La Estacion (Zabiha Halal) — Restaurant in Town of Islip

Wow what a hidden gem in Long Island. We absolutely loved this place. We were looking for a HMS Certified Pakistani Restaurant and stumbled upon this place and let me tell you how pleasantly surprised we were by the Quality of food, Superb service and Pleasant atmosphere.

Food: 5 Stars 🌟 We ordered the Rotisserie Chicken/ Peruvian whole chicken for family which comes with rice, fries and salad. OMG so delicious and combined with the perfect blend of what I assumed to be Peruvian spices. Nihari was top notch. Paya were pretty decent. In desert, we loved the gulab jamun and rus malai. Chia was perfect Dood Patti.

Service: 5 Stars 🌟 They accommodated us even when we arrived late. They set us up outside in one of the heated igloos. The server/waiter was checking up on us frequently and took care of our large party really well. The owner came over a few times himself to checkup on us. He seemed very nice.

Atmosphere: 5 Stars 🌟 Excellent atmosphere. Absolutely loved the different types of indoor and outdoor seating option. We were surprised by how comfortable the Igloo was. They had a little play ground for kids with slides and swings along with a bouncy house for the young ones. They have their own private parking lot.

You can see the LIRR train passing. I learned that the reason why this place is called La Estacion is because it used to be the old Long Island Rail Road ticketing office/station which was later turned into a Spanish restaurant and subsequently into what is now.

If you live on LI and haven’t been here, you are missing out. Times are gone when you used to have to go to Queens for decent...

I found the food to be unique & delicious. They don't skimp out on ingredients & give you a good portion. The plating is also beautiful. A big location. They have a decent seating section inside & plenty of seating outside. So what I got from the flavors was not your typical Hispanic taste. It has an Indian influence to it (not complaining, I love the uniqueness of it). There is no pork here because it is a Halal spot. The chicken pupusa is made from ground chicken it seems with tumeric, the loroco is just loroco & cheese. Overall they were cheesy & not dry at all. The tacos de carne also was not your average carne. Had a hint of tumeric & came with red onions, jalapeños, guac & 3 wedges of lemon. I have no complaints about the food. However the service is pretty shady. I asked for water & they kept insisting on me getting one of their drinks or at least a bottled water. I said I just wanted tap water. Ended up getting charged $1.50 for the water. They charge you gratuity which supposedly doesn't go to the wait staff but to the owners themselves? They couldn't even explain where the gratuity goes to.

Reply to reply: Thanks so much for taking your time to reply to my review. I wish it would've been explained to me the reasons why so much insisting on the water bottle & that you don't serve tap water. And as for the gratituity, maybe there was a misunderstanding, who knows 🤷‍♀️ Language wasn't an issue though since I too...

We came on a busy Sunday night with a party of 10. The service, food, and atmosphere were outstanding. We took about 20-25 minutes ordering and there wasn’t much time until closing. Our server had to come back twice to take our order. Despite us taking a while, our server was extremely patient. We sat at the outside dining area and it was starting to become chilly. As soon as we informed the restaurant staff, they made sure to turn on the heat. After ordering, our food came quicker than expected, probably because it was close to closing. However, this did not take away from the quality and freshness of the food. It came toasty and warm, and we were hungry so that was no problem. We enjoyed our food throughly!! The prices are exceptional for the quantity of food you get. We ordered 8 food items and still had leftovers. A woman (I’m assuming the manager) came over to ask if everything was alright which was really nice—the attention to service was phenomenal. We were the last ones there and it was past closing by this point, but they still allowed us to take our time and eat peacefully. We decided to get dessert as well and everything was delicious. I recommend the Teriyaki Chicken Quesadilla & the Tres Leches Cake. Hope they continue to have great service and food in the future! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ We did not do the weekend buffet, just ordered whatever we wanted straight...