New York City / Latin American
Best Latin American
Restaurants in NYC
Peruvian, Puerto Rican, Colombian and beyond — and the same chicken is $15 or $24 depending on the avenue.
Only four of these run a happy hour — in this category the cheapness is structural, not a timed window.
- 18 verified rooms
- 4 publish a deal
- plates from $11.50
- mofongo $13.95–$45
The best Latin American restaurants in NYC right now are Lechonera La Piraña in Mott Haven (weekends only, whole roasted pig, the best pork skin in the city), Sabor Peruano on Roosevelt Ave ($15 for a whole charcoal chicken), Casa Adela in the East Village (cash only, BYOB, open since 1976), Arepa Lady in Jackson Heights ($10.50 arepas) and Caracas Arepa Bar, which runs $5 rum punch every day. The single most useful thing on this page is a price comparison. The same whole pollo a la brasa is $15 on Roosevelt Avenue and $24 in Hell’s Kitchen, and mofongo runs from $13.95 in Gowanus to $45 in Hamilton Heights. This category barely runs happy hours — only four of eighteen — because the cheapness is structural. You get it by picking the right avenue.
The short version
- The price gapA whole rotisserie chicken is $15 on Roosevelt Ave and $24 in Hell’s Kitchen. Same dish.
- Mofongo spread$13.95 at Kiosko 787 in Gowanus, $29 at Sofrito uptown. Four times, for the same plate.
- Best dealCaracas — $5 rum punch, daily 4–7pm, plus weekend brunch. Nothing else runs seven days.
- Weekends onlyLechonera La Piraña in the Bronx — Sat and Sun till the pig runs out. Go early.
- Bring cashCasa Adela is cash only and BYOB. So is the Bronx branch of El Malecón.
At a glance
What to order, what it actually costs, and which counters want cash.
| Restaurant | Order this | Price | Neighborhood | $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caracas Arepa Bar | $5 Tropical Rum Punch | Daily 4–7pm | Williamsburg | $$$ |
| Victor’s Cafe | $10 cocktails · $12 bites | Tue–Fri, twice nightly | Theater District | $$$ |
| Beco | Caipirinha happy hour | Mon–Fri 4–6pm | Williamsburg | $$$ |
| Pio Pio 8 | $14.50 lunch · $24 whole bird | Mon–Fri 11am–4pm | Hell’s Kitchen | $$$ |
| Sabor Peruano 2 | Whole chicken $15 | 9am–midnight Fri–Sat | Jackson Heights | $$$ |
| Mission Ceviche | Ceviche · tiradito | $30 and under band | Union Square | $$$ |
| Café Bar J.F. | Grilled potato bread | Opened May 2026 | Williamsburg | $$$ |
| Lechonera La Piraña | Lechon · crackling skin | Weekends only, till it goes | Mott Haven | $$$ |
| Casa Adela | Rotisserie chicken · pernil | Cash only · BYOB | East Village | $$$ |
| Kiosko 787 | Mofongo $13.95 | Picadera $39.95 for 4 | Gowanus | $$$ |
| La Fonda | Shrimp mofongo | Closed Mon–Tue | East Harlem | $$$ |
| Sofrito | Mofongo $25–$45 | Pernil $40 | Hamilton Heights | $$$ |
| Arepa Lady | Arepas all $10.50 | Daily from noon | Jackson Heights | $$$ |
| Los Arrieros | Mini bandeja $19 | Weekdays close 8pm | Jackson Heights | $$$ |
| Pollos Mario | Pollo al carbon $11.50 | Breakfast 10am–3pm | Jackson Heights | $$$ |
| 188 Cuchifritos | Mofongo con chuleta | Counter service | Fordham | $$$ |
| El Malecón | Rotisserie chicken ~$12 | Since 1987 | Washington Heights | $$$ |
| Mi Pequeño El Salvador | Pupusas from $4.00 | Entrees $16–$42 | Jackson Heights | $$$ |
Map: where these 18 spots are
Roosevelt Avenue is the spine. The Puerto Rican belt runs from the East Village up through El Barrio to the Bronx.
