Picture this, it’s a Tuesday night and your family is arguing on what they want for dinner. You think pizza is overrated, your mom doesn’t want to cook, you’re tired of fast food, so is there really another option? Have you ever considered what it’s like to bite into a crunchy, delicious empanada?

With three different locations on Long Island, Island Empanada is the leading restaurant for these incredible Hispanic treats. With popular flavors such as chicken, beef, four cheese, bacon mac and cheese, and chicken bacon ranch, there are over thirty varieties of empanadas to choose from. 

“I love how there are so many different types of empanadas and how you can get both dinner and dessert at the same place, and that makes me want to go back for sure,” said Nicole Socko. 

Besides the fact that this restaurant has empanadas, they have mouth-watering sides such as yellow rice and pink beans, sweet plantains, and fresh slow-roasted pork.

The family business is a franchise with locations in Medford, Ronkonkoma, and the newly opened store in Rocky Point. With options for take out, eat in, delivery, catering, and pick up, the food is flavorful and fun with the ambiance to back it up, as there is ALWAYS a good Puerto-Rican dance tune playing in the background.

Want something sweet? The franchise offers a plethora of dessert empanadas such as guava and cream cheese, apple caramel and the infamous Oreo. 

Isabella Scuteri, an avid lover of empanadas and a frequent customer at Island Empanada says that, “The Oreo empanada is SO good and I can eat ten of them in one sitting.”

For me, being an employee at Island Empanada is one of the best experiences I have had in my lifetime thus far, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. 

Manager at the Medford location where I am employed at, Vinny Budke says that, “The food has a super amazing variety and there is really something for everyone here to eat, even if Latin American food isn’t their thing.” 

I love not only the variety of the food here, but the people I work with too. The Island Empanada employees have become like a family to me, because we all share the same wants and goals, one being to produce and serve amazing empanadas!