Restaurante Montecristo

I don’t understand the bad reviews. I guess it’s true, everyone is a critic these days. I have eaten here 2 – 3 dozen times over the past 2 years, with no complaints. The staff are friendly, the food is pretty good, there’s usually a few parking spots out front, and everything is dirt cheap. What more could you ask for? For the price, it’s a great value.
Ok, so it’s not the most fancy place in Boston, but the food is much better than most Mexican places in East Boston. I usually just get a quesadilla, torta de pollo (chicken sandwich), or something similar, along with a side. Even with a soda, I never spend more than $ 9 on the whole meal. I will leave a 25−30% tip since the waitresses don’t seem to make much money. Now compare that to your average sub shop or pizza joint, where I frequently spend double that.
Sure, you might get better quality downtown, but if you’re looking to eat good on the cheap, just check this place out.

The food is greasy but pretty decent food. The reason why I didn’t give them a higher rating is because they have the worse delivery service. The environment is very casual and don’t expect anything fancy. Something to try is the pupusas. Just don’t suggesting getting delivery they charge you for it and it takes forever.

bad food the worst food ever ordered delivery

I ordered around midnight since they closed at 1am. As always I gave a good tip but Idk if they rushed to make the chicken but I got food poisoning and haven’t been able to eat anything for 24 hours. Been puking and shitting all day. I know it wasnt just me because my girl friend ended up in the hospital for dehydration after having puked soo much. She completely fainted I. Ordered from here hoping it was the same as the one from revere but no luck. Please PLEASE cook chicken up to temp of 165 degrees and above!!! Your better off over cooking than undercooking hope you guys don’t get a lawsuit if you guys keep this up you guys might seriously kill someone or send more people to the hospital… I understand if you guys are in a hurry to close but if someone calls over an hour before close don’t rush making someones food PLEASE por el Amor De Jesucristo

All you hipsters n bridge and tunnel people why haven’t u been here. this place always packed at lunch. go later if possible. entrees are consistent. u will be the only gringos in here but that’s fine, They love the business. notice all the families eating together. Great value and quality

I was looking for topacio, but apparently I passed it (a venezulan from chicago gets lost driving on Boston easily) so with the headache and hunger and heat I decided to stop at montecristo. Well, I am used to the 1.50 pupusas with good sizing. When I came here I didnt know they were 2.00 and they were the size of my palm, extremely small. They were good but too expensive. If they were decent size I wouldn’t have minded but they were half the size I get from back home. I was upset to learn the pupusas were ***premade in the AM. ;(The tamal de pollo was good. 2.50 and was small in portion as well. It was just about 7 dollars.
Very disappointed, a little overpriced for my experience, and the portions were too small. I’m not asking for the plate to be filled up completely, but I would like decent portions.

Unsanitary. They let cabbage sit out on the table for days. Ordered guacamole, received avocados. They asked for the avocados back. Kind of scary & sad, because the food is really good.

Holy mother of seasonings… I think I’ve maxed out my sodium levels for the day here. Why are my beans so damn salty? Agua, por favor?

Work nearby and spent all morning suffering from an awful migraine accompanied by its friend nausea. I had a huge craving for caldo de pollo from my favorite Mexican restaurant back home in Chicago. Clearly that wasn’t going to happen, so I took to GrubHub in search for a magic cure to my ailment. Enter: Restaurante Montecristo. They have a $ 15 minimum order for delivery, so I added a couple pupusas and coffee to my order. With tax, tip, and delivery, my total came to be around $ 21. Now, I can see where some might think this is expensive for lunch. However, when my food arrived (20 minutes before the estimated arrival), the bag easily weighed 3−5lbs. I was confused. Didn’t I just order soup and a couple pupusas? Yes, I did. But apparently the chicken soup comes with an amazingly seasoned huge portion of a whole chicken (breast, leg, wing), a few servings of rice, and a mini salad, in addition to the tortillas and large container of broth. Looks like I ordered lunch and got dinner too! Worth mentioning, since I ordered easily spillable items (soup, coffee), said items were diligently wrapped to avoid spillage. Sad not everyone subscribes to such attention to detail.
Anyway, the pupusas were amazing, just like the homemade pupusas made by my friend’s aunt. I got the pork and wasn’t disappointed at all. In fact, they smelled so good, coworkers were coming out of the wood works asking what smelled so good and when I’m going to be ordering from there again.

Too much cauliflower!

Chicken is seasoned very well. Prices are TOO high for Chicken a side salad and french fries 22.00! I would love this place if they had better sides to go with the chicken. Also took 2 hours to get order after ordering at 11 am. So make sure you call early.

Decided to go on
on a cold rainy night since I wasn’t feeling up to the challenge of making dinner. I was in the mood for «taquitos al pastor», these deliciously simple Mexican tacos and a side order of pupusas… love saying this name. Anywho, the freshness of the food and the flavors really shocked me. Would come here again.