Pins are numbered to match the table above – tap any pin for the detail and directions.
The four real deals
Four of eighteen publish one. More in best bars in NYC.
Caracas Arepa Bar On now
The only seven-day happy hour in this guide: the Caracas Tropical Rum Punch at $5, daily 4 to 7pm — and the same $5 punch runs at weekend brunch, Saturday and Sunday noon to 4pm, which effectively makes it an eleven-hour deal on a Saturday. The Williamsburg room is a full restaurant with a dining room, a patio and Roneria Caracas, its own rum bar. Two honest caveats: the $5 covers one drink, the rum punch — the rest of the list is full price. And if you are heading to the East Village address you remember at 91 E 7th St, it is gone; the brand’s own site now writes about that storefront in the past tense. Williamsburg and seasonal Rockaway are what is left.
caracasarepabar.com · See our Williamsburg happy hours
Victor’s Cafe On now
A post-theater happy hour, which almost nothing in this neighborhood offers: the Cuba Lounge runs Tuesday to Friday 4–6pm and again from 8:30pm to close, plus all day Sunday — $10 specialty cocktails, wine and beer, with Cuban bites at $12. So you can eat before a show or drink after one at the same price. The kitchen proper is a serious Cuban room: ropa vieja $37, lechon asado $36 (marinated 24 hours, roasted overnight in mojo), paella de mariscos $45. The honest caveat, and ask for it by name: the happy hour is Cuba Lounge only. Sit at a dining table and you pay $37 for the ropa vieja instead of $12 for a bite.
Beco On now
A Brazilian botequim with the happy hour printed on its own menu: Monday to Friday, 4 to 6pm, caipirinhas and beer discounted. The kitchen is built on two dishes — feijoada $26, the black bean and pork stew, and moqueca $25 — with bar snacks that are the real reason to arrive at four: pão de queijo $12, coxinha $14, empanadas $13, mandioca frita $11. The honest caveat, and it is the annoying kind: the days and the window are published but the discounted prices are not. You find out what a caipirinha costs when you order one. Full-price cocktails are $14–$15 and beer $7–$8, so there is room for the discount to be worth having — ask first.
beconyc.com · See our Williamsburg happy hours
Pio Pio 8 On now
The Manhattan benchmark for pollo a la brasa: whole chicken $24, half $13, quarter $7, and the green aji salsa verde is the reason people drive in from three boroughs. The Matador Combo — whole chicken, yellow rice, red beans, tostones, salchipapa and avocado salad, family style — is $60 and is built to feed a table. The published deal is the $14.50 weekday lunch, 11am to 4pm: quarter chicken with salad, a side and a drink. The honest caveat, and it is this page’s running theme: the same whole bird is $15 at Sabor Peruano on Roosevelt Ave. You are paying nine dollars for a Tenth Avenue address.
piopio.shop · See our Hell’s Kitchen happy hours
Peruvian
Pollo a la brasa, ceviche and chifa. Pair with Jackson Heights happy hours.
Sabor Peruano 2
This is what the Roosevelt Avenue price actually looks like: a whole charcoal pollo a la brasa is $15 here and $24 in Hell’s Kitchen. Half is $8, a quarter $5.50 — roughly 40% under the Manhattan going rate for the identical dish. Ceviche de pescado $18, ceviche mixto and de camarones $20, lomo saltado $18. The arroz chaufa — Peru’s Chinese-influenced chifa fried rice — runs $17 to $20. It opens at 9am and runs to midnight Friday and Saturday, which is unusual for a rotisserie. The honest caveat: it is a counter-and-tables room under the 7 train, not a date-night restaurant, and those prices come off the delivery menu — the dining-room card can run a little higher.
saborperuano2.com · See our Jackson Heights happy hours
Mission Ceviche
Time Out called the Union Square opening the largest Peruvian dining room in Manhattan, and it is the only room in this guide treating ceviche as a discipline rather than a plate — chef Jose Luis Chavez runs a six-course Originals tasting at $75 covering scallops Nikkei, classic ceviche, Inca tiradito and octopus anticuchero, with optional pisco flight $40 or wine pairing $45. Full bar, weekend brunch, OpenTable bands it at $30 and under a head a la carte. The honest caveat, and it will send you to the wrong room: the $75 tasting is Upper East Side only. Book Union Square and you get the a la carte menu. Individual dish prices are not published, so budget from the band.
missionceviche.com · See our Union Square happy hours
Café Bar J.F.
