El Castillo De Jagua Restaurant • 1986

The oldest Dominican restaurant on the Lower East Side, this diner has fed the neighborhood's Latin American community for nearly four decades with plates of mangu con todo—mashed plantains topped with fried eggs, salami, and salty Dominican cheese. The tres golpes sandwich and slow-simmered sancocho draw crowds from breakfast through dinner, but it's the Dominicano sandwich, piled with fried sweet plantains and pickled red onions, that keeps regulars coming back to the counter.