Old Cuban Cafe

Was vacationing in Orlando and staying with family and we decided to eat at this café. I loved the food. Reminded me of Puerto Rican food (I’m Puerto Rican). Food is very similar. We had breakfast and dinner. I haven’t had a well made empanada in years, it was so good! We had a great experience.

Best food we have had since we’ve been in Orlando. Staff was amazing and we cannot wait to come back. Thank you!

Very good food at excellent prices. Very friendly staff making sure everyone is well served!!!
Best coffee in town!

Very good food. The chicken Milanesa and Ropa Vieja were excellent. Good environment and the restaurant’s decoration was innovative. I definitely recommend it.

Only reason I keep coming back is because the food is good and cheap! Service on the other hand deserves only one star if that. Every single time we go we get bad service. Last time my boyfriend and I went for breakfast we saw our server ONCE and that was to get our order. Another server got us drinks, delivered our food, and dropped the check. What was even worse was when we were leaving our server was by the door and just looked at us without even saying thank you for coming or goodbye. They need to hire better and more experienced staff! You can’t beat the $ 5 island breakfast though… and their empanadas are TO DIE FOR!

It’s a shame that this a 2 star review, could have easily been a 5 star with the proper
customer service to resolve an issue with them overcharging on my Bill. Menu said $ 1.75 for
empanadilla, ordered 2 as per the server recommendation. Carne con queso. when they arrived they were only carne. (that fine, mistakes happen, ate one and the server swapped the other to the correct one.), when my bill came i was charge $ 5.00 for 2. I pointed this out after i paid because i had not noticed– anyhow, we checked the menu price and i was correct.
at that point the server explained that their POS system has them set up at the $ 2.50 price because they had cheese. Again we checked the menu and price was $ 1.75. no mention of an up-​charge.
NO PROBLEM RIGHT– JUST REFUND THE $ 1.50 AND BE DONE. SIMPLE SOLUTION RIGHT!, well not here, the server tells me that the menu is wrong and that the correct price is $ 2.50, shes goes to the owner and apparently they don’t know how to do a refund on their POS system because the server comes over to the table and tells me that the manager/​owner cant refund because the system doesn’t allow for it. Now isn’t that convenient? At that point the server takes out .75 cents and puts it on the table. and says sorry. First of all only one of the empanadillas was with cheese because you ordered them wrong and you still over charge and then argue with a client when its your mistake on the menu. What type of management losses a customer over $ 1.50.
This is not about the stupid $ 1.50 because if i just spent $ 43 on breakfast for 4 people, i don’t think $ 1.50 will make me richer or poorer. IT’S ABOUT THE PRINCIPAL — YOUR MISTAKE FIX, I WONDER IF I GO IN THERE AND ORDER FOOD, EAT IT AND THEN PAY THEM WHATEVER I WANT, IF THEY WOULD BE OK WITH IT. ITS EXACTLY THE SAME THING– MENU SAYS A PRICE, YOU CHARGE THAT PRICE.
What really blows my mind is that i have been there various times and the food is good,
and service is pretty good. My family and I have always enjoyed it. And because of a poor decision on behalf the manager /​owner i will probably not go back all over a $ 1.50,

Food and service is great! The prices are fair and did I say the service is amazing! I really enjoy my food and instead of having desert I had a Cuban espresso at the end of my meal and WOW! I will be back and recommend this to anyone. Oh and I just noticed they have a DJ setting up for the evenings so it must be a spot for a great night of hanging out, especially if you like Spanish music.

This place is crazy good and the prices and dirt cheap. Whole snapper was amazing and our work crew of 6 had not one complaint and everyone was completely satisfied. Don’t sleep on this spot

Every time I’ve been here, I have loved it. They have the nicest wait staff and fun décor. The food is delicious and priced well. It is a little slow, but not enough to complain. Highly recommended.

Nice little restaurant with cool decorations and good music. Went in for dinner and it was fairly slow. Was greeted right away and ordered. Got my dinner very quickly. Ordered churasco with yuca and congri. Steak was very tender but a little greasy. Had good taste, but no chinichuri sauce.
Yuca was really really good, and their lemonade was also very good.
Service was really good, but my waitress completely forgot my chinichuri sauce. Once I got it, Not súper impressed. Overall decent food and not terribly expensive. First time here, and enjoyed it, but not my favorite.

Very good authentic food. The side dishes are authentic as well! Yuca ajollito is very unique — try it. Lichón asado also amazing!

Probably the best latino café youll find for the best mass for your money. Should for sure eat here to have a full stomach and pay little for great food!

