The food was great. We ordered the fried chicken platter with white rice and beans and the rice with gandules with sauteed chicken breast. Both delicious and well seasoned. We will most def. be back. The prices are reasonable and the AC in the restaurant was great. Our waitress told us they only accepted one card for payment...very strange, what if we were a party of 10?? And tip is only cash, can't put on the card. Now I see why they have an ATM at the entrance. I won't take that away from their food. But def. good to know if anyone plans to go inside to eat.

Went for takeout and ended up buying more things when I was there because the vibe is great and the employeees were really respectful. My favorite is the tres golpes, which they make most of the day if you are looking for a spot that has it after lunch time. They season the mangu to perfection. And get the coffee and ask for some cinnamon in it! Its delicious!

If you don’t feel like cooking dinner Elena’s food is as close to home cooking as you will get! Flavorful, good price and great service.

The food is delicious! The service is great.

Excellent customer service. Great food. They have been around d a very long time and services and food have been the same since or have gotten even better.

I'm all the way in my feelings missing my favorite NY food. This by far is my favorite restaurant for Latin cuisine in NY. I've sat in this spot many times and shared a meal with friends and family. Every time I'm in NY, I make it my business to stop by. My favorites are the avocado salad, grilled steak with onions and CHICKEN CHICHARRONES, Love them!! #givingempress 🫶🏽

food was well cooked and good portions. special mention to Kelvin for his tremendous customer service. I just wish they offered delivery directly.

It’s top notch food EVERY SINGLE TIME I visit them which was since the late 80’s when they were small and they had a location across the street from their currant location …. I got the pepper chicken and,.. My BF gets the Red Snapper and won’t eat it from anywhere else!!! And that says a lot … This place is a CLASSIC…

(03/01/2024 Update) : I guess different days has different chefs I usually order a "family combo" on Thursdays & Fridays, my wife and I noticed on Thursdays the family combo is more flavorful than the family combo on "Fridays", for now on, we will definitely order a family combo on Thursdays

The food is really good so is the service

Beautiful place spanish restaurant excellent food Dominican style. Good service

Great food and super friendly staff

Been coming here for over 10 years. havent been here in 7 though. Still the best fried chicken around and salad dressing

This food was amazing.

Very good food and service.

Great food, friendly staff.

Great Dominican food and it doesn’t break the bank. My family and I eat here at least 2-3 times a month and it never gets old. If you ever visit this spot make sure and try the pollo Al horno is magnificent!

Food was great!!!! Good affordable food!!

I’m writing my review based on ordering take out ! The food was packed really well,it was super flavorful and the soup had plenty of meat and noodles! I had to go through Grub Hub for delivery but it was great comfort food while I was feeling sick

Love this place. Food is great and so are the staff!!! Think my family and I have tried just about everything on the menu. Found them when o moved to Queens Village about 20 years ago and now I live in another state and still go there when I visit NY.

The food is really great. Definitely recommend the sautéed chicken wit rice and beans, chicken in garlic sauce and steak.

Chyna Dimez

The food was amazing 10/0 customers service was great ! Me and my husband looking foward to eating lunch here again thank you

Lexy Dollas

This food was absolutely amazing we ordered take out on uber eats for my entire office tried the first the chicken the steak and the shrimp every single item cooked to perfection I couldn’t believe how great this was don’t skip out on the passion fruit juice either it’s amazingggg and takes me back to Puerto Rico 100/10 will definitely order again

Vanesa

We went to Elena’s and we left happy and full. Their food is a 10, made for your soul. If you love spanish cuisine this the spot in Queens. First we had some empanadas, their cheese & beef ones are fire. After we had salmon a la parilla in garlic sauce with some rice and peas with red beans & an order of maduros. Everything tasted so wonderful and their portions are very generous. We always come back, it’s my mans and my fav spanish spot. Service is very friendly and attentive. Fair prices for amazing food. Go check it out for yourself 🙏🏼

Marion Howell

I went on Sunday around noon with my family. We had brunch, and the food and staff were amazing.

