Merengue Restaurant

Try the kingfish in the coconut sauce. Te sientes aquí como en Santo Domingo. O mejor — Santiago.

The food had NO flavor. There were four people at our table who all ordered different plates, and all of us needed to put salt on our food, which is unheard of in our culture. I am Dominican, and this food does NOT represent our cuisine. Tons of waitresses that stand around gossiping. The «manager» had the biggest attitude. Do yourself a favor and go to El Embajador for tastier food at a much better price. Even the buffet at the back of Happy’s Supermarket is superior, granted you have to order your food to go. 1 star food, 1 star service, at a 4 star price =| Would give it a half a star if I could!

Always love going out to eat there when I am in the area! Food is always fresh and delicious

Their customer service is AWFUL! I placed an order to them, called multiple times to find out where my order was only to call the last time (after waiting an additional 45 minutes from when I called last) and have no one answer because the restaurant was closed for the day. If you eat there don’t bother with delivery, it sucks! When/​if they do show up, the driver is rude and treats you as though you are not a paying customer. Plenty other latin restaurants to choose from and I will do JUST that from now on!

So far the pastelitos were good small but good.
Seems a little busy but nothing hectic. Sat myself down since they have no host. Around 1:50 pm. 10 mins for app to come out finished it like it was a small bag of chips. Entrée comes out 50 minutes later and at this point I have given up and the food is cold. So I doubt I’ll come back.

Tried this place for the first time a couple days ago. I’m definitely a fan of Latin cuisine and thought this was really good. I especially appreciated the presentation. I ordered the grilled pork-​chops with chipotle sauce and the pork-​chops were perfectly seasoned and tender. I accompanied this dish with a side of Spanish rice which was pretty good, although I would have preferred a bit of more spice to it. My critique is more for the ambiance of the restaurant. The music was inconsistent while I was there. Sometimes it was playing, while other times it was not. Also, the lighting was awkward. It has such a colorful feel in the restaurant, so you’d think there’d be some bright lights or something but the lights suggested more of an intimate vibe which didn’t really fit the scheme of the restaurant. But alas! I’d go back.

I’ve Eaten at Merengues once… the food was yummy I enjoyed my dinner with a Presidente, the Vibe was a Island feel which was very nice. however the tables are very close an was quite uncomfortable… the service was okay… But the Greetings from waitresses could be more inviting .I Love Dominican Cuisine an I would recommend eating there.

The food here is awesome! The portions are huge so you’ll definitely have leftovers. I’ve had the breaded thin cut steak with white rice and beans (so good!) I’ve also had a few other dishes that were just as good. I strongly recommend trying to piña colada.
The only bad thing is that the service is super slow but the good food usually makes up for it. Avoid if you’re starving and/​or in a rush, you will be waiting for a while.

My husband and I really enjoy the food every time we go. I never get the same thing and everything I’ve tried is delicious. The prices are extremely reasonable and for the most part waiting to be seated doesn’t take long. I would have given 5 stars but I feel the waiters should be a little more friendly and on point. The last time I went we waited about 10 minutes before anyone came to see us because our waiter was having a conversation with another waiter right near our table.

the food is tasty. BUT PLEASE DO NOT DELIVER! I ordered at 12.39 pm and it is 2.36 pm and I still have not received my food. WAY TO GO MERENGUE! get some more drivers. !

I like this little spot! Always end up getting the Garlic chicken breast w/​yellow rice & sweet plaintain. Oh yea with a strawberry smoothie! Not too expensive either full circle pan of rice, nice big chicken breast, full box of plaintain with a side salad for like ¹⁴⁄₁₅ bucks! Can’t beat that! Nice spot for when you want something other than pizza, subs & chinese *blah

Great food. Beautiful atmosphere. Some staff need to work on customer service. Doesn’t hurt to smile sometimes.

I would give this place 5 stars based on the family experience and food, but settled for 4 due to the poor service. We went twice just to be sure that it wasn’t an error with the first waitress. Unfortunately, the service was still bad after the second go around. The food is excellent… Some of the best Spanish cooking we have ever had, but the service was terrible. Waiting for the bill was like waiting for pigs to grow wings and fly. Same thing with asking for a drink or to let someone know my order was missing. Unless the service changes, we will order take out from now on.

Wow! I am amazed at the superior quality of the chicken! I normally have absolutely no interest in chicken, finding it generally bland and chewy, but this place knows something most other restaurants don’t. The chicken was not only delicious but excellently seasoned. I also sampled some plantains and rice. Delish! I am not in the area frequently, but will definitely stop in again.

Had a few delicious things here: Arroz con Camarones (Shrimp Rice), Tostones, Maduros, Bistec Merengue. Also the Queso y Salami Frito app was perfect. As a side, do yourself a favor and get the Rice and Beans. It’s a staple and its prepared perfectly.
A few things were not as good as I expected: Sangria (Margarita was better but still low on alcohol), Chicharrones (very tough, if you like hard meat they are for you), Yuca Frita (they look like mozzarella sticks, quite odd), Mofongo was weak too.
The drinks we tried were not very alcoholic and excessively sweet so I would just stick to a beer (Corona) unless you just love sugary drinks. The last complaint I have is that the temperature on a Fri afternoon was surprisingly low in there. It was as though they didn’t want to turn on the heat which is a real drag in Boston. This was our second time there and we didn’t have that issue the first time (fri night) so perhaps it was just a strange oddity.

