El Malecon Restaurant
4141 Broadway, New York, NY
(212) 927-3812
Recently I was tipped about a famous Dominican restaurant in Washington Heights by a business associate, who claimed that El Malecon made the best Latino-style roast chicken in the universe. It didn’t take much for him to convince me that he should bring me there for lunch. Not having had a large exposure to Dominican food (although I have had my share of Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran and Colombian) I was quite excited to go — and I’m definitely going back as its literally just over the GW bridge if you live in North Jersey.
El Malecon on the corner of 175th and Broadway. There are several NYC branches but this is the original location.
Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for Dominican food pictures and commentary.
A funky converted theatre across the street that is now operating as a church.
El Malecon main dining room.
Counter area
The window by the rotisserie area, where you can see the chickens being pulled off the spits.
El Malecon’s rotisserie
Roast chickens awaiting their fate. By the way, I don’t reccomend you go shooting a lot of photos in here, this shot nearly got me kicked out of the place.
Everyone starts off with a wonderful garlic bread made from Criollo loaf, which is a light and airy kind of French bread.
Sopa de Mariscos, seafood soup.
Sancocho, a hearty chicken soup with Yuca.
Country Club sodas, the national soft drinks of the Dominican Republic. The red one is raspberry flavor whereas “Merengue” is like a champagne cola.
Dominican rice and beans. Great stuff.
The main event. The skin was crispy and the meat was falling off the bone, tender and flavorful. The small container is like a garlicky salad dressing which is great as a condiment for the chicken.
Cafe con Leche, the Latino version of Cafe Au Lait. Made with very strong coffee.
Off The Broiler 
No knock on Malecón, but upper Manhattan and the Bronx are loaded with places that produce similar yummy food. Love the stuff.
How herbed up was the skin? I have found a few places going a bit too heavy. Still good though.
And bravo for mentioning the Spanish coffee.
Jonathan
dood! as great as this was you HAVE to go back for the brunch on the weekend! you ask for “Los Tres Golpes” which is eggs served with mangu, topped with pickled red onions, with fried salami, longaniza, …3 words:
SHOOT
ME
NOW!!!
of course its not something you can have everyday, but OMG, every once in awhile, it is HEAVEN!!
Daisy, I think you hit on something. I’ve been introduced to Latin American brunch style via my Peruvian girlfriend. I’ve had chicharrones a couple of times including last weekend in Montreal. What a great way to start the day!… Check out the dish @
Jason,
Do you ever ask permission to take photos in a restaurant before whipping out the camera?
Not usually, but it depends.
Working nights, my buddies and I dine at El Malecon at least once a week, usually at 1or 2AM. Service is great and the food is fantastic. I try to get there on Thursday night when they have pork and eggplant stew on the menu, outrageous. We skip the roast chicken in favor of the chicharron de pollo or the various forms of pescado. The mangu with pickled onions has replaced grits and potatoes as my favorite breakfast side dish.
[…] As I mentioned in an earlier post about El Malecon in Washington Heights, I am somewhat of a newbie when it comes to Dominican food. So I jumped at the chance to go to La Estrella Del Caribe with a group of friends a few weeks ago, which is a Dominican seafood restaurant. […]
[…] You may not be able to hear Diíaz himself reading from the extravagantly and justly praised The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, but you can listen to the author praising Washington Heights’ Dominican restaurants. He contributed an article on the subject to this month’s Gourmet. Also, at The New Yorker, there’s that old “How to Date a Browngirl…” audio excerpt. (Thanks to Cup of Tea & a Wheat Penny for the audio link; image of El Malecon, one of Díz’s favorites, taken from Off the Broiler.) […]
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