Emperador Elias Restaurant

I have gotten lunch here on a sporadic level different times since they are conveniently located near the J train station. I am glad that they have a $ 5 lunch special and have such a great selection of food ranging from chicken, salmon, various vegetables and delicious soups. They give you a nice size prion of food for the $ 5 dollar lunch special.

Great food and good service. There’s karaōke Sunday nights. Good music and good vibes! My family tends to dine here occasionally. Elias, the owner is very friendly. I freaking LOVE this place!!!

Great 4 $ happy hour margaritas. Not too sweet, and you can taste the tequila. Just how I like them!
Haven’t had the food yet but it looks great and the owner is a nice guy.

I wish I would’ve been able to try their food but the waitresses cursed at me and my boyfriend when we couldn’t decide what to eat quick enough. They decided it to yell it at us while we were walking towards the exit. Great customer service.

Food was good here did not eat in the restaurant
We ordered the food to go
Nothing wrong with the food just was not impressed i was expecting a lot more
With the quality and quantity of it

I’ve been here several times and each time I go, the service gets worse. I recently placed an order on seamless. Horrible experience. It took over an hour for the food to arrive. I ordered a passion fruit shake and received a lemonade. I also ordered a burger medium well and the burger was as hard as a rock upon arrival. It was disgusting and I had to throw it out. My bf on the other hand ordered white rice/​beans/​baked chicken. He wasn’t crazy about it either.

«Just OOOKK»
I randomly stumbled into this place for lunch. The food is just alright there and is nothing to write home (or on Unilocal) about. I will say that I had the prepared food, so I cannot say if the order a la carte type food is better. However, I the prices seemed a little up there ($ 15+ bucks) for the type of place that Emperador is. I had the salmon with rice and beans. The salmon tasted a little old and was kind of bland. Maybe the fried stuff is what you are supposed to order at this place because I was the only person who did not have fried food. The service is pretty good too.
The place itself is kind of interesting in terms of décor because it is a Dominican restaurant but the wall has be painted with images from Italy or Greece? I am assuming Greece, since the restaurant has «Elias» in its name. Um. .. I guess. I will say that one annoying thing about this place is that the music is WAAAYYY too loud. I latin music choices were great but I would be really annoyed if I was here with someone else because I would have scream just to talk to the person next to me.

I went there last night and had the chicken stew over rice. Amazing! The waitress gave me so much chicken I thought I could not finish it. If you love Dominican food, this is the place to go in Williamsburg.

The crab stuffed clams was on point.
The deluxe burger sucks.
They took 2 hrs to deliver and the containers were broken in the bags!

This food is delicious! The wait staff is very friendly and the music, ay la musica, es perfecta! I love the mofongo with pork. I will be back

There’s nothing like sitting down to an ice cold platter of mofongo! Ordered at 3:01pm, delivery guy knocked on my door at 5pm. Glad I ordered it with a salad instead of the soup because having cold soup as well as the cold mofongo would’ve made me a sad panda. Tastes ok but I won’t be ordering from there again.

Rotisserie chicken was decent. Rice was dry and cup of beans that came with it was missing beans (5 beans to be exact and the rest was just liquid). Tostones pretty average. Service was extremely slow. Had to wait 20 min to get my food to go, considering there was only one person in front of me to be helped and 3 people behind the counter (mostly chit chating).

Been coming for years. Latin environment but the food will please anyone. Good for dinner and late night

I stumbled across Emperador Elias on GrubHub late at night, while I was in the mood for Spanish food. I decided to give them a try because their ratings seemed pretty good, and boy am I glad I did. I ordered the mofongo with fried pork, BBQ ribs with rice & pigeon peas and grilled chicken with yellow rice. And let me say, I am very impressed with this restaurant.
The BBQ ribs and grilled chicken meals both came in two tins, one containing the protein and the other containing the rice. They give you huge portions, which are well worth the price you pay for the meal itself. The mofongo and fried pork came in one large tin, but it was full to bursting with food. So if you’re worried about the amount of food you get for the price, have no fear, Emperador Elias has you covered.
Usually I’m quite hard to please when I’m in the mood for a particular style of food. So I had my expectations set really low when I ordered my food. And for once, I was completely wrong. The food was fantastic! The grilled chicken was well seasoned, cooked through perfectly and was very moist. The BBQ ribs were rendered down perfectly and were swimming in sauce. And the mofongo, don’t even get me started. The mofongo was the highlight of the entire meal. It was so delicious, I couldn’t get enough. I’m not going to rave on about it, but seriously, try that stuff. You won’t regret it, it’s that good!
*Update* Food from here has been getting consistently poorer over time. The mofongo that was previously amazing has turned absolutely rancid. And I mean that, as it tastes spoiled. I will not be ordering food from here ever again.

