican food a star lower than most because I’m used to home cooking that can’t be beat. I like Pilon, it’s basic Puerto Rican food without pretension done cafeteria style like many places in Puerto Rico. If you get rellenos de papa (stuffed potato balls). They also have good pollo asado and pernil. The parking is bad but it is pretty close to where I live downtown and is convenient.

When things are going wrong in your life, this isn’t the best place to come, because they tend to «Pile On». And If they sold crayons, it be «El Pilon Crayola» according to Garland, whose name sounds a bit like Garmin, so I’m sure he’d never steer you wrong. And it’s not quite New Orleans Cajun food, otherwise it would be «El Pilon Creole.» But other than that, it’s pretty awesome here.
What to get: Pernil with yellow rice
What else: Beef Stew and your mother’s immigration card
If it were a pharmacy, it would be «El Pill Criollo.»
Pilon Criollo has lovely everything. Lovely employees serving lovely food at lovely prices in a lovely tiny little new-​looking shack-​type building in the Spanish part of town. There are plenty of Puerto Rican spots in this neighborhood, but this one is one of the best ones.
If it sold dough (and dough boys), it would be «El Pillsbury Criollo.»
I’m not a huge fan of Res Guisado (Beef Stew) in general, but this one tasted good, and even better the next day when I was starving. But the real star of the show is the Pernil. True to their excellent customer service, the adorable server gave me a little Pernil even though I only ordered a small Res Guisado ($ 6) because she knew I was torn between the two dishes as to which one to try.
If it was a fruit-​de-​skinning service, or if the wallpaper were coming off, or if it were a sunburn treatment clinic, it would be «El Peeling Criollo.»
The Pernil was some of the most tender, juicy, delicious roast pork shoulder I’ve had. It definitely rivalled the excellent Pernil at El Latino (out west of Rochester) and Niagara Café (Buffalo). Full marks from me.
If guys like Plato and Socrates came here for lunch (assuming they were still alive, I suppose) it would be «El Philosophers Criollo.» But that’s a stretch. But then so were a lot of the concepts of Aristotle according to Kant, so. I Kant keep making these awful jokes, can I?
There aren’t many tables to sit at, but they’re shiny and clean and the place looks brand new. Actually I think it probably used to be a small fast food chain, something like an Arby’s or Wendy’s, based on how it looks. Funny how when you turn an Arby’s or Wendy’s into a family owned business, the same digs suddenly look that much more appealing.
And if it were a place that you go to watch sexy people (of either gender) have bedroom play-​fights, then it would be «El Pillow Criollo.» But considering that «sex sells at a premium», I think the prices would go way, way, way, way up if that were the case. And the prices would not be the only thing going up.
So definitely one of the best tasting and best value Puerto Rican spots in WNY, right up there with Niagara Café, Sazon Criollo (both in Buffalo) and El Latino (Rochester). I still have one or two to try to complete my inventory.
And if it were a place that you go to cheat on your significant other, it would be «El Philandering Criollo.» Oh wait, it kind of already is. Okay never mind, papi. Ay, mami.
Get over here and try the food and see for yourself how good it is. The Puerto Ricans certainly know how to cook, and my mother certainly knew how to… oh wait, that’s not appropriate for Unilocal.So never mind then.

This will be my first lunch stop as soon as I get back to Rochester. I crave this place like every other day. I am currently in a Puerto Rican Food Free Sate. I would say this is the best one in Rochester.

Great Puerto Rican food in Rochester. New location– so clean and spacey! They have a ton of selections. Would have given a 4 star but last time there, for a medium includes rice, salad and meat (I substituted for a boiled banana and yucca instead of meat) and was over charged $ 2.00. Since I was with a friend who frequents that place a lot, I didn’t question it. But after leaving I felt ripped off. It shouldn’t be more since I didn’t get meat… It’s the little things like this that determine whether or not I will be a frequent customer.

So far I’ve not been disapointed.
I have come three times already and the food is delicious.
Arroz blanco & pork chops; arroz con gandules & pernil; empanadas, papas rellenas.
On Saturdays they have Mofongo with seafood.
Only cash establishment.
Have a very small parking lot. There is street parking around.

I highly recommend El Pilon Criollo! I wanted to get authentic Hispanic food for my Spanish class and I ordered a couple of the combo meals — chicken/​pork and sides of salad and rice and beans. I also got a side order of mofongo, yuca, and beef and cheese empanadas Everything was absolutely delicious, it came with A LOT of food, and you can’t beat the prices.
The girls in the restaurant were amazing and friendly. I can’t wait to go back!