BAIT AND SWITCH!
I spent a total of $299.34. Part of my order contained 24 pork pasteles. The meat filling was undercooked, rubbery, inedible salt pork fat. No ham...no pernil.
I emailed Derick and corresponded with Dayana Disla (Executive Assistance). I sent her 8 pictures of dissected pasteles which clearly shows the piles of pure rubbery fat. Her excuse was... "Yes, sometimes the staff is in production mode and may overlook a couple with less meat." She went on to say she will not provide a refund.
I was baited by the savory pork filled pasteles that Derick prepares on his youtube channel and it is clearly not what I received. Derick needs to implement quality control in his establishment. I live in California and I did not mind paying the $123 just on shipping cost because I trusted Derick would send an outstanding product like what he advertises.
I will never purchase again, and I will inform other's of my terrible experience.
The food is amazing. Highly recommend the steak and onions, alcapuria, mofongo etc. it’s hard to find authentic Puerto Rican food in Astoria. I hope they open up more locations.
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IMO starters and dessert matter most. Happy with a a mouthful of the protein -- I prefer the sides.. usually. THANKS
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People love descriptions of food and reviews or restaurants far from home. There is evidently a still unexplored niche for the New Yorkers of the food of Greenland Eskimos, natives of Tierra del Fuego, Outer Mongolia, and Australian Aborigines.
Live and learn by cultivating the taste buds!
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I love these guys, while I am not of Puerto Rican decent i love their food. Truly brings out our Caribbean Latin culture to life in their flavors.
I was first introduced to their food at street fairs, super excited when they opened their restaurant.
Thank you NY Times for highlighting our culture!
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"Diners sip on tropical-fruit shakes or bottles of Kola Champagne, Coco Rico and Malta India, the Harry, Ron and Hermione of Puerto Rican soft drinks," the sweetest thing I've read this week.
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Beautiful photos of food, la verdad! We're too far away to try this place but it looks great to me. I don't mind hairy arms but sure hate head hair hanging free.
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Looking forward to visiting this restaurant soon!! I love his you tube channel and have followed his journey for some time now.
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Great pastries. Had them shipped to Georgia. Yum- o
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I love pasteles, alcapurrias, pastelones de amarillos, bacalaitos but if there are no guanimes con bacalo, I will be very sad; but I will go to that place soon.
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@ german nyc
I admire and envy at the same time your profound familiarity with this cuisine.
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@german
I miss the guanimes con bacalo or tosino. My grandmother made them both ways
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I would have preferred to see bacalaitos eaten not with hands (Slide 1) and the hair on the forearms of the kitchen worker (Slide 4) covered.
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Every time someone mentions leaving Queens for another borough or place I’m like “But what am I going to eat?”
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In recent reviews, readers puzzled why a mostly stellar review where only a dish or two disappointed Pete Wells garnered only one star. The consensus was the strengths greatly outweighed the weak points and should have been awarded with an extra star.
Here I'm wondering the opposite. A few dishes like the pasteles were exceptional. Most seemed to disappoint. The "menu can start to appear unsteady," the pork chops "can be dry and dull," the chicken ain't "much more interesting," and the baked pork ribs "aren't very persuasive."
Sorry, this was a zero star review. And one of the few times it appears Pete switched hats with the female writer who used to critique these more affordable hole in the wall restaurants that tend to be in less trendy sections of NYC.
Oh and I bet a restaurant this size is ill-equipped to handle the crush that might follow a starred review by Mr. Wells in the NYT.
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@ foodalchemist Hellywood
I think that one loses the sight of the forest because of the trees, when one starts paying attention to the number of stars -- a number that is both subjective and arbitrary.
One could have rated the restaurants on some numerical scale, either decimal or octal for fun, and the result would have been as good or as bad as with the Michelin-inspired stars.
@foodalchemist The “female” writer's name was and is Ligaya Mishan, and her series is called Hungry City. And what is wrong with Wells eating wherever the heck he wants to? Eleven dishes in the Recommended Dishes section compared with only three dishes that were more disappointing is certainly not zero stars.
