I'm sorry to say this but Rancho Jubilee in Queens (the one in the corner of Ditmars and 94th St.) only has the looks to offer, the food is terrible and service needs to be introduced to the staff as the operating system in use and not the "I may attend to your table when I see fit" attitude, and prices are very uncommon to the menu, a piece of grilled chicken breast for almost $20.00 gimme' a break!
Just a few blocks away nicely stocked in Northern Blvd. and 98th St. is "Cafe Rubio" a great get together place with a great menu that doesn't get stuck on the Mofongo and Tostones offering like most places, a nice dish I could recommend: Rinconsito Sutil (tender cut chicken breast filled with Shrimp and portabello mushrooms, imported Italian cheese and some other stuff I can't recall now, served over a rich and tasty cream sauce)
Others would be:
Platanos a La Playa (a type of Mofongo but no pork or red meats served with shrimp, lobster tail, clams, calamare , etc., with a tasty in house special sauce).
Filete de Pescado a La VeraCruz (if you like fish I'll let you find out this one on your own)
Chicken Paillard (a thin juiced grilled breast of chicken served over a salad mix of arrugula and top pick greens with diced imported Italian mozzarella and balsamic Italian vinegar, only $10.00!!)
OK! OK! I'll come clean!
I happen to know this place a lot because I did about 99% of it myself to help a buddy on a biz gone south, I built the bar, Dominican style houses (one houses the kitchen inside the other just for looks) with zinc roof and all, the recently built Winebar in the back room (which happens to be a glass house 99% only floor is not glass) the PC based music and video system and most of the menu still going strong!!!
I tried some ideas I had for my ongoing restaurant project here, kind of a kid's sandbox to play with, and I was very happy almost all the ideas were very good indeed, if you happen to go on a Thursday you'll be having to join in the Karaoke nights! or Monday's tipicos with the in house tipica band, Tuesdays are for Arabian dancers and back rubs for the clients by a professional masseuse, Wednesday is for Rock, Friday for cool videos, Saturdays are romantic live singers like Fausto Rey and like, Sundays Cuquin y boruga, benny sadel, monchy capricho etc.
I was testing to see if the new Ansi handheld service POS could work in a heavy use restaurant and so far I find it to be great, the girls can take the order on the tables and just write on the Dell's Axim X5 like a note pad and hit send which in a second has all the bases covered, food to the kitchen, drinks to the bar, wine to the Winebar etc. right now I plan to implement the paging system to have the cooks page the girls to pick up the dish once it's ready to be served unlike the normal every 3 minutes check to the kitchen by all of them.
We have a great relationship with several Dominican artists like Villalona and others from back in the days who visit from time to time and love to participate with the patrons singing and all that kind of stuff, also many Dominican baseball players do visit every time their team has a game in NY.
But to me it's like a cool cozy corner where to go where everybody seems to know your name, like that Cheers song? And a great lab for me to try in a small scale my ideas without risking losing a lot of cash in the big leagues.
