Café Con Leche — Restaurant in Town of Poughkeepsie

I have to say that after waiting to try the restaurant for weeks, we were very underwhelmed after our visit last night. We've previously enjoyed take out prior to the restaurant opening and always enjoyed the food. We went last night for a date night and there are a few things that merit three stars. For weeks, I've been seeing on Facebook to email for reservations so when I emailed last week and got no response, I called on Wednesday. When I called, they told me that they don't take reservations anymore, it's first come first serve. So we arrived shortly after 6:30 last night and they asked if we called ahead. There's no mention of that on Facebook and they didn't tell me that on Wednesday but luckily they were able to seat us within a few minutes. In fact, when they posted yesterday, it mentioned "walk in only." They gave us a food menu and I was looking for drinks, but there's no drink menu. With all of the drinks advertised online, plus a bar, there should be a drink menu. Our waitress was very nice but we had to ask her to rattle off the drinks, half of which she seemed to forget. My husband asked if they had Sloop juice bomb, which they did but had to be sent back. There was either something wrong with the tap or it was not the right beer but it was not hazy and tasted "off." It didn't seem that they had any specials, sadly because I had been eyeing the chuletas kan kan for weeks. I'm not faulting them for that but then when we ordered, the waitress remembered that they were out of pernil. We started out with the taste of Puerto Rico sampler which was a variety platter of deep-fried, under-salted food. Also, the wait staff brought one appetizer plate (there were two of us, so again, service issue). The pastelillos were hands down the best seasoned and most flavorful item on the platter. The tostones and yuca fries were dry and needed a dash of salt. The alcapurria was not good or well seasoned. I regretted that we had ordered an appetizer because at $16, it was disappointing. The two sauces that came with the food were fine but the one sauce seemed more like a dish of oil. Overall it was just a platter of dry deep-fried, heavy food which was not appealing. Since they were out of the pernil that my husband wanted, he decided to go with the chicken sandwich. The flavor was good although he said the meat itself was dry. I decided to try the shrimp mofongo, which was also a miss in my book. The dish consisted of a gigantic dry ball of Mofongo which again, would've benefited greatly from salt and cooking the chunks of garlic through a bit more. It was only palatable when mixed with the sauce on the dish. It came with six shrimp which were equally bland and overcooked to the point of being hard. Overall the meal was definitely under seasoned and not well executed. The saving grace were the two Mojito's that I had which were absolutely delicious and fresh tasting. There's definitely potential but they need to work on formalizing reservations (or not), having drink menus (with prices), and having regular specials and training staff a bit more. We will probably not try the restaurant anytime soon but will order for...

I’m giving 3 stars as the first time my husband and I came to this restaurant it’s was about 5pm we walked in and were told it was a 45 minute wait. We gave our name and number as we were told we had to wait in our car due to covid and they would call when it was our turn. An hour later my husband went inside to check the status of our wait and was told they couldn’t give a time to which my husband replied “so why tell us 45 minutes and then I come back an hour later and then you tell me you don’t know when we will be seated?” The host said nothing and we just ended up driving an hour back home and eating somewhere else. Fast forward to a few days ago we were in the are on Thursday and decided we would try again as maybe this time we would actually get to sit and eat. We got there and were seated right away. The restaurant made you feel the island vibe which was great. We asked for the sampler which was pretty good! The yuca fries were delicious and everything else was good too, so we had high hopes for our entrees. We both ordered mofongo, I ordered shrimp mofongo and my husband ordered the chicharon de pollo. It looked amazing when it was brought to us. Excitedly I stuck my fork in the mofongo and took a bite and was not impressed at all. The peppers and the olives were all I could taste...moving on to the shrimp, the first piece of shrimp I picked up was not cleaned properly. There was poop in the shrimp still and that just turned me off completely. I barely ate my food! My husbands food was barely touched also. He also agreed that the mofongo was not great. Unfortunately the entrees did not live up to the hype, maybe if there is a next time we will try something else and will have a better experience. The pina colada was good and the...

Please note that on Sundays, their doors CLOSE at 3pm. Their website has not been updated, yet. Call before you go...large groups should definitely call in. They do have a private area upstairs. We didn't know. We were a party of 14 and were accommodated comfortably.

Food - was very GOOD. Our waitress was awesome. The music was very low in the background so we could hear one another. The loudness came from us.

$$ Prices- Average (affordable and not overpriced).

Serving Size - More than enough... although the avocado🥑 toast needed more 🥑 🥑 🥑. If you like your tostones crunchy, you'll need to say EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA crispy...my husband asked for well done, and he got regular...They have this INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS Garlic dipping sauce for your tostones that is to die for. Skip the mayo and ketchup dip..ask for double portion of the garlic dip. You'll thank me later.

The bad- there were quite a few flies where we were seated...and we had to take care of them ourselves. They also may need more help in the kitchen, our food came out extremely slow...2 plates came out first (without their sides). After 10-15 minutes later other plates started to come out - One-At-A-Time. The cappuccino did not come to us hot, they were luke-warm. My brother drank his in 3 gulps.

Other than that, we'd like to come back and check out their dinner menu and ambiance.

PARKING - Plenty

RAMP ENTRANCE

BONUS INFO- The bathroom - One bathroom. It does have a urinal and a toilet; Super clean with a touch of tropical decoration and El Coquí and rain sounds playing toxdrown out any "sounds"😳. Very unique, very clever.

Thanks Café con Leche Let's work on the food coming out closer together and bringing those cappuccinos Hot (don't foreget the spoons🤪)

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