Empellon Taqueria & Bar — Restaurant in New York

Stunned at how much this place has changed. My partner and I first came to this location back in 2016. It used to be a pretty, clean and a classy place. It’s no longer any of these. Walking in you already smell and feel that it’s now like a dive bar- but with Empellón prices! I sat at the bar and the stool was actually broken. Completely broken. I thought ok, I can look past that. Then the bartender came over and treated us exactly how they treat you at a dive bar- like they’re doing you a favor. He was a big guy, sweating and not nice. What happened to this place I asked my partner. Then we saw the paper gross menus. Maybe it’s just for the holiday? We ordered a Michelada ($15!) and a margarita ($15!) it was really cheap margarita mix. These used to be artisan margaritas. We also ordered guacamole- my god, it actually was served to us IN A TIN FOIL TO GO BOTTOM (photo below). We didn’t even get a plate. Ok what the hell happened to this place? I was so mad. Then I went to the bathroom. Dirty, sticky and surprise- NO SOAP. When I told the guy he apologized but never went to get soap?? This place should be shut down. The Hispanic bartender said in December 2023 they decided to change to cater to a younger crowd and make it like this, hmm I said is it working? This is a dive bar. Empellon is known for being upscale and classy. He just said, “I know. I’ll pass it onto the owner.” The one you three just did tequila shots together with? Awful. And so we paid $50 for really terrible service and experience. Oh and to apologize they sent us cheap tequila shots. Stunned we just looked at them. No thank you. That’s not why we came here. Every other place in the neighborhood was packed with pretty people and classy clean places, not this dive bar. What a terrible fall from grace. I hope it...

Empellón Taqueria = fancy Mexican. It's a nice place to take a date if you want to impress him/her, and you're craving some Mexican food.

My boyfriend claims that this place serves the best tacos that he has ever eaten in his life (even though he has been to LA and Mexico). We're both meat eaters but get this - his best taco is the BRUSSEL SPROUTS taco. So naturally when he brought me here to eat that, I was pretty skeptical.

We came in a little before 8 pm on a Wednesday and the place was poppin'. The wait for a table would have been 45 minutes. But since we didn't mind if we didn't sit down at a table, we just ordered drinks and tacos by the bar.

First thing's first. The drinks. He says cocktails are pretty good. But I ended up getting the michelada since I love beer and bloody marys, so it's kind of an in between. The tomato juice had this smoky taste to it that I didn't really care for but overall, it was a good michelada. We also decided to do some tequilia, and the bartender was super knowledgeable, and didn't, try to G us. We told him that we wanted a smooth, sippable tequila, but didn't want to break the bank. So he recommended a smooth one (at $12 a shot, which came with a shot of that smoky tomato-y mix) which wasn't too bad. Mind you, I never drink tequila, especially not after my college days. But this one wasn't TOO terrible.

On to the tacos - it's $16+ for two tacos, so I don't really think it was that worth it. I guess I just have this idea in my head that really good tacos can also be really inexpensive. It was good, don't get me wrong, but it was probably more of a splurge for me.

While I wouldn't crown this place as the best taco ever, as my boyfriend has, it is still pretty good. But if I'm craving some tacos, Empellón wouldn't be at the...

I'm conflicted about this review, and I think the 4 stars is justified. I came here on a Saturday night- thankfully this place takes reservations. They have a room inn the front and in the back as well so there's plenty of seating. We were seated almost as soon as we arrived.

They have lots of 2-4 person tables, lots of dates happening on a Saturday. We ordered almost the entire menu for our group of three. Our waitress was really good and prompt and gave good recommendations- I loved the Pear Margarita that she mentioned. However, they didn't seem to have some basic things - no butter for the tables and they took a while to bring salt- however they were busy so am overlooking that.

We tried the Cashew salsa- excellent the sweet potato flautas- forgettable the lobster queso- very good and very cheesy the goat taco (daily special) - excellent the chocolate pudding - excellent the chicken tacos- mediocre the little meat balls- just ok the parsnips- excellent the beet tartare- not much flavour the honeynut squash- forgettable

seems like you have to know your way around the menu to place an order that you and your table likes. Makes one think that its worth coming back and trying the rest to know what order to place.

Bathrooms- a little on the smaller side but clean and good, and the layout of the restaurant is pretty spacious. We did have a large party in the room with us and they put a bunch of tables together for the 12 odd people who came in. Overall, I would say definitely worth checking out the restaurant and I hope my...