Jacksonville Restaurants: Hole in the Wall, Part 11

El Palermo Restaurant








After spending several hours at The Urban Bean nervously working (I left my charger at home and my battery is jittery...), I was ready to eat. I was too far from home and Orange Park restaurants are usually surprisingly good. My odds of eating well by randomly walking into an OP restaurant are higher than they are in Jacksonville.  

I've heard a lot about three latin restaurants that "You need to try!" El Palermo is one of them and the other two I won't disclose until a later release.  

El Palermo is a small family owned Puerto Rican restaurant that has passed the authenticity and quality test according to the native Puerto Ricans I've talked to. Of course, the next thing I hear from my Puerto Rican fellows "I'll just go to my mom's house when I want good Puerto Rican food". I've heard that statement a surprising amount of times in cities throughout the southeast. For the rest of us, who don't have a Puerto Rican mother (or, apparently, even better, a Puerto Rican grandmother) for home cooked, authentic PR cuisine El Palermo is where you can go.

But don't go if you are not going to order something with the slow cooked pork. And, they make a badass cuban sandwich (certainly better than one supposedly cuban restaurant a few streets away). The rice was probably my favorite part of the meal. As you can see they are quite generous with their portions...of rice. I could have used more pork.  

Buen Provecho!

2177 Kingsley Ave
Orange Park, FL 32073

Phone number (904) 276-7701

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