La Isla cafe

Humble family style Dominican food found. Pernil and Tripe soup are fantastic. Portions are generous. Very friendly service.

The food is good but you need to watch them when they are processing your order. The meat was supposed to have the crunchy skin that I hand picked. When I got home it didn’t have any and I had noticed when in the store they munching on some. Petty theft! Disgraceful.

great dominican food! super cheap. I got a base of rice, some fried plantains, cooked broccoli and carrots, and an avocado salad with tomatoes. it was all pretty good and only $5. all vegan/vegetarian and flavorful

The whole operation runs with impressive consistency. This spot looks great and feels even better. The workers notice when something needs attention. The cost structure respects customer value. Perfectly satisfied.

Tiny hole in the wall mom & pop style (Cuchifrito restaurant). Small steam table of goodies awaits you as soon as you walk in, a good variety of Dominican/Puerto Rican food. Great taste, decent prices.

Honestly this a hidden Gem. It's a really small shop with great Hispanic food. Unfortunately, there's no space for a group of people to sit and eat in. But if you happen to be alone you may be able to grab a seat. They have a lot of different options which is amazing. Its inexpensive and they serve a really good portion of food. The staff is very nice and attentive. They are pretty fast but it does get packed during lunch time starting at 12 pm usually. So you may have to wait a little longer than usual. Definitely try to catch the mangu in the morning for breakfast.

Great place to grab some good and quick eats. The juices are excellent

First time trying it out. $11 for chicken rice and beans. Priced higher than other locals …. And not impressed. Chicken was dry for dark meat. Maybe ordering at 4pm is no bueno ? Idk

This tiny corner shop serves home style Dominican food. I live nearby and a neighbor who is a famous Spanish chef who recommended it to me. The people who work here are adorable and serve huge portions with a smile. It's not really an eat in place because the store footprint is small, but there are fresh juices in the cooler, tender hunks of pernil, peas and rice and salty red beans with lots of yummy umami. Highly recommended.

This old white Spanish dude I bought the biggest plate. I'm looking at all the stuff at the buffet I want to get I said yellow rice. This guy filled the whole damn plate with some overcooked rice. Then I said beef stew he put a little bit on top and close it I should've walked the fuck out. I'm so angry.

Unfortunately, For the price of $12 a plate, the quality of food should be better. Ordered the pork and that was dry and pretty bland. Ordered the chicken and it was decent. Had the yellow and white rice and they were both dry and bland. Maybe I went on an off day but I definitely wouldn't give this joint more than 3-3.5 stars. If the food was around $8-9 bucks I wouldn't have left a review.

If you are looking for delicious Spanish food, run to this place. This is a hidden gem. I am hardly in this neighborhood and I discovered this corner takeout restaurant. Though I am a hungry vegetarian I was able to find a good dish of steam fresh vegetables and rice and beans. They were awesome. The price is right and the service is great. I would go around here just to come to this place. If you are looking for pernil or other delicious flesh items, this is the place.

The food is great The service is great the ambiance is awesome is a lil small but the food makes up for it

Update: There are new owners, now. The food is just as great and they accept credit cards. The owners are extremely courteous.

First of all, this place is not called La Isla Cafe anymore, it is called Sandy Coffee Shop. The powers that be at Yelp need to fix that. Yes, the new owners have not switched out the Canape outside, but trust me...This place is not called La Isla Cafe. On another note, let me just start by saying that the food that I have tasted at Sandy is delish, so I definitely recommend you try it out. It is a bit of a hole in the wall, but their food is excellent. Unfortunately, my review today is not so much about the food but rather the fact that Sandy's menu states that they have delivery but most times when I call on a Saturday morning for breakfast, I get a man on the phone who does not speak English and all he says is "no delivery" with a heavy accent. When I try to communicate with him or ask him why, he hangs up on me. Unfortunately, it is not so easy for me to walk as I have issues with my legs/knees and walk with a cane. Therefore, most times I order delivery from the local restaurants, which I appreciate, believe me. Nevertheless, it is a shame that the management of this place is lacking because they are losing money unnecessarily. There is another person that sometimes answers the phone who speaks English just fine...Not sure where he is on those days I am told there is no delivery, but they need to bring him back. Anyway, worth trying just the same.

So much more offered here than I knew! I have since become addicted to their breakfast, you can get a variety of things for cheap! Even if I make a hog of myself getting the Spanish eggs, fried cheese, salami, and maybe some soup and coffee for later, it is still less than $10!! GO!!!

This is that hole in the wall place that you won't find unless you stumbled upon it. The food here is spectacular for the price, for 7 dollars you literally get a big plate of food. I usually get the chicken stew but their seafood stew is amazing. I mean I can feed two-three people with that. Its definitely amazing take out but I wouldn't eat there if I had to. Side note Its cash only, theres an atm inside

Quantity and quality combined for four stars! This place offers straight up Latin American food and is usually packed during lunch hours with local policemen and construction workers. Six dollars for a HUGE platter that includes rice with beans, veggies (your choice of plaintains, yucca, cabbage) and their daily rotation of meats. It's enough for two hungry people, really. The roast pork is the best - very very tender and on some days they have paella. Worth a try if you're in the area.

Great little hole in the wall for some great dominican food. Had a super filling breakfast of mangu ,plaintains and sausage. Their pernil also looked delicious. Reasonable price for how much they fill their containers.

This divey take-out dominican (i think) place serves some interesting dishes. For take-out only. There's a couple of dominican places nearby - compared to Castillo de Jagua on Grand, the food here is much better. Just don't expect a place to actually sit and eat. For breakfast, they have some interesting dishes, such as codfish and eggs, these fried cakes of codfish, and other breakfasty items. My usual is mangu (mashed plantains) and eggs (they also have a ham and eggs mixture, kinda like a giant mound of western omlette). There's usually a line of police and others going to work that are picking up their breakfast. For lunch/dinner, their pernil is delicious - luciously succulent and seasoned just right (not too salty). Cuban sandwich is OK though not as good as the bakery on clinton street. Rice and beans are good too. They also have an assortment of weekly specials, stews and other meat dishes, though I haven't tried all of them, they all seem interesting and not boring. The one minus (apart from it being not very healthy, but hey, would you expect it to be?), is that the hours aren't that great. They close pretty early, and I think they are not open on Sunday or only partially open on Sunday.

My review isn't based on whether the food was good or not because they never even bothered delivering it to me. And when I called back an hour and a half later they just decided to hang up on me. I'm not sure how people like this stay in business.