Guatemalan Your Mother Would Love (Restaurante El Mariachi)
This is the kind of restaurant you can take your mother to, and still get outstanding, home cooked Guatemalan food at unbelievably low prices.
[Full Review] Ratings:
The cuisines of Central and South America plus Mexico. In Trenton, this is predominantly the food of Guatemala. But it also includes Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Costa Rico, and Ecuador, among others. European Spanish and Portuguese food is categorized separately.
This is the kind of restaurant you can take your mother to, and still get outstanding, home cooked Guatemalan food at unbelievably low prices.
Mi Tierra is another of the many outstanding Guatemalan restaurants in the City of Trenton, serving its burgeoning Latino population. Mi Tierra stands apart because: 1) the food is well prepared, a notch better than typical and 2) the decor is better than most. While not fancy by any means, it’s a pleasant place to eat, and the service is friendly.
The pupusas are outstanding. They come in 3 varieties: Cheese, cheese and black beans, or cheese and pork. The first two are vegetarian, the last obviously not. In particular, the black bean filling is superb, and the pupusas arrive with nary a glimmer of excess oil on their perfectly grilled exteriors.
Mostly a take-out joint, Guate Rico Deli’s food is all home made, absolutely fresh, and expertly prepared. Compared to other Guatemalan restaurants in town, the cooking uses fat and salt with a lighter touch, making it a place where you can eat often.
La Parrilla (grill, in Spanish), is one of the City’s newest Guatemalan restaurants, the city’s most vibrant (and increasingly most competitive) segment. Located in what used to be a tomato pie restaurant, La Parrilla emphasizes grilled meats and seafood.
Don’t let the name fool you, La Chapinita offers a full Guatemalan menu. Order off the menu to get wonderful, fresh-cooked food at incredibly reasonable prices. Located where Papas Tomato Pies used to call home.
Prices are incredibly reasonable. The food, including the tacos, tostadas, and several of the meat platters is very good. Note, this is a dive. Clean, friendly, but still a dive. English skills of your server are likely to not exist, so if you don’t speak Spanish (like me), be prepared to puzzle out the menu on your own, and order via sign language.
El Chapin is a new Guatemalan restaurant at the corner of Cass and Lamberton Streets, within spitting distance of Waterfront Park. The specialty of the house is charcoal grilled rotisserie chicken, and it’s really, really, really good.
A very good Guatemalan joint on Olden, and one of the oldest. Always inexpensive, it’s now one of the cheapest. The archetypal Trenton dive is worth visiting if you’re nearby.
Mariachi Grill (not to be confused with El Mariachi) serves Tres Leches, a fabulous dessert made from sponge cake and traditionally three different kinds of milk: whole, condensed, and evaporated (plus a whipped cream topping). It’s the best I’ve ever had. And I love Tres Leches. For me, there’s no more to be said.
Benedicion opened in late 2019 and delivers superb pupusa in the authentic Salvadoran style. Lightly oiled, perfectly grilled. Served with the traditional, home-made curtido (a pickled salad made from cabbage, onions, chopped up jalapenos, and cilantro), and salsa roja (mildly spiced, tomato based sauce).
Until now, we’ve never found a local Puerto Rican restaurant we could get excited about. Frankly, the cuisine is tough to prepare well. Unlike Mexican which depends on spiciness, PR cuisine depends on subtle textures and flavors (usually including a lot of garlic). Subtle is hard. Take Mofongo, a classic PR dish. It’s a ball … Continue reading Subtle Intensity
La Taqueria (located on a decidedly suburban site in Lawrence) is better than most Mexican/Guatemalan joints in the area, slightly more expensive than similar places in Trenton (but still a bargain), and much more nicely appointed. If you find yourself in Lawrence looking for a quick, inexpensive bite, it’s a good place to stop.
If you’re looking for a bar with food (as opposed to food) you may fall in love with Casa Blanca. It’s one of the most Anglo-friendly bars in town, newly renovated, with a diverse crowd and good, reasonably priced food.
La Cabaña is a Costa Rican restaurant offering food that, at its best, is utterly sublime, rivaling in both quality and presentation much, much more expensive restaurants. Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and one of the best places in town for Sunday brunch.
Right around the corner from the ballpark: great pizza by the slice or by the pie. Superb Latin fusion cooking. A great place for a quick meal before a Thunder game.
Ever heard of an Arepa? Or a Cachapa? Neither had I. But Trenton’s only Venezuelan restaurant serves up these national specialties, along with a superb Latino-fusion menu.
Tikal offers an American fusion menu: center of gravity is Guatemalan, but look for other Latino cuisines as well as Italian American standards. Full bar. Gorgeous new renovation. Friendly service.
