Acuario Cafe

Reviews

• Juan T.

  star star star star star 9 June 2026

  This 5* is not for decor or service, this is for the bargain prices in this area and worth of the food offered.
  
  Acuario Cafe is not a cafe. It's the leading dock of a building where while you place your order, deliveries are walking past behind you. This place is a gem. For $5 and up, you get a great meal. Rice, beans and pick your protein.
  In midtown its unheard off, to get a lunch for $5, not even food carts or halal trucks.
  
  This no frills place will fill your void, dont expect glam, expect good food.
  
  I believe the place has been serving the area for 20+ years and the lines are there to prove it.
  
  Give the place a try.

• Dan Z.

  star star star star_border star_border 5 June 2026

  Pretty tasty and worth a 10-15 walk if you're in the area, since Times Square is always overpriced and there isn't much else that's great to eat at this price point in the Garment District that I've discovered.
  
  The lines aren't as long as the top review would lead you to believe. I think it's comparable to a suped up slightly cheaper Dominican Chipotle in the sense that you get really filled up for your money, get a lotta meat and white rice, but there's really nothing original or outstanding.
  
  Probably won't be back. My neighborhood carne guisada beats Acuario's.

• Kevin K.

  star star star star_border star_border 4 June 2026

  Utility Food.
  
  Sometimes going to a restaurant isn't really about the atmosphere, the decor, the service, or even how good the food tastes.  Sometimes it's really about shoving acceptable food into your piehole as cheaply as possible and avoiding food poisoning.  Take midtown around 7th and 8th avenue for instance - this is an area known as the fashion district and it used to be busier.   The showrooms and corporate offices are on 7th avenue, the fabric cuts and sample work could be on the commercial buildings lining the side streets, and the assembly were here or in the small sweatshop factory floors all over Chinatown and certain parts of Brooklyn and Queens.  If you walk around the garment district in the mid-late '90s the storefronts in the area are dominated by fabric shops, button makers, sewing machine dealers and servicers.  A majority of that is nowadays off-shored to places like Bangladesh, and given the general state of malaise in modern American apparel makers, quite a number of those local ancillary businesses closed down, sometimes due to lack of customers, but often due to the next generation not willing to inherit the business.  I remember back when West 36th had great Cantonese steam table lunch joints and bakeries (I miss the breakfast congees in those joints after a night shift of IT work).  There were more kosher delis (Ben's, Mr. Broadway, etc) for the old school Yiddish speaking bauers, for the Mexicans there were joints serving tortas and huaraches, and for the Dominicans and Salvadorians there are lunch counters usually found on loading docks of commercial buildings.  Places like El Sobroso (one block and one avenue over) and Arcuario.  There used to be more like this but they are mostly gone.  
  
  Let's set some expectations here.  This place is off a loading dock (where the garments and trash gets hauled out) and a place where the local workers get their lunch - and certain traits are valued over others.  Attributes like large-ish portions, stable price tags, and the ability to dish out ho-hum but clean food quickly.  This isn't some millennial Instagram friendly cafe handing out nitro cold-brew, kale-and-quinoa bowls or avocado toasts for Square swipes - it's more like eating something made using cheap ingredients and cans of Goya seasonings.  Give me a chicken leg, some arroz-con-gandules, pass the Texas Pete, shut-the-hell-up I need this in my gut within 10 minutes.  The food is okay but nothing to write home about - but then all the cheap latin places nearby are like that, and this is me speaking from grabbing lunch all over the Garment district in the past 10 years.  Mofongo?  Meh.  El Sobroso?  It depends on when you show up.  Spanish American next to the Chelsea flea market?  Similar.  If you want to stay under 7 bucks for a hot meal it's either White Castles, latin platter joints, Chinese steam table places, or your halal chicken-n-rice carts.  Now if you know what the hell you are doing, you can also pick up food right outside the Honduran consulate down the block.  But not always.
  
  I actually like the fact that it's grimy - it keeps the out-of-towners and the lookee-loos out.  The lookee-loos I despise the most are the type from West Bumblefuck, Indiana who saw some clickbait video on YouTube about the latest hipstery culinary fad and then flocks to a joint expecting the culinary equivalent of a five dollar happy ending tug-job, gets bummed out by the hyperbole, then writes inane poison pen "don't buy the hype" reviews here, as if the place did anything to promote itself in the first place.  I mean, hey, you were the one who fell for the clickbait "foodie" flotsam - As Ice-T would've said it "you played yourself".  Looks can be deceiving, and assumptions are typically wrong - sure, they are next to the loading dock, but they passed food inspections (people still hammer slop bucket joints in Chinatown despite their B or C ratings).  If they were bad with the food safety word-of-mouth from sick patrons would've shut them down already, but yet, they still got lines right outside buying up their rice-beans-and-protein daily.  So yeah, thanks, outta-towner - hand me my six dollar plate, I'll keep patronizing here.  I won't pretend to have that trademark Mark Wiens "orgasm-in-my-mouth" expression, but hey, I got food in midtown, it's cheap, and I don't have to deal with Millenial bullcrap for it.
  
  The Fashion district of today is very different from the one I grew up with - many of those little mom-n-pop shops are gone, and I miss them.  It's nice to see the hole-in-the-wall latin tray joints still around as I do partake in its wares once in awhile.  But yeah, I don't eat here very often as there are a myriad of other options to choose from.

• Judson C.

  star star star star star 4 June 2026

  Saw this place and YouTube, and it did not disappoint. The goat meat was packed with flavor, goes really well with rice and beans. Very lovely place, I am glad that I didn't missed out.

• Noreen N.

  star star star star star_border 1 June 2026

  I love this spot. This is a very no frills hole in the wall kind of place. Would I go out of my way to go here, probably not. However, if I want a warm, hearty, and affordable meal when I'm in the area then yes!