If you want zero stars, try his infamous review of Guy Fieri's Guy's American Bar & Kitchen from 2012. What this article made me appreciate, aside from how amazing some of the dishes sound, is how good the Times food writers are, from Pete Wells back to Amanda Hesser, Ruth Reichl, and beyond. The level of writing they work at (love it or hate it) is really head and shoulders above the rest.
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I have been watching you on YouTube for a while now. I have learned many new ways to make my dishes better. Somethings my in laws did not show me. I am causation My husband is Puerto Rican. He was raised in the Bronx, I was raised in Philadelphia.
Congratulations on your Restaraunt, maybe I can convince him to bring me to New York to visit your Restaurant.
SherryLee
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@Sherry Rodriguez
Puerto Rican is not a race. Many PRs are Caucasian as well, or of European descent. Caucasian are also those from West Asia and North Africa.
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Sorry for the LOL! My husband is a Spaniard (with hairy arms) but we're both just white folks!
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The flavor combinations sound wonderful. However, Freakin Rican seems to suffer the same problem as most food-trucks/street-fare turned restaurant. When you work in a truck, you get really good at doing a short list of similar things really well. In this case, frying stuff. When it comes time to do a more traditionally oriented dinner menu though, it can be hard to find balance.
I'm not sure what Puerto Ricans traditionally use but it sounds like the menu could use a something light and/or savory to counter balance a rather rich/heavy upfront. At lunch, that isn't going to matter so much because, theoretically, you aren't eating as much. And as always, dinner without booze is a tough sell. Certainly sounds interesting enough to try though.
One other problem with street fare turned restaurant: Now you have to travel to them. You mean you aren't waiting to serve me food where I was going anyway? Clearly restaurant owners are incredibly selfish. [sarcasm]
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Muy buen artículo, te felicito Pedro Wells.
Thank you for mentioning Piñones, what once was a beloved enclave of Puerto Rican weekends and family outings. We survived the week holding on to the promise that Sunday would come and we would go to the beach and eat bacalaitos... the aroma of fried plantains and perfectly seasoned mince, crab meat, and bacalao, once marked the entrance to paradise. By the way, the owner is embracing the code language in Puerto Rican culture. Good on you restaurant owner! There’s a reason why he named it “Freaking” Rican and it has nothing to do with what most people would associate that “f” word with. Puerto Rican culture is largely impenetrably protected in code language and quite beautifully so, well done restaurant owner! One thing though: the article did not need the reference to the canoe floating in the “Puerto Rican parade” as it sprinkled a bit of mockery and stereotyping, diminishing an otherwise elegant piece of food commentary & most islanders see that Parade in Nueva York as distant as any possible equivalent in Iceland. That aside, a very good article. Good on you Pedro Pozos!
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@Aroch I've looked at this article very carefully several times, and the only reference to a "canoe" is in your comment. I am not Puerto Rican, but I think what Pete Wells was saying is that the pasteles deserve special recognition -- that is, their own float in a parade meant to celebrate a particular culture -- the way he might say that a particular dish from a restaurant located in Pasadena, California, deserves its own float in the Rose Bowl parade. Hokey, maybe. Unnecessarily cliched, possibly. But not mockery.
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Just an aside, Playa Piñones is an awesome place!!! Anyone visiting San Juan should check it out. It looks run down, but stay long enough to feel the Boriqua vibe. It’s wonderful, welcoming, and stocked with good food, good people, and fun drinks. Personally, I like it best on weekends. Anyway, this great article just got me thinking...
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This place sounds good- it's sad that a good bacalaito is now hard to find in NYC and pasteles are becoming harder. Might be worth the long trip out to Queens. Meanwhile, I highly recommend La Fonda Boricua on 106th Street in El Barrio- in my opinion, the best Puerto Rican food in the city right now.
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@Antonio
Thank you! I will go there when I visit NYC next time. My favorite are the yuca alcapurrias!
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