Llama Inn closed at the end of 2025 and this is what took its room, from the same Llama group: Juan Correa with chef Francisco Castillo, formerly of Llama San, opened 13 May 2026 at the exact address Llama Inn vacated. They rebuilt it as a tavern — white tablecloths and dark wood in place of the plant-filled modern-Peruvian look — and the rooftop stayed. The menu leans seafood, clams and mussels, plus a bone-in short rib with fries. The honest verdict, and we would rather say it: the grilled potato bread with cultured butter is genuinely excellent and the rest is pleasant without landing a second knockout. Go for the room and the rooftop. Reservations are currently easy.
cafebarjf.com · See our best new restaurants in NYC
Puerto Rican
From a Bronx trailer to a $45 mofongo. See also best cheap eats in NYC.
Lechonera La Piraña
Five days a week it does not exist, and on the two days it does it can sell out before closing. An outdoor trailer on East 152nd at Wales Avenue where a whole slow-roasted pig is hacked to order with a machete, and the crisp skin is the entire point — The Infatuation rates it 9.0, the highest score in its Puerto Rican guide, and the New York Times covered it under the line “a machete, a shower of pork and other magic.” Saturday from around noon and Sunday from about 12:30, both to roughly 6pm. The honest caveat: go early Saturday, bring cash — it is a trailer, so assume cash and be pleasantly surprised — and do not plan a Tuesday around it.
See our best street food in NYC
Casa Adela
Open at 66 Avenue C since 1976, and the prices have not moved with the neighborhood: most entrees stay under $20 and the portions are large. The rotisserie chicken is the house dish; red beans, sancocho, pernil and mofongo fill out the order, with tostones, alcapurrias and chicharron de pollo on the fried side. Two things that decide your evening and both are confirmed: it is cash only, and it is BYOB. Bring a six-pack and twenty dollars and you eat better than you will for forty anywhere near Avenue C. The honest caveat: there is no website and no published hours — this is the one place in this guide where you should phone before walking over.
See our East Village happy hours
Kiosko 787
A $13.95 mofongo in Gowanus, which is the cheapest sit-down mofongo in Brooklyn’s brownstone belt by a wide margin — and worth setting against Sofrito’s $29 version of the same dish. Pernil runs $24.95–$26.95, empanadillas $4.75 (pastelon $5.95), alcapurrias de guineo $5.95 with beef and $7.95 with crab. The Picadera Platter feeds up to four for $39.95 — fried items and sides, and the standard table order. Prices are from the menu they printed on 12 July 2026. The honest caveat: it is a small storefront built around takeout and delivery, so do not arrive expecting a dining room — and hours are not published anywhere.
kiosko787ny.com · See our Park Slope happy hours
La Fonda
Still widely known as La Fonda Boricua, and Friday nights are live salsa and Latin jazz, which is the reason to pick this over anywhere else in El Barrio. The order is mofongo with tail-on shrimp; pernil, bistec encebollado, chuletas and pollo guisado fill out a menu that also carries vegan options. Weekend brunch runs noon to 4pm both days, then dinner from 4:30. Two honest caveats, and both catch people: it is closed Monday and Tuesday — a two-day weekend most guides omit — and the kitchen closes half an hour to an hour before the door does. Showing up at 9:45 on a Thursday gets you a drink, not dinner.
lafondanyc.com · See our Harlem happy hours
Sofrito
The big-night-out end of Puerto Rican dining, and the prices say so plainly: mofongo runs $25 vegetable, $27 chicharron de pollo, $29 pernil or ropa vieja, $36 shrimp, $45 lobster, published on their own dinner menu. Pernil as a plate is $40; paella is $38 for one and $60 for two, with lobster, chicken, chorizo, clams, mussels, calamari and shrimp. The room doubles as an event and private-dining space with live music. The honest verdict, stated as a comparison rather than a complaint: a $29 mofongo is four times what the same plate costs at Kiosko 787 in Gowanus. Worth it for the occasion and the room; not the everyday price.
