La Isla Restaurant

This is comfort food dominican style, and super yummy!
Don’t expect frills — there’s none. Just cheap eats.
Porks, chickens, plantanos, tostones, empanada, soups, rice, beans, etc.
Super nice people, busy place. Thank god there’s still a few of these places operating!!!
Right below the MARCY subway stop.

Tons of food if you get their mini entrée, it’s enough for two meals at $ 7. I got the ribs over rice with beans. I felt it was all a little too salty and although some parts of my ribs were perfectly moist, a majority of it was dry and hard. My chicken empanadas were also pretty dry. It’s okay for the price but I would go to the other Spanish places in the area.

A bit disappointed after ordering stewed chicken and white rice. The chicken was tasteless and the rice also had no flavor. There were some carrots and potatoes but no taste at all. I normally order pernil and i was here just 1 day ago boasting about how great and reliable the pernil is. UNMfortunate for me that my food was tasteless and at $ 8.25, it is even more expensive than my normal pernil, rice and beans. Go figure? Maybe i need to find me another restaurant that has spanish food and its open this late.

This is a no frills lunch counter type place that is open pretty late. Food is served from a steam bar behind the counter, although if you order the fish or pork chops they prepared in back. The food is delicious here, I’ve tried the pork, the fried chicken, the beef stew. All of it delicious. The beef stew is my favorite. The pork was so gooood. They give you great portions and huge portions of rice and beans.
The price is right, very inexpensive for what you receive. The service is friendly. I would go here for the food even if it were twice as expensive.

I just happened to be driving down Broadway and saw this place and I had to stop in. I’m so happy I stumbled upon this delicious hole in a wall located in Williamsburg. I love Spanish food and this place is AMAZING! Everything was made fresh and they give you a lot of bang for your buck. I live in Long Island and would travel all the way here for this deliciousness.

Remember when Madonna sang la Isla bonita??? I think she was talking about this little gem.
Last night, after 2 weeks of hype, my friend finally took me here after a night drinking at Duff’s around the corner. We ordered 3 empanadas to share between the 2 of us. They were huge and well filled. We devoured them crossing the Williamsburg headed to another dive bar in the east village.
Were they good? I think so, as far as I can recall. This morning in my quasi hungover state I found a half of a chicken one in my purse and promptly ate it. It was fantastic, so I’m gonna guess it was really delish last night!

Perfect for carnivores. True whole in the wall.
They serve mostly meats, rice and beans. I recommend the pork chop and black sausages. Cheap and delicious.
I started the order in English and finished in Spanish.

As soon as I walked in I noticed that the floor was wet and had pieces of food and napkins on the floor. I was left feeling disgusted and dirty the entire time, but I couldn’t leave because I was having dinner with my family. The chicken was dry and salty and the beans tasted like lettuce. The only tasty thing served were the sweet plantains.
This is a place you go to if you have very little money and little respect for what you put in your body.

Found this place totally by accident today and, since I was hungry, I stopped in. The place is small and clean and there is bar seating only. Staff was friendly. I ordered the half chicken and yellow rice. I was tempted to get a side of maduros, but decided to just try the chicken and rice for now. I was not disappointed. The chicken was well-​seasoned and perfectly grilled. Even had burnt wing tips and bits of burn skin just the way I like it. The yellow rice was well cooked and flavorful. In all, quite satisfactory.
This place is super cheap. I got enough food for two meals all for the low price of $ 6. I’ll be back because the other items on display looked delicious.
I’m giving it 3 stars for now, but may add another after I’ve tried something else.

Have you looked at the pics for this restaurant? That _​_​_​_​is real!!!
You literally get a half chicken and a full place of rice and the most delicious beans (of my life). Those beans were so good, I, one of the greatest carnivore I know, neglected the chicken almost completely. Seriously, I ate ALL the beans and took more than a quarter of the chicken with me to go. Oh, did I mention it was for the low price of $ 5 — $ 1.50 beans/​rice and $ 3.50 chicken.
Oh, oh, I almost forgot. To complement my wonderful proteins and starch (no veggies), pina and coconut juice (I had it mixed ’cause I’m awesome). If I could have dumped it directly in my mouth, my New York trip would have been perfected!
Did I mention all this good ingesting came at 2 in the morning? For about 30 minutes my husband and I sat alone, then boom, 25 people were served. When we left, at about 3, there were still 10 people there.
What a wonderful find! Thanks to you, Unilocal Nation!

Amazing! Huge platter of rice and beans with chicken stew for only $ 7. It’s not a dine in place, I’m not sure if I remember seeing any chairs. I guess you can dine standing by the counter. But its a good choice for take out. Don’t forget to try the sesame seed drink! Be warned they don’t speak much English. But a good place to try out your spanish! Oh, side note, the area is kinda sketchy.