+5

Fresh Williams

The food from this restaurant is excellent. I had the pernil with yellow rice and beans. Hands the best meal. I order this every time I come to this restaurant. I definitely would recommend this place to friends and family.

Will K

This is the best place for delicious food! You can not find any other place like it! Fresh every time! I brought my family here over a year ago and they love this place. Everytime I came from my photo studio I would have to stop and take food home. Call your order in and it will be ready for you!

Tamara B

The food is always delicious. It's one of the neighborhood jewels. I had the chicken breast in garlic sauce with rice and beans along with an avocado salad. The dressing is everything. Yummy

Jay Jeffries

I've come here for a long time and they never drop the ball. Food is delicious, fresh & affordable. We always order fried chicken, roast pork, rice w/ pigeon peas, sweet plantains & pork mofongo w/side of gravy. When you want a taste of home cooking here is best.

Good food, clean environment, noise level is moderate and the prices are reasonable. Great family dining experience. Tip: don't order the wine... they keep opened bottles at the bar with the liquor so it is served hot as hell. Lost a star for that. Service is good and food is served quickly. Dined here since 2004 and never had a complaint except for the wine I was served recently. Elena herself gave me a nice cold bottle of Snapple Apple in its place as I requested. Not the same as wine but it was good for me. Family of 4 and the bill was under $70 for dinner. The garlic shrimp is delicious. The arroz con pollo is delicious. My husband enjoys the flank steak. You won't be disappointed.

We get dinner from here A LOT. Great flavor and great prices. They have really nice employees, the restaurant itself is clean. We mostly do pickup or take out. Worth trying it out. Their mofongo is good, their roasted chicken, sancocho, boiled yuca, beef empanadas, bistec encebollado, I can go on...this is my family's regular go-to spot.

I absolutely love this Spanish restaurant. The fried chicken with white rice and beans is the best I've ever had. The food is really good and it has a very nice ambience. The only thing they need to improve is better server etiquette - sometimes it takes a while for the server to come by and take your order or even to check up on you if you need anything else.

We Used Elena's for catering of a family event, food was good service upon p/u was was satisfactory . Would probably soon

They are very short staffed. The service was very delayed. Including paying for the food.

We went here for dinner and the sangria and salad dressing were amazing. I got the Mediterranean salmon, potatoes and veggies and there wasn’t really a flavor to the food, it was extremely bland. I felt like I was eating healthy but the taste was quite boring for my liking. The service was the same as the food.

Got my food, got home and my pineapple cake was missing. I should have checked. My pork chop was pretty though...my sweet tooth is crying!!

Tori

So I've been going herr for many years and the food was good as usual. But this particular time I realized something i haven't noticed before. No more complimentary salad. And I'm cool with that. But to tell me i have to pay $1 for you to drizzle some gravy over my rice is INSANE.. I had to laugh at that. We as a people are becoming very petty.

Toni-Ann Henry (Toni)

I ordered takeout around lunchtime. The place was empty, but they had a lot of pick up orders. My food took a little while to be prepared, but the staff did inform me of the wait. I ordered a Cuban sandwich with fries. The fries were as crispy as I like. The sandwich was a little dry, but nothing that a little sauce couldn’t fix. I would try this place again.

First of all, the staff is very friendly and looks like restaurant is family owned. The food was nice, but I think a little overpriced. It was also very dry, in my opinion. We had a fairly large portions a part of which we had to pack up with us. Interior, by the way, was clean, I think that is very important for this type of business.

Food decent but garlic sauce a 1.00 for thimble size is straight robbery They should be complimentary with orders but they hold on to it tighter than duck sauce at Chinese restaurant Shame on you Elena’s you know y’all wrong for that Atleast increase the size Not cool and you lose cool points for that

The food is always good but the service leaves much to be desired! The young girl who is at the counter has a bad attitude!! She was slamming the phone slamming people food while packing the to go. I was appalled!! Another customer who was picking up food even mentioned to her that she seems upset! She needs customer service training!! Always check you order before you leave everytime they forget something! The atmosphere is nice..

Ay un Elemento! but it’s not there fault I would order takeout. They messed up my Oder but the food was good enough to give them the benefit of the doubt it was Mother’s Day so it was crazy. Prices are pretty high.

