I haven't been to this restaurant in years, and now I can't stop coming back! First of all, the…read moreservice is 10/10. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. We have two little ones, and they are always so gracious and accommodating. Second, the food is 10000000/10! Wow talk about flavor! Our family's favorite go-to's are the ground beef and cheese empanadas, the kids pabellon, and our ALL time favorite is the arepa llanera fried. WOW!!! So my picky toddler LOVES the food here! Their rice and beans are cooked to perfection and my son who doesn't eat a ton of meat, will eat the shredded beef here! Our favorite thing about the arepa is the sauce they put on the steak with the freshness of the cheese and creaminess of the avocado with the tomato. omg my mouth is watering as I'm typing! We seriously LOVE it here! Those are my recommendations!

This restaurant tucked in a little strip mall on the way to Virginia Beach has great food. We…read morestopped here after a 6-hour drive, and the food definitely didn't disappoint. We ordered the arepa pabellón and the pabellón New York strip, both perfectly cooked and full of flavor. The arepa comes in a foil similar to a gyro so it doesn't fall apart and you can enjoy the mix of flavors in it. The pabellón platter is huge and you will not be disappointed. The service and atmosphere are great and they have outdoor dining also. Definitely a must-try if you're in the area. And if you're in the mood for some libations, they have a full bar too. Great find, and definitely worth a stop.

Except for slightly slow service to take your order, there's nothing to fuss about this place…read more Lively ambiance, delicious food. There's even some entrepreneurship going on with a gentleman coming over to ask if you want to buy a trinket, instead of flowers I suppose. I couldn't finish the food definitely enough for a dinner and lunch! I asked what they have for dessert: tres leches, tiramisu, flan. I pass on dessert this time although they sound good! Highly recommended, will definitely come back to try their plantains with either beef or chicken appetizer!

wish I could give this place a zero start. We visited this place for the first time and boy what a…read morebad experience. First, the service was super slow. we have to wait a long while for our food while people that were coming after us were getting their food first. Second, no utensils or napkins in the tabl. also, they don't offer any water. Third, the food was bad. No flavor and small portion. fourth, which to me was the most dishonest practice we were a party of 5 and in our bill they charged us the automatic tip claiming we were 6. We just went ahead a paid and left that place very disappointed and will never ever go back.

Honestly if you want me to be honest... I literally went to Venezuela eating the meal I had. Let's…read moretalk about the portion. This plate it would have cost $60 at a seafood restaurant. Dude, I paid $23 and I had more than 4 shrimps compared to other restaurants when they serve you their "seafood platter". You know exactly what I'm talking. Anyway, I have not gone out to eat in a while so my fiance found Maracaibo Bistro and it most definitely did not disappoint! He had Bandeja Paisa. His plate. Overflowing with sausage, ground beef, chicharron, chorizo, arepa, +$1 for grilled steak served on top of rice and beans with sweet plantains. Food? Forget about it, scarfed that down like it was for breakfast! So if you like authentic food, GO! Overall experience and satisfaction were both fulfilled! P.S. I bought their Paella to go. We have food for a couple of days!

Great food, great portions, and great atmosphere!…read more Enjoyed dinner and the FIFA World Cup here. The food was great, we especially loved their hot sauce. The atmosphere was lively and fun. The service was also good! The prices were a bit high, between a non-alcoholic drink (horchata) and add-ons, our bill was higher than we thought it would be. Overall a great spot!

We chose to have dinner with some close family friends at De Rican Chef on Holland Road on a…read moreTuesday evening. Service was great! They quickly moved us to a larger table when our party of 5 turned into 8 because of surprise guests! It was a long overdue reunion. A few of us were craving the Pastelon, since we are fans of sweet plantains, but sadly, they didn't have it available that evening. However, our kind server said we could order mofongo with the sweet plantains, so we decided to give it a try. We chose the steak strips and fried pork versions. Everything was delicious! We always enjoy the variety of the menu. Plus, the expanded dining room spaces make the restaurant very welcoming. Our party of 8 was treated well, and we all enjoyed our meals!

We discovered De Rican Chef over 10 years ago and it's one of my daughter and I's favorite…read morerestaurants in VB. Since we were in the area and wanted to grab a small bite to eat, we decided to stop in. The staff greeted us as soon as we walked in and the restaurant smelled amazing, so we couldn't wait to grab a drink and order our favorites. We decided to sit at the bar, so we were given menus to look over and the bartender was very nice. I ordered the Spicy Passionfruit Margarita and my daughter ordered the Rican Rum Punch. Both were good but I enjoyed the Margarita much better! Since we weren't very hungry, we chose our favorites which were the Arroz con Gandules and the Relleno de Papa, which is a mashed potato ball filled with savory, ground beef. The food was flavorful and absolutely delicious! They also have a pink sauce, which is a ketchup/mayo mix, but it always pairs so well with the food. Everything was so good, we put in another order of both to take home lol. De Rican Chef never disappoints! After all these years, their food still tastes just as good as it did the first time we went! If you're looking for great, Puerto Rican food, definitely stop in!!!

This place is legit. I got the Baleadas especial with beans, cheese, eggs, avocado, and crema…read more Hubby got the Baleadas super which has beans, eggs, crema, avocado, and meat. The tortillas are homemade and the lady makes them right then and there. Everything was cooked to order so there was a little wait. Hubby has never had baleadas before but he loved it and said he would come back. The horchata was good too. There were a few tables to eat at and they had lots of snacks you could buy as well. We will definitely be back.