El Negro de Oro (“Black Gold”) is the only Trenton restaurant we know that specializes in Ecuadorian cuisine, including such traditional dishes as: Hornado (roast pork) — at El Negro it’s served with hominy corn, Maiz Tostado (toasted corn nuts), potato cake, and salad (see header image). Seco de Chiuo — a rich, slow-braised goat … Continue reading Ecuadorian Dream
(Covid Update Dec 2021 – in business) Antojitos y Helados (literally: Snacks and Ice Cream) is a tiny Guatemalan restaurant in the heart of Chambersburg. As a restaurant, it’s fine… the meals are authentic, fresh, and home-cooked. However, because of its tiny size (only 3 small tables) the menu is extremely limited, and you have … Continue reading Fire & Ice
There must be a dozen decent Guatemalan restaurants in town, yet somehow RL manages to be among the best. Maybe it’s the friendly, family atmosphere. Or maybe its the food: presentation is just OK, but the portions are huge, prices are low, and the flavor is outstanding.
Aurelio’s serves the best Latino cuisine in Princeton. There are something like half a dozen restaurants in Trenton that are as good or better, and at least 2 in Hamilton. Still, operating an inexpensive restaurant with good food in Princeton is no small feat, and if you like Aurelio’s, you owe it to yourself to start exploring Trenton restaurants as well.
Yes, it is (kind of) the Latino KFC. A “fast-food” chain that started in Guatemala, Pollo Campero operates one in Trenton. While originally focused on fried chicken, Campero now offers “Citrus Peruvian Grilled” Chicken as an alternative. And what an alternative! It comes PERFECTLY cooked: succulent and flavorful: without a doubt some of the best chicken we’ve ever had anywhere. Normally we don’t like to review chain stores; but when they can deliver something this good, we make an exception.
Located in a tiny strip mall just off Rt 206 in Hamilton, El Gallo Tropical serves up what is possibly the best Mexican food in the area. That’s saying a lot, as a host of good-to-superb Mexican dives have opened in the Greater Trenton area over the last few years. My friends from Cali to … Continue reading Southern Standoff
A charming dive just south of the border with Trenton, Mexico Lindo is another worthy addition to the growing list of Mexican restaurants in town, serving up authentic, home-made specialties at prices that out-of-towners find astonishing.
Updated December 2021 Chencha y Chole (“C y C”) opened in June of 2015 in a distinctive, triangular shaped storefront at the intersection of Cass and S. Broad. It has survived COVID and remains one of our favorites in town, with superb, homemade Mexican specialties. (Thanks to our friends at Roebling Lofts for sponsoring this … Continue reading Mountain out of a Mole de Pollo
Mauceri’s is an “old line” Chambersburg pizza joint now under Latino management (as most are). In our limited sample, the pizza is pretty good… the ingredients taste fine but the crust is disappointing. But it’s not a place to make a special trip for. So why are we reviewing? In a word: pupusas! The chef is from El Salvador, the traditional home of these wonderful, stuffed tortillas, which may be the best in town.
(Covid Update Dec 2021 – in business) I’ve driven past Castillo’s for years. It looks like a classic neighborhood pizza joint, a survivor of the Italian Chambersburg. And at one level it is: the take-out menu is a six-panel tri-fold. Open it, and you think you’re reading every pizza parlor menu on the planet: pizza, … Continue reading Out of Focus
The new Trenton economy is on display at Fuente del Buen Gusto every day. Frankly, it’s not the best Guatemalan food in Trenton. Not that FdBG’s food is bad; it’s actually pretty good, but much of it is served off of a buffet, and it suffers a bit from sitting around. However, you won’t find many other places in town that are busier. The joint is usually packed with working men and women from the neighborhood. I suggest that anyone who wants to understand the new Trenton economy should show up here during the week just to check it out.
El Potrillo (Spanish for a foal, or newborn horse) is a pleasant Mexican restaurant in the heart of Chambersburg. The food at El Potrillo is authentic, home-made Mexican. It’s not gourmet or even particularly subtle, but most of it is pretty tasty, and the portions are huge. Prices are competitive with other Trenton Latino joints, and cheap compared to anywhere else in the greater Mercer County area.
Sabor Latino is a friendly Dominican dive located on the eastern fringes of the ‘Burg. I’m not at all familiar with Dominican food, but judging from the menu, it tends more towards stews and soups than the grilled items I associate with Guatemalan cooking; or the various, creative packaging (tacos, burritos, tostadas, etc.) that characterizes Mexican cuisine. That said, it’s all here: as its menu points out in Spanish, it “also serves the cuisine of Guatemala and Costa Rica” and Mexican items show up on the menu under the piquant heading of “International Dishes” .
Frankye’s is a bar on the edge of Chambersburg , with a clean, nearly-charming dining room serving first rate Guatemalan food. The dining room tables are covered by white table cloths, and the floor sparkles. They can char-broil a decent steak, and serve the best Carne Adobada in town.