We came here because we had a living social voucher, but i would definitely come back.
I had the quesadilla– which was so good! It’s not an American quesadilla at all with just meat cheese and veggies but filled with all sorts of deliciousness– rice, beans, etc. It also came with fries.
My husband had the taco platter and got three different kinds, all of which he enjoyed very much, especially the beef tongue.
In addition to that we shared two papusas and flan. We also had three drinks and our bill was only $ 30! Plus I still had half my quesadilla to take home since it was very large.
I also give them credit– it seems like they are reading the reviews because A) when I asked for water the server asked if I wanted tap or bottled for $ 1 B) spoke English to us, or at least enough to communicate back and forth (but even if they didn’t, the menu is in English– you can get by) and C) was very friendly and food came out quick.
Another plus was there was free parking right outside. We don’t normally venture to East Boston, but glad we did and we will be back!

Sometimes you get by with a little help from your friends, and that’s just what I needed in order to redeem my $ 30 voucher. The two of us ordered a whole bunch of items to try and I still ended up taking home enough to satiate another person or so.
First off, one of their Cheese Pupusas $ 2.00 (Homemade tortillas filled with cheese) because of Julia F.‘s lauding. Simple looking, yet tasty. It came with a tomato sauce of sorts that wasn’t spicy.
We eyed both the Chicken Tamale $ 2.00 and the Chicken Chuchitos $ 2.00, considering one of each, but were informed that they are pretty much the same, so we went with the Chuchito. I found the cornmeal and chicken rather bland, so after just a taste, I turned my attention elsewhere.
Their tacos are $ 2 apiece. I went with a Lengua Taco, which arrived two corn tortillas high, topped with an acceptable portion of cubed tender beef tongue. Simple, yet good.
The star of the meal, however was the Grilled Shrimps $ 13.95 (Shrimps with rice, beans, french fries and salad), which we ordered due to the photo on the menu showing that it came with broccoli. Yes, we were in dire need of vegetables to round out our meal, and this was our way of getting it. And did we get it — this entrée was impressive in that it arrived on not one, but two, or perhaps 3 plates (assuming that the foil wrapped twin fat tortillas came with this dish). The shrimp themselves numbered 4, but they were huge buggers, each split in two so they took up quite a bit of space as they encircled the nice mound of broccoli, cauliflower, and carrot that were either pan fried or oven roasted, but either way, they retained both a nice crisp and color, and were a joy to eat. Yes, I am capable of finding veggies joyful.
The mentioned accompaniments were found on an entirely separate plate — rice, beans, salad and french fries. Eat the fries quick, as they lose their crispness due to their association with their moister neighbors. The salad was crisp. Beans are beans. The rice was not clumpy, but included a smattering of vegetables (ie. peas, corn, carrots). This would be a filling and well rounded meal for a very hungry eater. 4 stars on this alone!
The Chicken Wings $ 5.95/$ 9.95 (Chicken wings with rice, salad and french fries) came in two sizes, so we ordered the small, and at 5 (I think) wing pieces with a plateful of accompaniments, it would have filled either one of our appetites just fine on its lonesome. The chicken was tender inside and crisp outside, and not particularly oily.
The finish our meal, although we actually started with it, we ordered the one dessert listed on their menu — speaking of which, I loved that it was loaded with photos with every menu item — a cake which came $ 3.50 for a half portion and $ 6 for a double. I don’t remember the name, but it was listed at the top of the back page, above the many liquid options which we had refrained from on this visit.
The cake was lightly sweet and a little pound cakey, but nothing particularly special. If you have a sweet tooth, it might do the job — or one of the juices might as well — but I wouldn’t yearn for this.
Service was acceptable, although each server seemed to have their own tables, and never the twain shall meet. Food took a while, however, with the cake arriving posthaste, while the next course took 20 minutes, which seemed an eternity to my poor hungry dining companion. And 6 minutes more till the lastly ordered chicken wings flew in.
To tote away the leftover, I requested take-​out containers which came in the form of styrofoam clamshells and a plastic bag.
A unisex singleton bathroom is available to the right of the counter located at the innermost side of the restaurant. Two flat screens adorn parallel walls. And the dining area is of a good size.
The restaurant itself was bright and cheery, and rather casual. More a place for the family or a simple outing with friends rather than for a date or something else where you want to make an impact based on the atmosphere.
The walk from Maverick station was quite reasonable — perhaps a comfortable 8 minute walk or so. Finding the restaurant was a little more difficult as we only located it because for some unknown reason I looked back after we had crossed Saratoga Street — and there it was! On the far corner of the block on which also resides Payless Shoes, which we had passed earlier on our right.
ps — the location is wrong on Google Map

