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    Hierba Fresca Restaurant

    4.5 (111 reviews)
    Closed Closed

    Hierba Fresca Restaurant Photos

    HIERBA FRESCA RESTAURANT ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Moderate noise
    Casual
    Good for kids
    Good for groups

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    Recommended Reviews - Hierba Fresca Restaurant

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    Garlic butter shrimp with white rice and fries.
    Briana W.

    This was my first time trying Puerto Rican food and wow! Everything from the service to the food was amazing! I will definitely be back to try the other dishes and dessert. 10/10.

    Churrasco with mofongo and sweet plantains Sampler plate
    Paul W.

    Good food and okay table service. The food was fresh and authentic, and serving size was pretty good. Menu is a bit pricey at $20-30/plate, but if you want good Puerto Rican food, that's what you'll pay.

    Pilon shrimp with garlic sauce and trifongo.
    Neil C.

    This is the best restaurant we've discovered in years. Just wow. I ordered the shrimp pilon with trifongo, something I didn't even know existed. It's plantain, sweet plantain, and fried yucca turned into a mofongo. Amazingly good. The shrimp with garlic sauce with it in the pilon was awesome too. My wife ordered the pork and plantain sandwich and it had an really good bbq glaze with it that was so good. If they were in Austin, they'd be double the price. It's too bad we never have reason to go to Killeen or we would be here all the time.

    Jasmine O.

    I have had Puerto Rican food and this place is incredibly yummy!!! All 3 of us had different meals and each meal was scrumptious!!! Mashed malfonngo with cilantro rice and stuffed chicken breast (stuffed with cheese and spinach). The chicken was moist the spinach cooked to perfection the ration from cheese to chicken was great! The cilantro rice was not over powering like you would normally experience. The malfongo (so?) was creamy and authentic and taste buds were delighting in the taste of all 3. The chicken soup was better than Moms and grandmas (yes I dared to go there). The veggies were not over cooked, were fresh and the broth a blend of delicious seasonings. Definitely going to see if the Chef will share that recipe!!! Oh then take a scoop of rice and some of that broth and can I say heavenly???? I had fried yucca, cilantro rice and a shrimp stuffed porchop. I tend to not order pork chop because 9 out of 10 times it's dry. However the pork chop was moist, the shrimp was cooked to perfection and the combo was simply fantastic. The yucca was not oily - cruchy and light. I could have this meal every night! Atmosphere was amazing!!!! This place has character and personality. The servers were so friendly and helpful. Overall this place is authentic, offers the best homemade lemonade, is completely amazing and Eddie the Chef came out to make sure our food was good. A great date place, a great family place, a great place to go with friends.....

    amazing food and sauces
    Tim C.

    We are new to Puerto Rican food and asked the personable young lady waiting on us for help...and help she did, it's nice dealing with people that get excited about what they do. She recommended some empanadillas, we loved the ground beef and the pizza one and the half sized pernil/pork Sammy, when the Sammy hit the table...I asked to be sure I ordered the half...it was...the whole is about 14 inches long....wow...the meat was tender and full of flavor. They kicked it up another notch when our waitress brought us a trio of sauces that were sublime, one hot for me and two tasty but milder for my wifey. Be sure to ask for some sauces to compliment the already topnotch food.

    Plantain sandwich

    Nice little place with great artwork on the walls. Very welcoming. Food tasted just like my grandmas and it reminded me of home. The plantain sandwich was the best I've ever had.

    White rice, red beans, fried plantains, and pork!
    Frankie M.

    One of the best Spanish restaurant in Killeen. You have to search or know by word of mouth about this place. It's hidden in the downtown Killeen area. I searched and found it by a friend of mine that lives in Austin. I live in Killeen and never had a idea that this awesome place existed. Beats the other local Spanish by far. Don't believe me? Go visit them and be ready to enjoy the presentation and the food!

    James H.

    The restaurant is hidden looks like a little house. The food was delicious my fried red snapper was crispy and flaky! My wife's pernil was delicious as well. Great service very friendly restaurant we we well taken care of!

