El Castillo De Jagua
The pernil here takes over the plate under a shard of crackling skin, with rice and kidney beans beside it.1
Why go
Time Out wrote this counter up in 2010 and I have not found anything published about it since. What that write-up gives you is an order. The mofongo is green plantain mashed with fried pork. Time Out calls it the champion gut-plugger. The sancocho puts potatoes and plantains into a stew that was already starchy.1
The kitchen's own billing runs Dominican, Caribbean, Latin American and Spanish cooking, plus breakfast, seafood, sandwiches and coffee.2 That is a wide claim for one counter, and the pork is the part anybody has vouched for.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the pernil on its own.1
- Order: the pollo al horno, whole or by the half.2
- Avoid: walking to Prospect Heights by mistake. El Gran Castillo de Jagua on Flatbush Avenue is a different business with its own reviews.4
What locals & experts say
- Time Out New York, on the Cuban sandwich, February 2010: it is
uncharacteristically light, featuring crisp bread, pickles, runny mayo and pork-on-pork action: ham and fabulous pernil.
1 - Willa Moore, in The Infatuation, on the other one: El Gran Castillo de Jagua in Prospect Heights has served breakfast, lunch and dinner since 1983, and her morning order there is mangu with queso frito.3
Good to know
- Timing: breakfast every day, and later at the weekend.2
- The price: Time Out files it in the cheapest of its four price bands.1
Verdict
could-visit — It takes pickup and delivery orders, and that is how I would use it.