Cuban in South Florida

925 Nuevo's Cubano's

925 N. Andrews Ave. Fort Lauderdale

954-806-8375

Cuban, Best Of

1 article

Ayestaran Restaurant

706 SW 27th Ave., Miami Central Dade

305-649-4982

Cuban, Recommended, Menu

Full of vivacity and charm, Ayestarán features homemade, authentic, fresh Cuban, Spanish, and international cuisine at reasonable prices. But don't be fooled: The prices are no reflection of the large portions of high-quality meat. Open since 1975, this family-style Cuban restaurant features classic dishes like vaca frita ("fried cow"), combining shredded beef with garlic, fresh lemon juice, lime juice, and seasonings prepared on a skillet with sautéed onions; and ropa vieja ("old clothes"), which is similar to vaca frita but stewed in a tomato sauce. Both are fresh dishes packed with flavor. There's no better place in Miami to have your meat, vegetables, and potatoes and still come home with a good portion of leftovers. If a New York strip steak is your meal of choice, you'll be pleased with the taste and the price. The secret is ordering the riñonada steak (the same as the strip) at half the price. You will also find red snapper, king fish, jumbo shrimp, and lobster. The talented chefs know exactly how to prepare these meals with enough citrus, onion, garlic, and pepper to make your mouth tingle. Weekly lunch specials keep the regulars coming back for more. But the real treasures, besides the desserts, are the Spanish-speaking waitresses and Cuban chefs. ¡Bienvenido a Ayestarán!

Bongos Cuban Café

5733 Seminole Way Davie/West Hollywood

954-791-3040

Cuban

The restaurants at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino are not exactly known for their subtle architecture. On giant two- and three-story façades, signs proclaim in eight-foot lettering: "Tequila! Italian Food! Burgers!" By comparison, Bongo's Cuban Café, owned by Gloria and Emilio Estefan, is extremely elegant. The building is a nondescript white with an espresso-brown wall. On it: just the restaurant's name and its mascot, the Cuban Bongo Player, his head down in concentration. Like the mascot and title, the food is Latin-- with a large emphasis on Cuban.The menu features classic media noche, bistec, shrimp ajilo, and ceviches.

3 articles

Bongos Cuban Cafe

601 Biscayne Blvd., Miami Central Dade

786-777-2100

Cuban, Bars and Clubs, Music Venues

This is as close as it gets to Havana's Tropicana, the swanky, pre-Castro supper club where "Babalu" was born. The salsa theme puts on the ritz accompanied by lots of Cuban food, lots of Cuban music, and lots of Cubans period.

Cafe Paraiso

925 N. Andrews Ave., Lauderdale Lakes Fort Lauderdale

954-467-1830

Cuban, Latin American, Sandwiches, Best Of

Downtown day workers have been grabbing a quick lunch at this Cuban sandwich stand along Andrews Avenue for years, since it was known as Sury's. But recently, the walkup counter has been taken over by the property's original owners, who have cleaned the place up and revamped the menu. Where the old stand was dirty and in disrepair, the new look is muy limpio, with freshly prepared food to match. Park in back next to the quirky, oceanic art and pull up a stool at the counter. For around six bucks, you can get a grilled-steak sandwich with griddled onions and hot, pressed Cuban bread, topped with lettuce, tomato, and crispy fried potato sticks (for an authentic crunch). Pork and croquetas sandwiches are constructed in much the same way, as is the trademark Cuban sandwich, made with sweet ham, pickles, and savory roasted pork. Paraiso also makes a great bean- and meat-laden chili each day that you can wash down with a frosty mango batido or steamy cortadito.

4 articles

Cielito Lindo

91 E. 44th St. Oakland Park

954-776-1581

Cuban, Latin American, Mexican, Best Of, Menu

This long-standing restaurant serves Tex-Mex dishes in a quaint setting that looks like a Mexican cottage. It's named after a classic Mexican tune played by Mariachi bands and not the famous Los Angeles restaurant. You'll find platos tipicos like enchiladas, chimichangas, fajitas, and burritos along with Latin/Cuban dishes like masas de puerco, chicken and steak palomilla, and ropa vieja. Prices are cheap (nothing more than $20), and each plate comes with either refried beans and Spanish rice or white rice and black beans. Chips and salsa are complimentary, natch.

3 articles

Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar

800 E Las Olas Blvd Fort Lauderdale

954-314-6500

Cuban

Enjoy contemporary Cuban cuisine at this open-air restaurant with a 15-foot wood-fired grill and vintage décor. Signature dishes include pineapple or crab guacamole and guava barbecue ribs.