    Shrimp Stuffed Pork Chop with yellow rice

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    2 years ago

    this place closed it was great had best puerto rican food because it actually had a chef

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    6 years ago

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    2 years ago

    Excelente servicio y la comida muy rica ,muy servicial y el staff muy cordial ,un ambiente familiar es como estar en tu hogar

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    4 years ago

    Uno de los mejores restaurantes boricuas en kiloeeen,rica comida,ambiente y trato

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    5 years ago

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    5 years ago

    This place is fire in just 15 minutes they prepared this awesome plate Bandeja Taina. It reminds me of the awesome food of my island

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    11 years ago

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    5 years ago

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    4 years ago

    Amazing! If you want a restaurant like the ones in Austin this it. The food is delicious!! Try the empanadas!

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    8 years ago

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    4 years ago

    Great food but unfortunately i got food poisoning from here twice. It's very disappointing especially being Dominican as well.

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    11 years ago

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    4 years ago

    Amazing food and service. Churrasco steak is beyond delicious. Small local restaurant with true cultural taste from the island.

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    9 years ago

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    Puerto Rican & Caribbean Grocery Store

    Puerto Rican & Caribbean Grocery Store

    4.0
    (37 reviews)
    0.2 mi
    $$

    Pasteles! Pernil! Everything you need for Puerto Rican dishes (and they even sometimes have mavi…read morebark, quenepas, pastel and pastelillo de guayaba, turron, and morcillas)! If you can't find what you're looking for, just ask one of the employees. This grocery store is THE "go to" tiendita for all Boricuas and NewYoricans in Bell County.

    Because my "second family" is Cuban and I have a great affinity for all things Cuban (not just the…read morecigars and the rums) I always have a complex about non-Cubans preparing Cuban like things. There is even a Seinfeld episode on point about this with the Dominicans rolling the crepes. If you don't believe me compare a Romeo y Julieta (DR) to a real one, or any of the other cigar companies that have a DR factory with non-Cuban torcedores to one from the motherland. With the limited reviews of this joint on yelp I was having to read between the lines that the ladies preparing the food were probably not authentic Cubans. But based on the very favorable four to five star reviews of the Cuban sandwich from other yelpers, they seemed to know how to put in work on the gentlesir's favourite panini type class of sandwich so I was sold on giving it the olde "college try" since the prices seemed quite reasonable and I needed to submit receipts for travel reimbursement to my organization that were not handwritten. Just a note for yelpers - the "grocery store" part of the business is actually called Killeen Nutritional Center which has a separate yelp business page and this is the page for the to-go restaurant portion of the biz. I wandered around there for several minutes trying to find the sammich counter until I realized I was at the deli (in the grocery store) and the girl behind the deli counter was actively ignoring me. So I spotted the door behind the registers the other way and walked into the sammich place I wanted to be in. They could really use a sign or something, or workers that will acknowledge your existence and direct you appropriately. I actually know some spanglish so I know enough to be helpful asking where ya boy can obtain his emparedado. There is "prepared food" cafeteria style that most people dining in seemed to be getting so there is a line for that. However if you are gentlesir in for a sammich then you go straight to the register to order it there, pay for it, then you go wait for it to come out. There are also people buying the pastries out of the case at the register which are neither sammiches nor prepared cafeteria style take out, so there is some light confusion and at one time there appeared to be three separate lines of people trying to get it in at the one girl working the one register at the counter. The Cuban comes with Swiss cheese, pork, ham, mustard, pickle, lettuce, tomato, onion, and mayo. Or if you are bi-curious: el cubano (es una balleza tambien) tiene queso suizo, pernil, jamon, mostaza, pepinillo, lechuga, tomate, cebolla, y mayonesa. Homey costs $3.35. You read that right. This is not the best Cuban I have ever had if we are being honest. It was not prepared by authentic Cubans, but they never represented that they were authentic Cubans so we have to temper expectations accordingly and especially at this price point. I have to review the sammich in accord with Antone's last non-chain outpost in the Med Centre who also was not Cuban, but they mastered the non-Cuban art of making Cuban food. I am pretty sure my order ticket they put in to the kitchen said something along the lines of me being a gringo, possibly a puta also but I will never know even though I always assume this is being said behind my back and the main reason why I learned spanglish. This thing came with a Shania Twain sized heaping of mayo. So much mayo. Goddammit I don't even like mayo, that racist stereotype has to end. Meanwhile I love mustard and that was nearly nonexistent. I also love pickles and there was little pickle to speak of. If I knew they were going to go HAM on the mayo I would have just told them to hold it entirely and slide some pickle magic into the sammich in its place - but I would have to be careful that nothing got lost in translation since sliding a pickle into something is a double entendre which we snuck past the censors, just like that lemon party joke. So that is my most useful tip I can give you for your visit, tell them to hold the mayo unless you want six pounds of it on your sammich just ruining everything and your good time. THAT IS NOT HOW A CUBANO IS SUPPOSED TO GO. The meats were extremely dry and I suppose the giant dosing of mayo was an effort to mask that desert dryness, which was exquisitely unsuccessful on me but may have worked its charm better on other diners. I put the sammich on par with Subway quality at best (especially the underwhelming tomato and lettuce quality) but not customizable at your own instruction as Subway is, so you don't need to take any responsibility for the creation of this monstrosity. This was my worst meal on my road trip through this area. However, I am still rewarding them with a three star yelp review (an #upgrayedd of stars taking into account the totality of the circumstances beyond the disappointing sammich) since unlike KMB they printed me a proper receipt I could actually use for reimbursement from my organization.

