FOOD

The food at El Palacio is at its best when the plate stays close to the Caribbean and Latin side of the buffet. Puerto Rican and Dominican traditions overlap throughout the line, with rice and stews as the foundation, fried picadera foods for contrast, roasted pork, root vegetables, organ meats and sweets that make the selection feel more like a community table scaled up for unlimited dining.

Start near the appetizers. Quipes are the Dominican adaptation of Middle Eastern kibbeh: bulgur wheat and seasoned beef formed around a savory meat filling, then fried until crisp outside and tender within. Alcapurrias move in another direction. El Palacio offers versions made with yuca as well as green-banana masa, wrapped around seasoned meat and fried into a deeply savory fritter. Fried salami, fried cheese and meat empanadillas can easily turn the opening plate into a meal of its own.

Tostones deserve a separate trip. These green plantain rounds are fried, flattened and fried again, creating crisp, salty edges around a center that stays slightly soft and starchy. Chicharrón supplies the pork equivalent of that contrast: crackling skin around richer, softer pork and fat, far more substantial than the packaged pork-rind image the English translation can suggest.

The hot line settles into food that wants rice beneath it. Pernil, slow-roasted marinated pork shoulder, can be pulled apart with tongs and brightened with mojo. Arroz con gandules brings pigeon peas into seasoned rice; white rice, black-bean rice and crisp rice from the bottom of the pan provide other foundations. Stewed eggplant is soft and deeply seasoned, while steamed yuca or malanga topped with pickled red onion gives the plate an earthy starch that absorbs sauce beautifully.

Then come the dishes that make El Palacio unusually valuable to an adventurous buffet eater. Beef liver is cut into small strips and stewed with tomato and green pepper until its usual mineral sharpness softens into something rounder and more savory. Goat often appears bone-in and slow-cooked. Chicken gizzards benefit from the same long cooking, becoming tender enough to sit naturally beside rice and sauce. Carne guisada offers the more familiar version of the formula, with beef simmered in tomato-based gravy.

The buffet also makes room for hand-wrapped tamales, tied in corn husks around soft corn masa and a generous seasoned-meat center. Nearby, the Chinese section is a side branch rather than the restaurant’s identity, with fried rice, lo mein, egg rolls and sweet-and-sour chicken offering a change of direction before the plate circles back to the Caribbean foods.

Dessert rewards that same focus. Budín de pan is cut into easy buffet-sized pieces with a gentle sweetness after a heavy plate. Arroz con dulce is creamier and more aromatic, with cinnamon carrying through the rice. Guava-and-cheese empanadillas are worth saving room for because sweet fruit and salty-creamy cheese give the crisp pastry real contrast, especially beside a scoop of ice cream. By the end, El Palacio’s hierarchy is clear: this is a rare all-you-can-eat survey of Caribbean home cooking, including foods many broader buffets would never think to serve.