I’ve been coming here for over 10 years. They still serve great Dominican food, but their Sunday buffet has fell off recently. I suggest not ordering from that. I love their fried colossal shrimp and sweet plantains.

The two-​block strip of Broadway underneath the Marcy Avenue J stop has repelled the rapid gentrification of the surrounding neighborhood almost completely. The restaurants and fast-​food places here are either fast food chains and Puerto Rican, Dominican and Mexican counters reflecting the population that lives in the aging apartments that look over the subway.
The name ‘El Emperador Elias’ is likely a reference to an early Franciscan who eventually defected to the Holy Roman Emperor and was excommunicated by Pope Gregory. Eventually you have to imagine that places like this will get expelled from the region to the further, as-​yet still Latino sections of Brooklyn.
But for now, stop by on a weeknight around 6 or 7 and see a thriving business of full roasted chickens heading upstairs, along with plates of mofongo and hearty island stews. A beer or two — this doesn’t seem to be the place to drink to excess — is nursed at the bar, perhaps with just a small snack.
The larger back area «the restaurant,» is quieter with large booths and a couple of common tables. A larger menu is served at the back, with several menu pages full of chops, pasta dishes and steak. Ignore these. This is a throwback of an unwelcome kind, the neighborhood restaurant that serves an undistinguished, «haute» Continental cuisine.
There’s no need to order any of this when there are world-​class pasta places, steakhouses and French restaurants within a mile, many of which have similar entrees at similar price points, only orders of magnitude better.
Sticking to more traditional Puerto Rican and Dominican fare will yield better results, with plump and moist chicken. The singularly satisfying thing was the simplest — a huge plate of white rice that came on separate plate from my main course. It was wonderfully rich, with a healthy dollop of butter mixed in before serving. This is the comfort food I hope this area never loses.

Best Dominic Resturant I’m Williamsburg!!! Monfogo is to die for!!! Dominic Monfogo with fried pork chops. So much garlic & flavor. Highly recommend

Was looking forward to a different type of restaurant — & chose Emperador Elias Restaurant in Williamsburg. I had Pork Mofongo and my date had the chicken Mofongo. Started with nice chicken soup… and the main courses came out — I liked the Mofongo — a bit heavy, maybe a more wintery meal but nice… I liked the plantain in the Mofongo… My pork was grilled very nice. Our waitress was sweet and made us feel welcome… all in all a nice dinner and very nice prices

I had the mofongo with grilled steak and my gf had a plate of fettucini alfredo; both plates were delicious! Especially for the price! My mofongo was perfect, the steak was perfectly cooked and juicy and the green plantains tasted fresh and very well seasoned.
I went on a Monday night and the place was relatively empty so food came out quick. Yet toward the end of the night the waitress still managed to be very unattentive when it came to giving me and taking the check. What else can you expect from a poorly trained wait staff though, food was still good. Great value place, just don’t expect great service.
Also, they play Dominican music (bachata and merengue) the entire time, which I liked… but it may not be for everyone. Just an FYI.

I love Spanish food, and if I am ever in the mood for another hearty meal, I am definitely coming back to Emperador Elias! First off, the restaurant is so nice and authentic looking inside. It is great for a lunch or dinner date. I came here for lunch to dine in, but I noticed a lot of people ordering food to go in their buffet area.
The service was extremely slow here and it wasn’t very busy. I noticed our waitress going back and forth behind the bar eating chicken legs… I guess we came during her lunch break.
I ordered the Shrimp Stuffed Crabmeat. Each meal comes with white or yellow rice and beans. I got the white rice with beans. The meal also comes with a salad! It was so much food. The four shrimp and crabmeat were all so fresh and delicious. The rice and beans were a meal on its own due to how big the portion size was.
My friend ordered the Flounder with yellow rice and beans. The yellow rice was definitely the better choice! Both of our meals were wonderful; however, we both agreed that they were a bit too salty.
Still…the food here is incredible and I highly recommend anyone to try it out! I would love to come back here one day!