One of the most striking characteristics about this charmingly gaudy, divey little restaurant: English they do not speak.
My friend and I came here on the recommendation of an co-​worker that he knew about where to find the best chicharrones (basically pure pork belly). We came here, knowing that we were probably one of the only non-​Hispanic people to come (not necessarily a bad thing, especially when it comes to food) and since no one came to seat us (didn’t seem like that kind of place anyway), we took the liberty to seat ourselves.
The menu is exactly what I’d expect it: washed-​out photos of enormous platters of food; I ended up getting something called the «Mountain Plate» and my friend simply got a small plate of chicharrones. Basically what mine was was a strip of pork belly, steak, beans, an egg, platanos, all served over a bed of rice. It was quite delicious (but why wouldn’t it be? I am always trying to fill my belly with mounds of carbs and fat. Heaven, I tell you) and my friend munched on his chicharrones extremely slowly.
Here comes the clincher. We, being relative newcomers to any kind of Latin American food, had no idea what the flour tortilla served with our food was food. So he asked. «What is this for? Do I dip it in something?»
Now, I’m no Spanish speaker myself, but I did take a few years of it in high school, enough to understand the confusion on our waitress’s face and her expressive arm gestures: «Con…con la comida!» With the food? That’s all? I am doubled up in laughter and my friend was at a loss to understanding her.
We finished our food and wasn’t sure whether they were going to bring the check, or whether we had to go up ourselves (he went up to pay). And then I heard raucous laughter. When he comes back from the table: «I was supposed to eat the tortilla with the chicharrones. Maybe like wrap it or something?» Oh.
The only reason I gave it a 3, was not because of the language thing (my parents are immigrants, I get it) but because when they asked us if we wanted anything to drink, we told them «water» and they gave us two water bottles that we had to pay for without a warning! I don’t remember if I touched mine, but next time, I’d like a warning before I have to pay for water that I can get for free at any other restaurant.

I love me some papusas. When it comes to Montecristo, I feel like i can’t go wrong and sometimes they are even the special of the day and I can be as grown up as I want and decide: I’m going to have only papusas and plaintains for supper, and I don’t want to get dressed.
They deliver. Yep. That’s right. PJs and papusas can be your reality.
The food is still warm, it’s totally accurate to their estimated delivery times, and I’d be the first to tell you, the food would be warmer still if I wasn’t occasionally the laziest person I know, but I can’t always help that.
They have a minimum of at least $ 15 dollars when ordering delivery, but when I want papusas, I want jaritos as well. It’s not hard for me to hit a minimum of $ 15 apparently.
The burritos were a bit of a let down, there can be better ones had up the street, in my opinion, or up a few streets, really… But the fact that you can order online, or call and order, and it’s conveniently located to pick up orders, making it one of my go-​tos in the area.
The items that really take the cake were the steak meals that I ordered the last time we ate from there. I had a typical columbian meal with rice, beans, salad, eggs, steak that was cooked to perfection, and my boyfriend had some other steak meal that he really liked, so we’ll be ordering from here again, I’m sure of it.

It’s my favorite place for pupusas. They have great quesadillas (the cheese cake not the Mexican style)
Every time I come back there are new improvements made to the place.
Portion sizes are huge, especially chicken soup– sopa de pollo comes with a plate of chicken rice and salad on top of plate with soup.
Great prices for the amount o food. Again best pupusas in Boston.

One word: late!
Some more words: Always. Every single time. It’s a shame because it’s good (when it’s not cold).
Every time it happens, you call. Every time you call they say «he just left.» Every time you call back a half hour later they say «he just left.»
Bullshit.
This time they told me the problem is that their drivers take out four or five orders at a time and deliver them the order they’re received. Ooooh, okay. Now I understand: unlike every other delivery service in the world Monte Cristo has to make multiple deliveries in one night! That explains everything. Sorry I asked. Go ahead and deliver my food whenever it works for you. I’m sleeping? No, don’t worry about it. Whatever works with your busy (poorly managed) schedule.

One word: delicious! Will definitely be back!
First time I had the Breakfast Montecristo (eggs with ham, pork strips, fried beans, cream and cheese). The pork strips were esp. delicious.
Second time I had the Sopa De Mondongo (tripe soup — a Sunday special). I really don’t care much for tripe but the broth and vegetables were so hearty and delicious that I would def. recommend and order again for myself.

I was «amped» one might say for my first East Boston eating experiencia at Montecristo.
We ordered:
–chicken quesadilla — $ 7.95 HUGE served with french fries
–chicken enchiladas– $ 7.95 served with beans and rice
Ol’ Monte hit it out of the park in some areas:
–food taste (enchiladas were moist, quesadilla very flavorful)
–value
But there was a little left to be desired:
–we ordered horchata… but it never came nor was mentioned ever again
–chicken meat seemed questionable (plus a bone and tendon were in the food)
–pretty extensive wait for the food (30+ mn) with a plate of food being served to me that I did not order
All and all, not a bad meal but I shan’t be rushing all the way to East Boston for Monte C.