    Photos
    The cubano in all his glory. If he was a cigar I would smoke him but he is a sammich so I will eat him. Many ways to live your best life.
    The cubano in all his glory. If he was a cigar I would smoke him but he is a sammich so I will eat him. Many ways to live your best life.
    Got that sammich in my hands
    Got that sammich in my hands
    Waiting for my order at the table nearest the register. If you aren't getting food from the hoppers at back you just order at the register

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    Waiting for my order at the table nearest the register. If you aren't getting food from the hoppers at back you just order at the register
    Killeen Nutritional Center

    Killeen Nutritional Center

    3.6
    (38 reviews)
    0.5 mi
    $

    The selection of groceries is second to none and the restaurant attached omg what can I say it…read morereminds me of my abuelos cooking. Takes me home every time. I don't get to go often but when I do I am always more than pleased. I can't thank you enough for your amazing cooking and understanding of my horrible Spanish. Please please never close

    Let me start off by saying I've came to this place for over 10 years and as a Killeen native, this…read moreplace is a staple. But it has SEVERELY gone down hill and I will never come here again! Today I order 2 Cubans and 2 beef empanadas. It took 30 minutes to get my food but I've gone here awhile and excuse the long wait times. Finally, I get my food and rush back to work since the wait took so long. Sit down to eat my food, get done with a quarter of the sandwich when I see a COCKROACH smushed against the 2nd half of my sandwich. I called the restaurant 4 times asking for a manager and got hung up on every time. I clocked out and drove back to the restaurant with the sandwich. I asked for a manager and the dark haired lady behind the counter barely let me tell her the issue before she took the bag with the sandwich and went into the kitchen. She came back out with cooks following her. I don't speak fluent Spanish but I do understand it. The cooks were calling me a liar, saying it was impossible and that I should eat at home. The "manager" told another lady at the counter with red hair to refund ONLY one sandwich. I was not going to accept that when I couldn't eat any of the food I purchased after that discovery. I asked for the head manager/"her boss" and after a while, I got the right person who heard me and refunded both of my orders. Regardless, I will never come back here. I know a lot of people who come here including soldiers and I'll be sure to spread the word. My whole experience was disgusting and unacceptable including the service.

    Photos
    Cockroach on sandwich
    Cockroach on sandwich
    Avocado and Tomato salad
    Avocado and Tomato salad
    Says "Masa Carne" but it's full of PORK inside.

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    Says "Masa Carne" but it's full of PORK inside.

    Hierba Fresca Restaurant - puertorican - Updated July 2026

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