5 beloved Cuban restaurants in Miami

Suburban sibling to Little Havana’s bustling Cafe La Trova, this more expansive spot offers equally as entertaining live Cuban music, delicious cocktails from cantinero Julio Cabrera – but a wholly different menu. Start with the rustic bread with olive oil and three salts, then move on to the filet mignon that’s flambeed in rum tableside. End with the roasted Manchego cheese flan.

Owned and run by the Garcia family since 1977, Islas Canarias is as dependable as thunderstorms in the tropics. Cuban and Spanish dishes include a homemade tamal, yellow rice with chicken and sweet plantains, and meatballs Catalan style, served with rice and house-cooked potato chips.

This isn’t your abuela’s Cuban restaurant. Dishes like yuca-lote (yuca prepared like Mexican street corn) and guava pollo barbacoa (guava-smoked half chicken with spicy guava jus) take the building blocks of Cuban cuisine and jazz them up for modern times. Look for the vintage car out front. A second location is in Bayside.

From ham croquetas and maraquitas (plantain chips with garlicky mojo) to main courses of lechon asado (roasted pork) and picadillo (ground beef) with Creole sauce, the classics are all represented at this long-standing favorite. Formally dressed servers are quick to greet families and serve Cuban rolls.

Chef-owner Eileen Andrade named this Parisian bistro-style spot after her grandmother. Located across from her grandfather’s Islas Canarias, it combines those classic Cuban flavors with Asian, South American, and French savoir faire. The pork belly with homemade sweet chili sauce and fried queso and the tongue-tingling gochujang paella chock-a-block with shellfish, halibut and peas are only two must-haves.