El Nopal Restaurant — Restaurant in Town of North Hempstead

Hangry as hell so made a quick search for best Pozole soup near me, because that's what I was craving randomly, on my trusty Yelp app and Nopal was top of the list! They make a flavorful and hearty red Pozole soup with generous amounts of tender meat and hominy too! Also ordered a regular sopes that came with a good schmear of fresh refried beans, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, cojito cheese and cream and it was the perfect accompaniment to the soup! Tried their horchata and sadly it wasn't as flavorful as I hoped it would be but loved that it was not clawingly sweet either!

The staff was really nice both on the phone and in person and packaged everything nicely so there was no chance of spillage on the way home. There were a few customers at the counter sitting area but all covid precautions were being done here. Parking was not an issue as well, but maybe because I came around 3 instead of in the AM... I Would love to try and eat in at the restaurant one of these days but for now I'm happy to have great authentic Mexican take out so close to home that I can enjoy piping hot!

Y'all! Eat local!...

This is a place for Spanish speakers. It's not friendly to English speakers.

As soon as I walked in and greeted the lady who took my pick up order, the smile on her face from chatting with the other Spanish-speaking customers in the restaurant disappeared, and immediately there was a vibe that I wasn't welcome there as an outsider non-Spanish speaker.

But really I can ignore these things if the food is great.

Food was mediocre. 3 tacos. But lady who took my order to go doesn't speak English. And she finagled the order.

When I asked if they have ground beef she said yes. So I asked for ground beef taco and instead got inedible chunks of hard beef connective tissue.

When I received my order (it was all packaged up so It was a hassle to open and double check it). I asked the lady if I could get extra hot sauces. Both green and red.

And she said she put a lot In there. three she said. When I got home there was only one small green sauce cup.

I don't mind if people can't speak English. But I do mind when they pretend they can and say yes...

Ordered Bistek a La Mexicana and loved it! Almost finished the whole thing. Fried Calamari was good especially the dipping sauce.

My guest ordered birria (his usual dish when we come here) but he said it smelled weird this time.. like a rancid odor and it came with a lot of big chunks of meat and chewy pieces of fat. Very different from our previous visits, usually the birria is shredded and juicy. He ended up returning the tacos and ordering 3 pupusas. Staff was very nice though and comped from our bill.

Usually we sit in the colorful booths but for special holidays like Valentine’s Day they kept the booths available for bigger parties only. Still great...