Let’s see: a giant plate of rice and beans served with a perfectly roasted, juicy half chicken for $ 6. SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
Note: only bar seating here… and the staff speaks broken english. But they’re nice enough to you and you can order in english. Just be prepared for the fact that no one else in the place will speak much english, if at all. I guess that makes this place mad authentic.

Cheap and unhealthy. Sometimes that’s exactly what we want!

Cheap Ass Dominican Food. I got the Pernil (Roasted Pork) with Arroz and Habchelas (Rice and Beans). The pork was fatty and the beans were good but the rice tasted like it’s been sitting there for an entire day. Also got the Ajonjoli or Sesame Seed Drink which was actually really good. Well, for $ 8 in total, it’s definitely cheap and service is fast and simple. More like a diner in a Latin American country.

Really loving their frituras, damn good late night/​drunk food.

Se Venden Cuchifritos!
Before the gentrification of the lower east side, places like these were lined up everywhere! Its definitely not healthy. But its really really cheap.
The show case with hot lamps feature goodies like Morcilla (Blood sausage), pastelillos (like an empanada), Relleno de Papa (fried ball of potato with ground beef), alcapurria (fried yuca and plantains stuffed with beef), bacalaitos (cod fish fritters) and SO.MUCH.MORE.
The cuchifritos are a steal at $ 1.25 a piece but if fried food doesnt sound good to you, they also have rotisserie chicken and pernil (roast pork) with rice and beans.
Its open at all hours of the day and night. In the wintery mornings, i come in here for a large steaming cup of café con leche for the bargain price of $ 1.25.
Also, if you are a party animal, stumble in here drunk for the perfect drunk munchies.
Its cash only so save $ 5 for a substantial meal.
This is not a place for ambiance. Its kinda dumpy. But i could give two shits about the chipped tiles so long as my food is fresh and delicious.
Best to eat the food on site. I brought back an alcapurria to the office. 20 minutes in the bag made it gummy and soggy. The pastelillo travels really well– so crispy!

Wonderful CHEAP Dominican place to grab a whole roasted chicken, cut and quartered for you, and a mess of yummy Cuchifritos and sides to drag home to your cave to eat while watching mindless TV. OR, if you are out and about bar hopping, La Isla is also open late. Right under the train tressle near the Marcy Avenue stop on the J, M, Z
Love the Jibaro On Canao (sweet plantain canoe filled with meat), the Yuca Frita, and the Morcillas (blood sausages). Great hot sauce.
I love that this place exists just a stone’s throw from the pricey hip part of town.

after a long night of hard drinking and harder music at Duff’s with Phil and his girl Stacey, we had to, of course, «stay hungry» as Twisted Sister so eloquently put it. so we stumble in here, because it was open and the menu looked cheap.
I ordered a beef empanada because the first two or three things I asked for were not available. I guess that happens at 4 AM, hahahaha.
apparently I inhaled the goddamn thing. from what I recall it was pretty good, with flaky crust and the beef being a bit spicy. the hot sauce was REALLY good. I recall that.
sampled some of the rice and beans from Phil while he was going to town eating a whole plate of roast chicken (I think it was an entire chicken farm’s worth of meat).
lemonade was really good too.
oh, the whole meal came to $ 11.75 for all three of us. WHAAAAT.
proceeded to get into a cab where the cabbie was singing his own words to ambient music. clearly, this man is an undiscovered musical genius, perhaps the next Mozart, Elvis, or Macho Man Randy Savage, and I am glad to have experienced that.

What the heck time was it last night when we stumbled in here after a night of hard drinking at Duff’s nearby? 3:30 AM? 4AM? Got me. All I know is that it was still open, had lots of cheap food, and we were drunk and starving.
Large-​ass crispy beef empanadas, whole roasted chicken cut and quartered, terrific yellow rice and beans, house hot sauce, and a half dozen or so juice and lemonade drinks to choose from. Devoured this meal as if it were my last. Was it any good? I think so. Who knows — we were hammered!
But it was a good meal to help soak up all the alcohol in my belly! Saw other patrons of the bar wander in here to eat as we were leaving. Thank goodness for these late night hole in the wall spots open until the wee hours. Right next to the subway stop too which is a bonus!

I want to rub myself in the fat globules dripping from your pernil into your aluminum take-​out pan after I’ve gently shredded the pork gladiator’s flesh with my jaws and slowly dragged it across my tongue into the pit of a starving lion.
I will proceed to get shot outside on Broadway.