WOW! This place is a real treat. If you haven’t heard of the Flan Club don’t be surprised, it just opened November 1st 2009. The restaurant is located in downtown Binghamton in the same location where Amera’s Cup O Soup used to be. The Flan Club is a small restaurant that is totally family owned and operated. The family is originally from San Juan but has cultural and ethnic ties to Spain, the Canary Islands and Western Africa.
The food is excellent. I had Pernil con Arroz Gandules (seasoned pork with yellow rice and pigeon peas) and my dinning partner had Pollo Guisado (stewed chicken). We both had Puerto Rican coffee which was rich and aromatic. It was nice and strong which is surprisingly hard to find (the only other restaurant whose coffee I like is the Lost Dogs). I really appreciate good coffee and I think most restaurants tend to skimp out on their beans. As for the pork… Absolutely fantastic! Well seasoned, tender and perfectly cooked. The stewed chicken was also excellent, it fell right off the bone and was extremely moist and tasty. I have to say, everything was extremely authentic and tasted like it came right out of my grandmothers kitchen (she was also Puerto Rican). After having such an amazing meal we had to try the flan… Usually I don’t have dessert but we were at the ‘Flan’ club so how could I not try the flan! I had a cheese flan which was sooo good. It was very light, slightly sweet and a texturally smooth. Possibly the best flan that I have ever had. In short, the Flan Club serves the best Latino Food in Binghamton. Stop going to Moe’s and Los Tapatios and take trip to downtown Binghamton and visit the Flan Club.
In addition to the wonderful food the staff is really fantastic. Dona Mimi waited on me and partially cooked my food. She is the mother of Nuria who is the owner. It was like eating at my aunt or grandmother’s house, very homey and comfortable. One thing that Dona Mimi stressed to me is that she wants the restaurant to be a hub for culture, food and art. Expect to pay anywhere from $7 to $10. I give the Flan Club 5 out of 5 stars for homemade food and warm culture.
Monday-Friday 11am to 3pm
Saturday-Sunday 11am to 7pm
They are located Downtown at
58 Henry Street(Intersection of Henry & Chenango Streets)
Binghamton, NY 13901
The Flan Club
Nuria catered my art show last August and the food was fantastic!! I also had the pleasure of eating the food from The Flan Club at the Ethnic Festival at the arena. everything was excellente! I live near Ithaca, NY and can't wait to find myself back in Binghamton -- will most definitely seek out some more of that Pork Pernil and rice!!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely one of the greatest places in Binghamton. The food (especially the flan) is perfect and It's as if you are eating at your grandmother's house, just like Alex said.
ReplyDeleteSo I finally made the trek to the Flan Club after your enthusiastic ranting and raving. On entry, I must say, I was less than impressed. The interior decorator seems to have mistaken the restaurant for a corner store and the lack of wall art gives it the bad pizzeria vibe.
ReplyDelete(Enter Dona Mimi: angel sent from heaven.)
She's sweet and welcoming and eager to serve you good food and a lot of it. After name dropping your blog, I ordered the pollo guisado with arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas) and some maduros (sweet plantains). The food was absolutely amazing. Just as you mentioned, there was no need for a knife as the chicken literally melted off the bone and in your mouth. The stew sauce blends perfectly with the rice and potatoes (and she was happy to give me extra) and the sweetness of the plantains are a perfect balance with the savory main dish flavors.
As usual, I stuffed my face and was physically incapable of having any of the flan but as I was leaving she made a point of telling me: "Next time Alex comes he's having a free flan." So if you're looking for a dessert eating partner in crime... you know who to call.
Anyway, thanks for the suggestion. I'll definitely be going to visit our Puerto Rican mama and her kitchen magic again.
Finally a Puerto Rican restaurant in the area with fantastic food! I was so glad to visit today with my husband and son, enjoyed the atmosphere and the great food, yes I saved room for the flan and had sweet potato flan, never had it before and it was to die for!
ReplyDeleteNuria has the touch... =) Thank you!
-Family Wallmar-
I had a chance during a short lunch break to visit this amazingly good restaurant...the pernil was delicious, as was the arroz con gandules and platanos maduros. The only drawback was that for lunch, that's a very big meal...just wish they had some lighter lunch items (i.e. rellenos de papas, empanadas, etc). Also would be willing to visit more for lunch if it was less expensive as my bill was almost $15 which included flan and a beverage.
ReplyDeleteWe had an amazing meal today! Felt like I was home in Puerto Rico! Dona Mimi was very charming! Would love to see Empanadas y mofungo included on the menu. It was great!