Colombian
Arepas, bandeja paisa and charcoal chicken on Roosevelt Ave. More in best street food in NYC.
Arepa Lady
The Roosevelt Avenue griddle cart that became a restaurant, and the sweet-corn arepa de choclo is still the reason to make the trip. Pricing is flat and easy: $10.50 across the board — de choclo, de queso, rellena and tela. Mini empanadas are $3 each or $9 for a trio; patacon and the sandwich verde or maduro are $11.50; brunch arepas loaded with eggs, bacon, chicharron or chorizo are $17. There is a second outpost in Astoria. Two honest caveats: nothing opens before noon, so this is not a breakfast plan despite the brunch arepas — and a $10.50 arepa is a snack, not a meal. Order two, or add an empanada trio.
thearepalady.com · See our Jackson Heights happy hours
Los Arrieros
The bandeja paisa is the dish, and the useful advice is to order the small one: the mini bandeja campesina is $19 — meat, arepa, fried egg and sweet plantain — and still arrives as more food than one person should eat. The full campesina with carne asada or grilled chicken is $25.80. A plain arepa is $1.25, with cheese $5.40, and the Picada para 2 starts at $32: mixed meats, fried cassava, plantains and arepas for the table. The honest caveat, and it catches people out: the kitchen closes at 8pm Monday through Friday (9pm at weekends). This is a lunch and early-dinner restaurant, not a post-work one.
losarrierosrestaurants.com · See our Jackson Heights happy hours
Pollos Mario
$11.50 for a charcoal chicken plate is the cheapest full plate anywhere in this guide, and carne asada is the same price. Crema de camarones is $15.25 and arroz con camarones $15.45. The unusual part is the breakfast service, 10am to 3pm, which a Colombian chicken house has no particular reason to run and which makes this a genuinely useful late-morning option on Roosevelt Ave. The honest caveat, and get this right before you walk: there are at least two Roosevelt Avenue addresses trading as some version of Pollos Mario, plus a 37th Ave listing — including a related Pollos a la Brasa Mario at 81-01. Check the number, and note prices come off delivery menus.
See our best cheap eats in NYC
Counters, and the rest of the map
Dominican, Salvadoran and the fry case. See best Mexican restaurants for the rest of Latin New York.
188 Cuchifritos
A fluorescent-lit Fordham lunch counter running since the early 1980s, where the cuchifritos case is the actual menu: chicharron, morcilla, papa rellena, stewed pig ears, and mofongo with pernil or chuleta. Puerto Rican and Dominican classics, counter service only — a handful of stools and a few tables. The Infatuation rates it 8.3 and files it as a breakfast-and-lunch spot; Hellgate wrote it up as a neighborhood institution. The honest caveat: this is a counter, not a restaurant — bright lights, a few stools, a fry case. Nobody publishes the hours or the payment policy, so bring cash and go at lunch. More Bronx eating in our best cheap eats guide.