Don Carlin Cuban Restaurant

11447 W. Oakland Park Blvd. Sunrise

954-578-1464

Cuban, Latin American, Recommended

This busy, sun-lit restaurant feels like a small Cuban café straight out of Miami. But Don Carlin is way out west in Broward, near Sawgrass Mills Mall. Area workers filter in for filling lunch specials, none more than $8.99, that for rabo encendido, or stewed oxtail. Steak palomilla, thin and cooked on the griddle till it chars nicely, is topped with a mix of cooked Spanish onion and raw diced red onion, bell pepper, and scallion. The lunch menu (offered Monday through Saturday) also lists a dozen platos Cubanos mas tipico such as maso de puerco (garlic-marinated fried pork chunks), ropa vieja (shredded beef with a savory sauce), and a nicely pressed Cuban sandwich; most everything costs around seven bucks. The same bread used to make the Cuban is made hot and crisp on a sandwich press and shows up at each table in a bread basket -- that alone is awesome stuff.

2 articles

Havana 1957 Pembroke Pines

14571 Southwest 5th St. Pembroke Pines

754-210-3499

Cuban

Havana 1957 is a new chain of Cuban restaurants unlike other traditional Cuban restaurants. It sets itself apart by creating a unique dining experience that allows you to spend Un Dia En La Habana and relive the glory and glamour of old Cuba during the 1950’s.

Havana Hideout

509 Lake Ave. Lake Worth

561-585-8444

American, Bar Food, Cuban, Eclectic, Mexican, Bars and Clubs, Recommended, Best Of

Surrounded by tiki torches and a canopy of foliage, directly off of the well-trekked Lake Avenue, Havana Hideout feels more like a relaxed backyard party than a stuffy culinary destination. Sit with the sand in your toes in one of several folding chairs and dig into plates of empanadas seasoned with ground beef, shredded cheese, caramelized onions and roasted potatoes, ceviche, quesadillas and tacos. Their pressed Cuban sandwich is legendary. Just ask The Food Network's Guy Fieri, of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, who came by for a cooking lesson.

17 articles

Havana's Cuban Cuisine

8600 Griffin Rd. Cooper City

954-530-1400

Cuban, Latin American, Recommended, Menu

Authentic Cuban cuisine with a touch of Argentina thrown in for good measure at Havana's Cuban Cuisine. This restaurant in a Davie strip mall serves simple dishes that make you feel like you're back in your abuela's house. All your favorites are here -- tostones, ropa vieja, lechon asado, and more, all cooked with love. Make reservations on weekends and still expect a wait. Sit back with a Cuba Libre and chill -- it's worth it.

Havana's Cuban Cuisine

10035 Sunset Strip, Sunrise Plantation

954-741-9696

Cuban, Afro-Cuban, African, Gluten-Free, Recommended, Menu

Havana's Cuban Cuisine should not be mistaken for Havana, the sister West Palm Beach favorite with the walk-up window. Yet this place, and its sibling in Cooper City that opened in 2010, is no less congenial. A sliding door recedes to usher customers into a room framed by espresso wood, corrugated metal accents, and plate-glass windows. It's a family-run restaurant for neighborhood folks, a welcome addition in an area replete with chain restaurants run by absentee corporate bosses. In the sabor Latino appetizer, two cigars of croquettes ooze with fresh ham salad when they're sliced open. Starchy fried yucca livens up in an herb dipping sauce. Caramelized onions garnish a heap of masa on a tamale. And a Venezuelan empanada pockets seasoned ground beef in a fried pastry, edged by hand. The ropa vieja, a Cuban mainstay of stewed beef with garlic and tomatoes over rice, is made special with a slow-cooked sofrito base. A terrific cafe con leche secures this as a spot that’s sure to stick around.

2 articles

Islas Canarias

285 NW 27th Ave., Miami Central Dade

305-649-0440

Cuban, Recommended

A tiny space packed with hungry patrons who know what Cuban food is all about. It may take three people to finish the bistec uruguayo, a breaded palomilla steak filled with Swiss cheese and ham. All the daily specials are wonderful and are gone quickly. Suggestions: half chicken with mojo, pigs' feet la andaluza, oxtail stew, and fried whole snapper. If there's room, try the deceitfully delicate tocino del cielo, a flan made with egg yolks and cinnamon syrup -- sublime.

La Carreta

301 University Dr. Pembroke Pines

954-966-8161

Cuban, Recommended, Menu

A muncher's mecca, with the flashy wagon wheel out front. The reliable Cuban food, in fact, is not flashy. But when black beans, midnight sandwiches, omelets, chicken and yellow rice, and fried beef dishes like these are at the end of the journey, it's happy trails indeed.

Las Colinas Restaurant

2724 N. Andrews Ave., Wilton Manors Fort Lauderdale

954-390-7410

Cuban, Best Of

This reassuringly laid-back Cuban joint serves up a hot cheap breakfast from its walk-up window; $5 and you're happily on your way to a great morning. The sandwiches are filling and fresh (served with a basket of toasted Cuban bread), and the lunch dishes (carne asada, ropa vieja, etc) have their devotees as well. The black beans and rice could feed an army. You'll see plenty of customers from the old country, a sure testament to its authenticity. Saddled with a pretty dingy location (though it's bright and cheery inside), this is one of the friendliest and most unassuming eateries in Wilton Manors).

