Salsa Latina Restaurant- Matawan/Old Bridge

[KeithH]

Hey everyone,

Just saw a write-up in the Home News today about this restaurant. Has anyone ever been? From other sites it seems like it has gotten some decent reviews. I love Puerto Rican food, but it is difficult to find a good restaurant in the Middlesex County area.

I know that Perth Amboy has several Puerto Rican restaurants, are there any very good ones that you all would recommend either there or somewhere else not far from Middlesex County?

[kd2pm2]

Keith, had a wonderful dinner with family on Friday 4/9/10. Party of 8 and we had different appetizers, some on the menu and some were the special of the day (i.e. Ceviche). Others included Empanadas and Tostones. For meals some of us had the arroz on pollo, ropa vieja, and pernil. Other than myself, everyone took something home since the portions were generous. I ate everything on my plate since I could not stop eating it. Chicken with yellow rice and black beans, as well as the salad and plantains, then add on the appetizers, it was a feast!.
Its BYOB is you decide to go but the atmosphere, music and food make it worth going to.

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Salsa Latina Resturant
343 State Route 34, Matawan, NJ 07747

[seal]

I guess they must have improved quite a bit since we were there. See the old thread about this place for our report when the seals and the bguts ate here. The short of it is that nobody was satisfied and I was embarassed for suggesting the place.

[RGR]

seal,

I totally missed your report about the disappointing meal you and the bguts had at Salsa Latina. Sorry to hear it. Not that I was considering going there....

As for kd2pm2's report, this is his/her first post on Chowhound. So, perhaps, that needs to be factored in.

[seal]

True RGR, I missed that.

The original report on our dinner was filed by bgut, not me and can be found here:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/517565

To be fair, it was two years ago, but it was pretty bad.

A much better option for the same cuisine can be found on the same block where the best of the bunch, Diaz's Flavor, used to be found in Long Branch. There are two small joints there that are both much more flavorful than Salsa Latina. A thread about them can be found here:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/577372

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Diaz's Flavor Restaurant
279 Broadway, Long Branch, NJ 07740

[charmel]

While I remember the food not being bad, I do remember that on a weekend night they ran out of yellow rice at about 8:30 PM and were every matter of fact about it....white rice or no rice was the answer we got. To us that was unacceptable. My husband enjoys this cuisine with yellow rice. Then the owner came out and said that they could put up some yellow rice but it would take a half hour to prepare. My husband is normally a very mellow guy, but he kind of flipped....I guess since he is in the retail food business, he has very little tolerance for such poor organization and customer service. He could not understand how they let the yellow rice run out on a weekend night, unless they wanted to use up the white rice that was left. Anyway, he refused to stay and we left and have never been back. Again, in all fairness, it was at least a year ago. Maybe I can convince him to give it another try.