Amazing dining experience! Excellent beef soup.. this is the stuff you order when you're coming…read moredown with a cold. Most meals also feature those thick, homemade Central American tortillas. Wishing this place nothing but success!

This is my 3'rd or 4'th trip to the Carib Shack. Can't believe this is the first review…read more Tried Mama's Stew Chicken Bowl. WOWZERS!!! The Carib Shack never disappoints. The chicken was flavorful and tender. The gravy was so good, and the rice bowl comes with beans as well. So delicious.... Would also like to add that the young lady behind the counter is always so sweet and answers all of your questions. Will definitely be back.

Carib Shack really impressed me. I ordered a couple of the daal puree/roti to go, and my order was…read moreready right within the promised time frame. When I got home, I heated it up in the microwave for under a minute and it was perfectly soft and fresh. The daal (split peas) filling was plentiful, flavorful, and so satisfying. I honestly wasn't expecting it to be that good, but it exceeded my expectations. It tasted homemade, and i enjoyed it with some curry and mango chutney.

Every time I take Military Hwy to Nice Thai, I'd see the old Burger King and the work being done to…read moreit. Over time, you could tell a new resto was going to take it over - in this case, it's El Fogon. El Fogon is a restaurant combining many Latin cuisines. Per their website (https://elfogonrestobarandgrill.com/), they offer food from Columbia, Peru, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico. That's quite the variety, and when my mom and I looked at their menu, we were both surprised and excited. Fogon's interior looks nothing like the Burger King that it used to be. There's plenty of flair and bright colors - my attention was definitely focused on the esthetic and decor. It was a lot... busy, but I came away impressed, especially since everything was clean and organized. Our server sat us, gave us menus and took our drink orders. She was the only one on the floor and seemed to also be the bartender on duty. There was only 1 other party when we were sat, but roughly 3-5 separate parties arrived after us. After taking some time to look over the massive menu, we decided on the chicharrón appetizer, the tacos de carne asada (mom), and Lomo Saltado. I liked the chicharrón, while the Lomo Saltado was fantastic. Mom seemed to like her tacos, so that's a plus. Neither of us could finish our food, so we had leftovers for later. Although the food was fantastic, the service was... slow. Our server was nice enough, but she was pulled in many directions during our visit. What's worse, she didn't really move with any urgency. Our drink orders took a bit to hit our table; and after we ordered the chicharrón, it took a while for her to come back around to take our entree order. We spent most of our visit waiting - problematic, at best. When we were finished with our entrees, it took a long time for our server to return. My mom has this routine where she starts looking around the restaurant to find and flag down our server. Our server wasn't on the floor - I know for a portion she was tending to the other parties and what have you. But since she was the only server on the floor, it was simply no fun waiting. There was a manager on duty, but he was busy chatting up a four-top that came in. They all apparently knew each other, so there were portions where the manager was ordering our server to get things for this four-top. The manager did nothing but chat up this table, and I decided to shoot him looks because our server wasn't coming through. Mr. Manager finally got the message - he said something to the server, and she immediately came over. We got togo boxes, paid and that was it. As we were walking out, the manager thanked us. So El Fogon may suffer from the same issues I experienced at the Shore Dr Lendy's - lack of staffing. It doesn't help, though, when the lone server on the floor doesn't appear to be hustling. At the same time, I would've liked to have seen the manager help out (to be fair, there was a food runner, but he was a little slick because he made sure not to actually look at other tables while he was delivering food; he just went to tables, dropped off the food, and went right back into the kitchen, head mostly down). I want to drive home the notion that this was only 1 visit. Their service could be impeccable when fully staffed (although I've read a couple of Yelp reviews that seem to support my observation). They are a new establishment - sometimes it takes time before things begin to run smoothly. If El Fogon wants to thrive, they need to address their quality of service. I like their food, though, but if I have to wait this long during each visit, I will quit visiting. Thank you, El Fogon. JV

Whatever issues this spot may have had with service/the wait/etc surely got fixed by the time we…read morechecked out El Fogon. Drinks were delicious and strong. Very large menu with lots of variety on what to pick! Service was friendly and attentive as well. We'll be back to try different things on their menu.

Very small shop, I didn't see a sit down area. The food was delicious the ox tail was so tender and…read morethe chicken is grilled so it compliments the sweetness from the jerk sauce. The sides were good my favorite will always be the rice and peas and cabbage. We were well greeted and welcomed.

Aug 14 2026 Food-…read moreordered two stew chicken dinners, side of plantains and cabbage. The food was flavorful and just ok. The cabbage was high in sodium. Service- polite, yet the waiting to be served was painfully slowwwwwww and hot. Ambiance- the kitchen was filthy the floor looks a mess, no one washed their hands, a man was cooking outside on the grill, came inside and went straight to the stove and started cooking. He was sweaty and didn't wash his hands. No one's hair is covered. And there was NO AC in the entire place they had fans blowing hot air. This business has GREAT potential if they reimagine the management of the business. As a business consultant, may I suggest hiring a cashier to take the orders, hire a dishwasher or two (cross train one of the dishwashers or cooks), and add atleast 3 more cooks not including the 2 owners. You need someone or everyone to clean that kitchen before you get reported. And add AC. I want to see your business succeed, you need change and quickly. With these changes you will increase your profits and clientele tremendously. Happy to help you