Puerto Plata Seafood On The Water — Restaurant in Town of Hempstead

A friend of mine and I wanted alternate plans to a high school reunion. She suggested this place. I had been to the area (The Nautical Mile in Freeport Long Island) twice before. I looked at their social media pages and saw that DJ Camilo was going to be performing, so I was exited to go!

We arrived in the vicinity about 15 minutes early. Thankfully there was a valet service but they charged $10 for it. My car (my baby) was kept in view near the front of the restaurant, which I greatly appreciated. We were asked to wait while our table was prepared, then offered both interior and exterior tables. It was a surprisingly cool summer night so we decided to take the table outside. The patio/balcony tables aren't really anything special. There are no specialty lights or decor. The view isn't anything great either. The view is just the side parking areas and some of the street. Still, I preferred being in the fresh air vs. the indoor dining room, which looked a little crowded for a Saturday night.

Anyways, we ordered guac & tostones (plantain chips)to start. It was excellent! For our main dinner we ordered the snapper, with rice & peas on the side, and the Lobster Mac & Cheese. The Lobster Mac & Cheese arrived first, but then we waited a significant amount of time for my snapper. My friend was polite and didn't start on her Mac & Cheese, even though I insisted. The wait staff did notice we were waiting on something. Unfortunately, by the time they addressed it, the first dish was no longer hot.

It should also be noted that we ordered some drinks in the meantime. My friend had the "Morir Soñando." According to her, the taste and/or ingredients weren't right. The waitstaff again informed us that it wasn't made in the classic Dominical Way. She told us the difference in ingredients, but I can't remember them right now. Aside from these small glitches, dinner was good. My snapper tasted great and I would recommend it!

If you're still here and wondering where DJ Camilo performed, it was across the street, at the restaurant's sister bar (Puerto Plata Tiki Bar). Thankfully, I messaged someone on their social media team beforehand, letting them know that I wanted to see Camilo. Once I made security aware of this, we were escorted to the Tiki Bar, exempt from an admission fee, and admitted, without incident, into the party. That was a nice touch in service. Camilo's performance was cool, but the party technically ended at 11pm. Coming from NYC, that felt kind of weird.

All-in-all, the night's mission was a success. If you're in the vicinity, go ahead and book the experience. You will get good Latin/Hispanic/Island flavors, with a full seafood menu. Just temper your expectations on the service...

So here we go y'all! I'm gonna start off by stating that I've been looking forward to this place for MONTHS after a coworker recommended I check them out. And initially I had planned to go to their food truck after having followed them on Instagram. However everything changed yesterday when I was planning my Fiance's Birthday night out, and happened to see from their Instagram page that they had a restaurant. Opted to take the almost hour and change trip, with traffic, from Yonkers, and man oh man! Was I blown away. Me and my fiance was already excited about the food as it looked FANTASTIC on the gram, but at the same time skeptical due to it being our first time there and I'm sure some people can agree with things looking better than what they actually are. They easily met my expectations and then exceeded it. From the food, to the atmosphere, and the service. Everything was incredible! It all started with our server for the night, Monica. She was wonderful, very attentive, and overall provided great service. And not just her, but the staff as a whole as they appear to have been rotating around checking on everyone periodically. We started off the night with some drinks and an appetizer. Drinks were on point, and the appetizer we got was their famous ceviche which had a mix of seafood me and my fiance enjoyed. Then we put in our main dish, which was huge platter for two that you can see from the photo attached here. Everything tasted incredibly fresh and flavourful. Mid way through our night we was greeted by one of the co-owners of the establishment, Lance. And he was very inviting and conversational not only with us but many of the customers there. I can just tell that these guys all treat their customers like family and it was EXTREMELY appreciated. I can't say enough great things about this place, but for our first impressions, this made the night last night, extra spectacular, and I'd HIGHLY recommend anyone reading this review to stop what you're doing and just check these guys out. You will not be disappointed. I'll be heading back for sure and this time I'm bringing the whole family to enjoy it as well. Stay...

Upon arrival, we parked our car and a valet man came up to us asking me something in Spanish. I didn’t hear or know if he was speaking to me since he was on the phone so I asked what in English and he blunty just said “$7.” I asked if this was for Puerto Plata and he said yes. My partner didn’t have cash and asked if there was an atm in the place and he said yeah but I said I had the cash. I asked if we pay now or later and he said “now.” He just had his hand out waiting while talking on the phone and I gave him the $7 (a $5 and 2 singles) and he didn’t hand us a ticket. I didn’t think anything of it since we parked our own car and took our keys. After spending $700 on our bill, we went to our car where the valet man approached us saying we didn’t pay and asked for my boyfriend to come with him taking to management. He spoke in Spanish to the manger saying he didn’t remember if we paid. Well maybe if you weren’t on the phone or gave me a ticket, we would not have this problem. The man at the front even said that they have the same valet person and maybe it wasn’t him. It was him and the same rude person. I spoke directly to the valet man saying what I paid and how he was on the phone. The front man was like like aw, it’s okay don’t worry about it but maybe it wasn’t him. No, no, it was and he was taking advantage! We didn’t like being accused of this due to his poor system of handling this. After he spoke to MY BOYFRIEND’S COUSIN, stating we didn’t pay in Spanish thinking she didn’t know us but she told him how we did and the same story. And it’s clear it was him because he told my boyfriend’s cousin what jad happened earlier! The staff inside were very understanding but the situation still rubbed me the wrong way. I’ve never written a review before. It just felt very degrading and felt like he was trying to take advantage since we are young or for other reasons. The food and service is good but valet needs to do something...