ReplyDeleteMy family and I arrived at the restaurant at about 5:15 on Saturday, and were quickly invited to pick any table we pleased (seeing as we were the only three there). We ordered after a few minutes of looking over the menu, and were offered some plantain chips with salsa.
ReplyDeleteNow, I've learned over the years that nine out of ten restaurants using a plain sheet of copier paper (not even card stock) is worth avoiding. But the place seemed nice, and it had an air of a family establishment, given they hostess' (proprietor?) young son ran into the dining room a few times.
Unfortunately, I can say without hesitation that the son spent more time in the dining room in the first twenty minutes we were there than the hostess did the entire time we were there. This is a bit disturbing, given that we waited about 50 minutes to get our food, and didn't see anyone until ten minutes after we had finished our meals.
This amount of time is simply odd, given that when we showed up, we were the only three people in the restaurant. Twenty minutes later, another table of four showed up, followed shortly by a couple, and it was around 15 minutes before someone came back into the room to take their orders.
A party of seven showed up at about 40 minutes after we had arrived, but because the place is so small they were forced to wait. After being initially greeted, they were not again spoken to by the hostess by the type they left 20 minutes later.
In short, the service was atrocious.
And as for the food, when it finally did arrive, it was in no way worth the wait. I personally had the pork, and while it was spiced well and was very tender, it was greasy. And by greasy, I mean that there were pools of grease on my plate. My father appeared to like his corned beef, but my mother, who had ordered a few of the appetizers, found them bland.
I'm completely surprised that every review so far is glowing.
My meal may have been sub-par, but the service is just inexcusable.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with the above poster.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading all the wonderful reviews, I decided to take the plunge and headed over there to try the "fantastic food".
I will preface this by saying, "Yes, I'm an American. But, I have plenty of experience with Latino cuisine, so I feel I can speak about the quality of my meal."
First off, there were no warm greetings from a Puerto Rican family. There was a petite American "white" girl. She was quite nice, but I don't think she could speak a word of Spanish other than what is on the menu. I think I did see the mother/daughter that people mention, but we weren't acknowledged by the mother and I think the daughter thanked us for coming and disappeared.
The waitress said that they were pretty much out of the plantain chips, but served us small little crumbs in a soup cup. Why bother? They looked like the bottom of the bag chips. I would have been embarrassed to serve them.
My boyfriend (who is Peruvian and has eaten all over Latin America) and I ordered the avocado salad for an appetizer, which was 1/2 an avocado, 2 cherry tomatoes, 4 cucumber slices, lettuce and ranch dressing. Totally unspectacular. I think the boyfriend even looked at me and said "This is it?"
Boyfriend got the so called tender and spiced to perfection pork. It wasn't bad. It wasn't as moist and tender as said, but the flavor wasn't bad, a bit bland for my taste. He ordered it with yucca (not soft enough), black beans (overcooked) and the rice with pigeon peas (I didn't try it, but it looked almost like the rice I got).
I got arroz con pollo, the peas and the sweet plantains. The only thing at all worth the money were the plantains. The peas were 100% canned. I could have bought a can at Price Chopper and they would have tasted the same. The rice tasted like the Goya rice you can get in the Mexican section at Price Chopper and the chicken was basically a semi-spiced chicken leg and mini breast that was dry and as an American woman who cooks - I could have easily put that chicken to shame. The plantains I will give 2 thumbs up to. I would have ordered 3 of those and called it dinner.
The name is the Flan Club, so of course we had to get the flan. That is one more thing I will say was good. I tried the original and the cheese. I definitely preferred the cheese since it had a nice flavor, where the traditional was just that - kind of boring, not overly exciting, but not bad.
All that I mentioned above was $36. That includes the fact that the boyfriend had the $20 restaurant special for the event that is going on in Binghamton this week. It was a meal that was maybe worth $20 tops in taste.
Will I go back? No. Would I recommend it to anyone? No.
BTW: There are no public restrooms, just a small sink, so you want to make sure you go with an empty bladder.
Oh and lastly, apparently they are going to just catering in October. I'm not sure who would have them cater any events. I should offer up my services as a genuine American woman who knows the bare basics to cooking and I would put my food side by side to theirs and think mine would win hands down.
It has been almost a year since I posted the review on the Flan Club. Obviously, the restaurant has had mixed reviews by people reading this site.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I might have over rated this place. I ate there a few weeks after they opened. Many restaurants have strong openings but start to cut corners once the crowds stop showing. Maybe the Flan Club has began to show signs of weakness.
In all honesty, I may have also been charmed by the service I had. After reading the last few comments on this posting, I want to retract my strong recommendation to eat at the Flan Club.