I live a few minutes from Elena's and have been going with my family for years. The food has always been amazing and we brag to other friends & family to try them. The flavor has been unmatched up until today. Today I stand corrected. I normaly get the family combo 43 style. Today the yellow rice with gandules was bland and minimally seasoned. The Chicken was barely seasoned not flavorful as well. (I had that chicken taste in my mouth). Hopefully it was just a 1 time thing and just a bad day for the chef. I will be back and hopefully not disappointed. I will hope for the best. Not many Latin restaurants to choose from in the Fran Hill area of Queens Village.

This is the fourth time I ordered from here. I thought I left a review before because the food was amazing. This time unfortunately I ordered the pernil because I love it and the last three times it was so tender. I an unable to eat it tonight the pork is so dry I can barely swallow it. I wish I knew what day the make it.

I ordered fried snapper meal. The fish was small for the price, but tasty. The rice had about a dozen beans in it and there was nothing else included. Staff aren't that friendly.

Food is decent but the prices have gone up a bit. I guess that's anywhere nowadays. The accuracy of online and phone orders needs definite improvement.

I wouldn't recommend doing take out from this resturant. The portions are much smaller and they always forget to put something in the bag. Dinning in is a much better experience and big portions. The food is good. The fried poke and plantains is very tasty. Some of staff at the resturant are friendly while others can come off as being rude. I use to come here frequently but the good service I once knew has decreased.

Atmosphere is good. Clean. Inviting. Food was good. Staff could use more personality and also be more attentive. Asking for more water and feeling like you're bothering them is not a good experience. Also, you cannot use your debit/credit card unless it's over $20. We were not told this upon being seated and was not posted anywhere. This is the 21st century. Not alot of people carry cash. Makes your servers suffer as well when your customers only have enough cash to pay the bill.

DISCLAIMER THIS REVIEW IS ABOUT DESSERT ONLY! We ordered here three times for food. The food was very good no complaints there. Everyone enjoyed their meal. Today I ordered just dessert, I can honestly say this was the worst Tres Leche cake I had. Not a bad taste but very, Very dry I am so disappointed.

The food I have had was decent. I have been here on two occassions recently. I had their roast chicken meal once and their pork meal. What I enjoyed more than anything was the rice and beans but that's after putting hot sauce on it. The fact that it was slightly cold in the restaurant didn't make for a overall pleasant dining exprience.

Food is great! Service is poor. They take forever to get you your food. I ordered two empanadas and it took about 30 mins to come. Recommend ordering ahead.

Their food is usually good but the last time I went there they pissed me off I ordered chicken soup one large and one small. In the large chicken soup they gave me 4 pieces of chicken on bone that had hardly any meat so the bones were taking up space making the container look full but really the bones aren’t eatable. The rest of the soup was a small piece of yuca, a little bit of carrots and hardly any noodles and broth. Felt ripped off.

Ordered a sancocho, didn’t come with white rice. First Dominican restaurant that o e ordered sancocho and it didn’t come accompanied with rice.

Really wanted to enjoy the food and bring friends here for dinner but unfortunately won't be returning. The green plantains were store bought frozen in box and basically the Cook just heated it up . ( Have bought this in store before) . Avocado salad was a big disappointment..(see pic) . Pieces of avocado on top to conceal cheap iceberg lettuce. I was planning on ordering fish since I do not eat pork and very rarely eat chicken & beef but after reading reviews about same oil used for cooking diff meats, will NOT be returning. Elena's has their regular customers who eat unhealthy so not for me & majority of them are obese. Will spend my money elsewhere.

The only problem I had was that I ordered stewed chicken. The order of stewed chicken is 3 pieces for $15.95. Yes, you read it right.

Amy McNeil

Out of 10 i give this place a 5. This was my first time getting food from here. $40 is pricey for quality and quantity of food that I received. They are cheap with the rice and thats surprising for a Spanish restaurant the beans weren't watery but could use a dabb of something salt or garlic etc. The chicharron de pollo was well seasoned but all bones no meat, the grilled pork chop were tender but they gave me one big thick cut and a thin cut smaller one ( that caused a fight between the kids ) The maduros were not sweet and juicy they were dry and hard. Might order one more time because I like to give restaurants two chances before I say no and scratch it off the list of places to eat.