2 articles

Las Vegas Cuban Cuisine

2807 E. Oakland Park Blvd. Wilton Manors

954-564-1370

Cuban, Recommended, Menu

This Fort Lauderdale Cuban restaurant has several locations across Broward County, the first of which has been in operation since the early '90s. As a result, the menu offers a taste of Cuban fare at its finest. The Cuban sandwich it delivers is thick and meaty, with plenty of cheese, pickles, and mustard to balance out the salty, rich flavors at play. Even if South Florida has more Cuban eateries than you can count, it's no small feat to be named one of Miami's best. That’s where Las Vegas Cuban Cuisine takes the cake: The Vilariño family’s chain took the 2013 title for Miami New Times “best Cuban restaurant” — mainly their fresh tostones, creole-sauce smothered camarones enchilados, and savory chimichurri sauce-topped churrasco steak. So if you're lacking a Cuban grandmother of your own, pop in for a bite. This family-owned Doral outpost will quash those Cuban food cravings in no time.

1 article

Little Havana Restaurant

721 S. Federal Highway Deerfield Beach

954-427-6000

Cuban, Recommended

The original of this Cuban staple is in Miami, and the Deerfield restaurant features a fountain and an outdoor patio where die-hard cigar smokers can stretch their legs. A bright interior is decorated with wood mementos, gewgaws, and color-saturated murals of Havana street scenes. But even with every word and snort of laughter echoing against the tiles, the place is never less than cozy, maybe because it's so full of happy people. Margaritas are $5.99 each, and "The Taste of Havana" is a platter of meat and starch heaped roughly to eyebrow height: roasted chicken thighs, ham croquettes, salted plantain chips so sheer you can see through them, a cornmeal tamale with a dab of chopped meat in the middle, and crisp yucca wedges to swipe through a cup of cheesy pepper sauce.

2 articles

Mario's Catalina Restaurant

1611 N. Federal Highway Fort Lauderdale

954-563-4141

Cuban, Spanish, Best Of, Menu

You'll have the time of your life at Mario's busy, happy Cuban/Spanish restaurant, but don't fool around: Make a reservation. You don't want to have to wait a second longer than necessary for that steaming, ground-beef empanada, a hefty corn-scented tamal, or a feather-light ham croquette. The crowd here is lively; tropical flavors redolent of garlic, grilled onion, and pepper are designed to snap you out of any stupor. Red snapper rolled in ground plantain and topped with a handful of fresh shrimp; an Argentine-style skirt steak; and seafood-stuffed paella for one are all standouts -- but the menu doesn't put a foot wrong. And the staff at this Fort Lauderdale spot is as sweet as the grilled plantains, as the cuatro leches cake, as the tiny cup of Cuban coffee that ends every meal.

5 articles

Munchies & More

422 S Dixie Highway Hollywood

754-777-0030

Cuban, Sandwiches

Munchies & More serves a variety of comfort foods including Cuban toast, nachos, pizza, burgers, and sandwiches.

Padrino's

801 S. University Dr., Plantation Davie/West Hollywood

954-476-5777

Cuban, Best Of, Menu

One of the oldest Cuban restaurants in our area, family-owned PadrinoÂ?s has been successful enough to open four branches, the northernmost one in Orlando. The simple, brightly lit dÃ©cor is more DennyÂ?s than Little Havana, and while the expansion hasnÂ?t necessarily improved the food, thereÂ?s still good chow at bargain prices here. Our favorites include the papas rellenos, mashed potatoes stuffed with ground beef, peppers, and olives and lightly breaded and fried; a warm bowl of caldo gallego, white bean soup with ham, potatoes, and collard greens; and Cuban pot roast fragrant with herbs and tomato sauce. Also available at this Plantation outpost: ropa vieja, churrasco steak, picadillo, and arroz relleno.

2 articles

Tropical Cafe

915 N. Federal Highway Fort Lauderdale

954-828-1234

Cuban, Breakfast, Brunch, Best Of, Menu

When you walk into a local joint and encounter a table of cops tucking into the grub, it's generally a pretty good sign. After all, peace officers, like couriers, often have a leg up on some of the best out-of-the-way places to score a solid meal at a good price. Cuban sandwiches are a big draw and a permanent banner above the entrance boldly proclaims it as the best in Fort Lauderdale. Breakfast-offered all day, add $1 after 11 a.m.- calls for watching as your server grabs an orange or two to make your fresh-squeezed OJ, while the café con leche is appropriate no matter the time of day. Sink your teeth into any number of hot or cold sandwiches (including about five variations of that vaunted Cuban) or regional specialties like ropa viepa, palomilla steak and about half a dozen pork offerings. Sides at Tropical Cafe are almost superfluous at this point, but the fried yucca with garlic mojo is nice; the fried sweet plantains better.

7 articles

Cuban in South Florida

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