Chris E.
Yelp
Where have you been all of my life El Campeon?
For the locals, El Campeon might just be another great local staple for inexpensive and delicious spanish food, but to many non-locals (like myself), El Campeon is a spanish food lover's paradise. You name the spanish dish and they have it: beef stew, fried pork, goat stew, oxtail stew, pepper steak, roast pork, rotisserie chicken, stew fish, etc. Just listing their delectable lineup of meats just has my mouth watering like a shipwrecked sailor on a deserted island.
As for the restaurant, it is indeed a no-frills type of joint. No fancy markings or decor, just a few tables, seats and cafeteria style ordering of food. Although the restaurant is devoid of any fancy shmancy look, the menu is the real deal with all that I mentioned above and a whole lot more. There are a plethora of appetizers and daily specials that will make your head spin! The daily specials cost about $7-$9 for medium plates and $10-$14 for large plates. Each special comes with a choice of white rice and beans / rice with pigeon peas / yellow rice and beans / fried plantains / sweet plantains / fried casava / boiled casava / french fries / salad. Do you need me to repeat that? Yes, you can select any one of those with your special so choose carefully.
On our 1st visit to El Campeon, my fiance and I ordered 1 pernil with rice and peas and 1 beef stew with rice and peas. To be honest, we only asked for our orders to stay (without indicating whether we wanted medium or large) and the server plopped down a massive amount of food on the plates. After seeing the mountains of rice and meat that resembled Mount McKinley on our plates we swore we thought we had just overspent and had ordered larges, but how wrong we were. Our receipt indicated that the orders were only $7 each, which meant these enormous servings of food were just mediums! We're afraid to even see what a large plate of food looks like here, but we'll be sure to come back for that on a day we fast from morning till dawn.
We know the servings are the size of human heads, but what about the flavor? If there's no flavor, then the serving sizes mean nothing. Well, let me just cut to the case, as the food hit the mark! The rice was warm, fresh and thoroughly cooked. The pernil was mostly juicy, fatty, and capable of causing a heart artery to clog, which is always a delight when eating pork. I won't lie as there were some dry pieces of pernil here and there, but it was all tasty. The beef stew was also very good as it was marinated really well and the plate was oozing with the stew sauce. We loved that the server took some of that sauce and poured it over the rice.
The verdict? Need I say more? This is a must visit neighborhood spot that screams of what we all want when we're hungry --- inexpensive items, large portions, and deliciousness written all over it!