I have only eaten here once but it definitely won’t be my last. Friends and I visited recently for dinner and the restaurant was busy but we did not feel rushed. We ordered appetizers that were fresh and large in portion size. I had the berejena asado with tostones and my friends had the meat sampler and pastilitos.
For dinner I had camarones with aroz con habichuelas and maduros, which was white rice, a side of beans and shrimp in a red creole sauce. The portion size was large and the dish very flavorful. My friends had a salmon plate and a chicken plate and both gave good reviews for flavor. One suggestion was to include a sauce on the side for the fried chicken plate as the meat and rice were a tad bit dry. We did not have room for dessert!
Looking forward to visiting again soon!

I am comparing this not just to the Dominican food I’ve had growing up, but also to the hole-​in-​the-​wall Latino Restaurant in Jamaica Plain (with food so delicious, you’ll keep going back for more).
Merengue does not have the best Dominican food, ever, but the prices are great, the servings are generous, and the wait-​staff is good. Nobody rushes you out, so you get to sit and eat in peace and actually enjoy your meal. We didn’t feel rushed at all. The servings are incredibly generous. There were four of us, and only one person was able to finish her entire meal. Kudos to her– I think she should have gotten a prize for that.
The one disappointment: no ‘pollo guisado’ on the menu — a staple in Dominican households. There was plenty of chicken, but none were the traditional stew.
$ 11 for steak and onions, rice, beans, and a side salad. Even though it didn’t have that chicken, I can’t complain about how much i paid.

Big vat of sangria with no ice and it’s good… so for $ 25, you get like ⁵⁄₆ glasses.
The food was also great. I didn’t like the breaded yuca, though (I did eat all of it — so it wasn’t bad, just what I wasn’t use to). Otherwise, I can’t wait to go back!

Went here for dinner with my boyfriend and his friend. I would give this place 3.5 stars if possible.
GOOD: Grilled meat, piña colada
BETTER: Fried cassava!!! best dish by far
EH: Chicken Mofongo (extremely starchy, would never order again probably anywhere), Plantains (cold-​ish, not cooked enough), shrimp ceviche (tastes like frozen shrimp, absolutely not worth it for the price)
The service was extremely slow even though it was not that crowded, although the waitresses were really nice to us. I have had better dominican food and haven’t had to pay as much for it.

Tonight must have been the 4^th time I’ve been here and it seems things get worse each time. My review will only base on today.
I noticed the price has gone up, but yet, the portion size has either stayed the same or a bit smaller.
Each entry comes with a side salad which is pretty cool. For certain other entrees you can pick either tostones or rice and beans, etc (located on SIDES) and it’s pretty to follow menu.
I ordered the Paella. My two friends ordered the Churrasco 8oz. Steak and the last friend ordered the grilled Shrimp with rice and beans.
I would say that the Paella was pretty good. The rice was cooked right, not too dry nor too saucy. The only complaint i have on it is that the seafood were overcooked. The lobster tail which was a very TINY piece, was completely dry and chewy, as were the shrimp. The muscles, on the other hand were fine.
Both my friends ordered the steak MED WELL, which means there shouldn’t be any red in it and definitely hardly any pink. Instead, one of them was pretty PINK/​borderline RED on some parts. She was unable to eat most of it so we did a little bit of swapping of food. Her order of Tostones were dry and cold, like a rock. you can hit that on the plate. lol. The server was nice enough to grab a new order for us. she even offered Dessert for the time we had to wait for the food to come out.
The service was barely ok. The place wasn’t too busy but for some reason the food was just taking forever to come out. I was very disappointed that they didn’t at least bring out some of the side orders first. For example, they could have brought the salads out first before the main entrees are done. We just sat there and chatted and it was slightly annoying because we were all hungry.
We had a groupon to use which wasn’t much but the server felt the need to point out the Bill BEFORE the groupon and AFTER the groupon. Did she think we were going to rip her off on her tip?

Roxbury’s reputation has its way of scaring foreigners like myself away from ever roaming through the neighborhood. It’s taken a Groupon deal to Merengue to help me muster up the courage to venture in.
We arrived for lunch on a snowy day and thought it was interesting to note that Merengue’s owner also has a banquet and meeting room right next door, for large parties and events, I assume. Unmoved by the storefront, I was pleasantly surprised by the look and feel of the inside the restaurant. Bright blue walls and artwork adorned the restaurant, which made it feel warm and inviting.
Merengue is pretty spacious and we were seated right away. The place wasn’t too crowded and our waitress decently prompt. We decided to order:
Red Snapper in Coconut Sauce with a salad ($ 14.95) and paid an additional $ 5 to substitute the side with Mofongo (Mashed plantains with pork or chicken, accompanied with chicken broth)
Grilled Chef Special: 8oz grilled steak with chimichurri sauce which came with a salad and a choice of one side (I picked Spanish Rice) ($ 16).
The salad came out first which is was pretty basic; for dressing they had balsamic as well as oil and vinegar at the table. The food took a little while to come out, and I noticed that other people seemed to be waiting a while, too. When we finally did get our food, everything smelled delicious. I’m no Dominican food connoisseur; I knew everything had good flavor, but the food was still not phenomenal.
The mofongo tasted dry. The Spanish rice? Dry. And! If the red snapper hadn’t been surrounded by its own (pretty damned good) coconut curry sauce, it would also taste very dry. The chicken broth that accompanied the mofongo was actually pretty stellar, and therefore, we used this as well as the coconut sauce to put on everything else. The steak was also Ok, and tasted better with the aid of the chimichurri and lime juice.
I had higher hopes for Merengue, but in the end, because everything had the common theme of being dry, I felt let down. It was good to try something new, but I don’t foresee myself coming back any time soon.