The food is good but I’m not going back again. The customer service is terrible!

The food is great, despite getting the thinnest steak I have ever seen. But the price is far too high to go back.

I usually place my orders to go and always order chicken. I decided to dine in and thought I would treat myself to Paella. What a BIG mistake. It tasted fishy, and they used imitation crab. There was no love put into this dish. The ingredients were subpar. NEVER AGAIN!

They gotta get the bake chicken together my second time going and it’s burnt

This place has okay food and too high prices and they tend to skimp on side orders like salads, plantains and rice, offering too little while overcharging. Otherwise it is okay and has a friendly staff. However we don't plan to keep patronizing this eatery.

I bought a chicken family meal. It was just mediocre. I have had way better food. I just wish there was another restaurant or two in the area so there could have been some competition. There was absolutely no sauces for the chicken or salad dressing. When l ask for some, the mean looking, sour face woman charged me $1. Each for a tiny little cup of green sauce. Four of them. I said no thank you, you can take them back and just like that they lost me as a customer.

Johnny Thybulle

I’ve been to Elena 43 in Queens Village a few times before and usually had no issues, which is why this recent experience was so frustrating. I ordered the family combo with a whole rotisserie chicken and simply asked to swap the rice and beans for just French fries. I also requested to substitute the sweet plantains for green plantains nothing crazy, just a small preference change. Instead of being met with understanding, the staff came off rude and unwilling to accommodate. It really threw me off, especially since I’ve ordered similar adjustments here before with no problem. As a local, I want to support neighborhood businesses, but it’s hard to do that when basic requests are met with attitude. And the wait time was very displeasing. The food is good!, but the customer service this time? Really disappointing. I hope this was just a one off situation, but it definitely left a bad taste.

Elizabeth Cuadros

The food was good but I paid $10.95 for this amount of pernil, I specifically asked how big is the container because someone said it only comes in one size and the size seemed perfect until I opened the bag when I got home. Will NOT be returning

VERY RUDE CUSTOMER SERVICE FIRST AND LAST TIME I COME TO EAT HERE, everyone there looked miserable no music playing. The food was good but the customer service needs to get improved . Also they dont give anything as a soft start for example salad or bread, first restaurant that i hear that from

Expensive, small portions and poor quality.

Went with a girlfriend, waitress didn't come over, after about 15 minutes finally I asked if she would come she said give her a second then she sent another waitress. I asked her if the other one didn't want to serve us. We weren't rude or anything, you never want to make a server mad. I told the waitress that came to us we would tip her good if she didn't have to share with the other one. What we went through to pay for a meal. Food wasn't that good. What is the world coming to when people don't like you because of the color of your skin. Oh and we did leave a generous tip.. Won't go back there....

I dislike establishments who are in the hospitality industry and lack hospitality. Why hire people with bad attitudes and we have to spend our money here. And on top of that the quality of the food has decline tremendously over the years!

The chicken soup is unacceptable, really ? Chicken Butt in my soup ? And the skin and everything still on it.

I’ve been coming here for 20 plus years. Twice a month. The rest of my family that lives in the area also frequently patronize here. We all agree…it’s down hill. Let’s just say the food is not the same. They do not change their oil they fry in. You can taste the old essence of it. I order 4 entrees which each should come with rice and beans of your choice. They send 2 beans with 4 orders. The sweet Plaintains are sour and not ripe. I’m so mad because I keep hoping for the best. But not anymore. Not one more dollar. You gotta pay now for the soggy salad that supposed to come with your meal. I will skip this place because they no longer take pride in their food or service. Btw I called before twice to let them know my issues before writing this review. They just don’t care

I order food from Uber and there was a piece of glass in my food. I paid 40 dollars for my order. I filed a complaint with Uber and uploaded a picture I did not get a resolution. I called the restaurant and spoke to an employee name Maria and was told she couldn’t do anything because the manager was not there. I am upset that I am unable to eat my food.

CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS! HAIR IN MY FOOD VERY SALTY!!

I use to love coming here. But they became very rude and do not listen to specific orders and the service is unprofessional. The lady didn’t even ask if I wanted my change back, they just keep it expecting it and it was pickup. I won’t be coming here anymore. And the little salad no longer comes with a meal. You have to pay separately for that.

I just ordered the pernil! It was horrible, dry, sin sabor and looked weird.

I'm a long time customer. I'm talking about YEARS! I come often and I spend over 50 dollars each time. Today I ordered the roast pork and it was mostly fat. I brought it to the young lady's attention and she took the order back to the kitchen. She quickly came back with the container and stated I can take the order or leave it and she will take it off of my bill. I drive from long island on a regular to patronize this business on a regular basis and I can't believe I was politely told to take it or leave it. They're always crowded so I know they won't miss my business. I will never go back on principle. Customer service goes a long way.

Because of the lack of detail. The lid was left open and the soup spilled. Not to mention lack of customer service... I had to wait for someone to handle their personal phone before being asked what I needed.

The food smelled bad and was served very late. Service was very bad

So I have ate here a few times, food is better then decent. Price are okay, but it’s the petty stuff that gets to me. Charging for sauces and lackluster service! 1 dollar for some garlic sauce and an extra fee here and there for ketchup is absolute b.s! All Cubans come with the garlic sauce, if I wanted extra then you can charge, but 1 dollar for something that should already come with the sandwich makes no sense, and for packages of ketchup! I’m done with this place.

Pork shoulder? Whatever this was supposed to be was TRASH. I only ate the rice and beans. That was tasty all by itself…….

On an order of 85 dollars, Elena's 43 did not send a napkins, utensils or any other cutlery. Once I called about it they said that the order was fulfilled. Didn't have the decency to send it even after made aware. The food delivered was not good. Awful place

Terrible service, staff are rude and no hospitality. Takes forever to bring food out. We where waiting for 1 hour for a to go order. The food is ok. I wouldn't go back or recommend this place Not worth it

I ordered through UberEats - pechuga empanizada with white rice and beans. The chicken was raw inside. I received two pieces of chickens and they were both raw. In addition, they to gave me gravy from the beans instead of actual beans.

The girl that picks up the phone should not be dealing directly with customers. Very rude and lacks basic customer service skills.

mariitza320

I ordered rice and beans with chicken and all I received was a sauce that did not contain any beans inside of it.

anamaria santiago

I usually order the family chicken combo and it's usually delicious but yesterday's delivery was disappointing the chicken was not the same as it normally is I ordered 3 sodas was charged for them but never received them. Maybe they had a different cook yesterday I don't know but I was disappointed with my chicken

katy gonzalez

A few days ago I ordered food from this restaurant through Uber Eats and I couldn't eat it. It was pork ribs and unfortunately they were spoiled. So I don't recommend it

Stacy Martinez

I usually always buy food from here but There was a roach in my rice and I didn’t even realize until I moved the rice around. I can’t say I’ll be coming back after this

Nae Rich

Look at this undercooked fish I was served. How unfortunate is it that you spend a reasonable amount on food with a set expectation and restaurants like this one treat customers without regard. I could have gotten sick from eating undercooked food. This is disappointing. I also purposely did not eat the head of the fish as it was moist (the snapper I ordered was supposed to be fried).

Mary R.

Literally pointless to call in for pick up. Every time I try to call in I end up waiting an addition 15-20 minutes in the restaurant. Food is mediocre and not worth the price. I really wish there were other Dominican restaurants in the area because this one just sucks.

Nate Nandram

Worst Spanish food I've ever eaten. My normal spot ran out of chicken, I came here. Placed my order, waited 15 minutes and went home. I took the food out, looked decent. Taste wise it's bland. How does stew chicken just taste like watered down tomato sauce. Everything has no taste. Worst part about this is that I paid $17 for the worst Spanish food I've ever had. Every other spot I go to is around $10 and it's way better then this one.