See our best cheap eats in NYC
El Malecón
Rotisserie chicken and cilantro dipping sauce in Washington Heights since 1987, at roughly twelve dollars a plate, in a room The Infatuation calls a party restaurant even on a Sunday night. Beyond the chicken: mofongo with crisp pork rind, tropical fruit shakes, cow’s foot soup and codfish stew. A second Manhattan room runs at 764 Amsterdam Ave. The honest caveat, and it matters because people conflate the branches: El Malecón is a small group with several Broadway addresses and they are not interchangeable. The cash-only policy, the 6am-to-midnight hours and the ~$12 mains are documented at the Kingsbridge Bronx branch at 5592 Broadway — do not assume they apply here without asking.
maleconrestaurants.com · See our Harlem happy hours
Mi Pequeño El Salvador
Pupusas from $4.00, two blocks off the Roosevelt Avenue corridor, and the one to order is the queso con ayote — cheese and zucchini — which The Infatuation singles out. Steak-and-cheese is $5.00 and the loaded Pupusa Loca $8.00. It is a full Salvadoran restaurant rather than a pupusa window: ceviche de camarones $22, wings $13, entrees $16 to $42 including grilled shrimp and steak plates, plus soups, tacos and desserts. Two honest caveats: pupusa prices are quoted as starting prices on delivery menus, so the number at the table may be higher — and hours are unverified, because the restaurant’s own site would not load when we checked.
mipequenoelsalvadorrestaurant.com · See our Jackson Heights happy hours
NYC Latin American: FAQ
How much does pollo a la brasa cost in NYC?
It depends almost entirely on the avenue. A whole charcoal rotisserie chicken is $15 at Sabor Peruano 2 on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights and $24 at Pio Pio 8 on Tenth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen – the same dish, roughly 40% apart. Half birds run $8 and $13 respectively. Cheaper again is Pollos Mario on Roosevelt Ave at $11.50 for a full charcoal chicken plate, the cheapest full plate verified for this guide. Pio Pio does publish a $14.50 weekday lunch special, 11am to 4pm, which narrows the gap if you eat before four.
Which Latin American restaurants in NYC have a happy hour?
Four of the eighteen verified here, which tells you something about the category. Caracas Arepa Bar in Williamsburg runs $5 Tropical Rum Punch seven days a week, 4-7pm, plus weekend brunch noon to 4pm. Victor’s Cafe in the Theater District runs its Cuba Lounge happy hour twice a night, Tuesday to Friday 4-6pm and again 8:30pm to close, plus all day Sunday, at $10 cocktails, wine and beer with $12 Cuban bites – bar only. Beco in Williamsburg prints a Monday-Friday 4-6pm caipirinha happy hour on its own menu without publishing the discounted prices. Pio Pio’s $14.50 weekday lunch is a lunch deal rather than a happy hour.
How much should a mofongo cost in NYC?
Between about $14 and $45, and the spread is the most striking price fact in this category. Kiosko 787 in Gowanus charges $13.95 for its Mofongo Boricua. Sofrito in Hamilton Heights charges $25 for the vegetable version, $27 with chicharron de pollo, $29 with pernil or ropa vieja, $36 with shrimp and $45 with lobster. That is roughly four times the Gowanus price for the pernil version. Both are published on the restaurants’ own menus.
Which NYC Latin American restaurants are cash only?
Casa Adela at 66 Avenue C is confirmed cash only and BYOB – both non-negotiable, and it has no website or published hours, so phone first. The El Malecón group’s Kingsbridge branch at 5592 Broadway in the Bronx is documented as cash only with 6am-to-midnight hours; do not assume that applies to the Washington Heights room at 4141 Broadway, because the branches are not interchangeable. Lechonera La Piraña is an outdoor trailer and publishes no payment policy, so carry cash. 188 Cuchifritos, Pollos Mario and Mi Pequeño El Salvador publish nothing either way.
Which Latin American restaurants in NYC have closed?
Three that guides still list. Llama Inn in Williamsburg closed at the end of 2025, along with Llamita – though its exact room at 50 Withers Street is now Café Bar J.F., opened 13 May 2026 by the same Llama group, so the address is still worth going to. Tierras Colombianas in Jackson Heights has closed. And Caracas Arepa Bar’s East Village original at 91 E 7th Street is gone – the brand’s own site now writes about it in the past tense, while the address still circulates. The Williamsburg room and a seasonal Rockaway outpost are what remain.
Last updated: August 2026. Prices and hours change – confirm with the venue before you go. Spot something out of date? Let us know.