Excellent service. The Servers all help each other and check in on you. Food is delicious. We’ve tried their appetizer sampler, had their Churrasco, Pork, Bisteck de Palomilla Encebollada, the fries, the Yuca Frita, the Tostones, the Maduros and the Cuban Sandwich. All awesome! The Cuban sandwich has the old style sliced pork and not the shredded stuff (more authentic from my point of view). The only suggestion is to change the bread, but frankly, I don’t know who makes a descent bread in Orlando anymore.
Next visits I need to try their Medianoche (that might solve my bread issue). Also need to sneak out here for their breakfasts. The serve Bustelo Supremo, one of my favorites.
This is now one of my new favorite «go to» places.

To tell the truth… I have only been here once. The food was worth 5 stars… the service, two stars. They were not rude, but disorganized, brought almost all of our orders wrong and forgot to place my aunt’s order. They didn’t apologize for it and did not try to compensate us. Again… the food was great tasting, just the service needs help.

I’m from Miami… this is not Cuban. I had a simple café con Leche and tostada and it was not what I expected. The tamale was a congealed mess-​gross. The croquettes were ok.
Overall, look elsewhere for cuban food.

I’ll start this review by saying it’s based on a quick walk-​in to-​go order.
In Miami, Cuban restaurants are just about everywhere so when it came time for that cuban coffee craving we found this spot. The first thing that struck us as weird was the lack of the traditional outside walk-​up counter. Once we walked in & found the order counter tucked away in the back we were all set. We ordered some Cortadito’s & I tried to get a Tequeno but apparently, Orlando hasn’t caught on to selling other South American breakfast items yet.
I opted for an Empanada de Carne & waited for our food.
We got our coffee & waited a bit for the empanada to be ready. The coffee was excellent! Once I got my empanada I was starving so I bit into it & realized they had got my order wrong. They served me a ham & cheese empendada, but it was so tasty I didn’t care. Normally getting my order wrong would have pissed me off but I give them a pass since it was so good. We ran a few errands & about 2 – 3 hours later we were ready for some lunch. Since we were still in the area we figured we’d put in an order over the phone & pick it up on our way back to Miami. Sadly, their phone # on the receipt didn’t work so we just hit the road without getting a second shot at their menu.
Would I eat there again? I’d definitely give this place another try next time I’m in Orlando.

We arrived shortly after 11:30 on a Thursday for lunch. A few tables were occupied but I wouldn’t say it was terribly busy. It took a few minutes for anyone to acknowledge and seat us. Once we were seated it took a while to be greeted by our server and get menus. After a while we just stopped one of the servers and asked for menus. We finally got menus and our server took our drink and food orders. It took 30 minutes to get our food. In fact the table next to us arrived after us and got their food first. Our food came, we finished it and waited… and waited… No check came. We finally had to ask a random server for it.
I’d have to agree with the other reviews and say the food was quite delicious but I’m not sure if I’ll go back. If I do, I’ll have to make sure I have at least 2 hours to spend for lunch time. I would have given it 4 stars but I subtracted a star for the terribly slow service. Seems like this place needs to beef up their staff and customer service. They’re lacking in those areas.

Came here for breakfast and had one of their breakfast platters. Two eggs, choice of meat, french fries, bread with butter and coffee with milk all for 4.99! The bread itself was kinda awkward since it was huge and looked more like French bread but oh well it wasn’t bad. The gentleman taking our orders was kind and polite. I also had a chicken empanada and wow it was delicious. It’s been awhile since I’ve had an empanada so this was perfect. The interior itself was cute with mural painting and a brick wall depicting Havana. Will come back again especially when my folks are in town and asking for café con leche!

If you are looking for authentic Cuban food, you won’t find anything equal to or better than Old Cuban Café outside of the 305 area code.
My husband and I are regulars here, and this place put a significant dent in my budget in the first couple of months after it opened. The food is very well-​priced. Sandwiches run about $ 10 or less. Portions are huge. They serve breakfast all day. $ 6 gets you eggs, Cuban bread, bacon, and a café con leche.
Today for lunch, my brother-​in-​law had a pan con bistec sandwich. Huge sandwich, fluffy bread, with fries brought in a little fryer with your sandwich. I had the bistec empanizado, which took up an entire plate by itself, plus an additional plate of white rice and black beans and yuca frita (also served in a cute little fryer).
Service is always terrific, and the owner makes a point to come around and check on every customer.

I may not be an expert on Cuban cuisine, but I’ve had my fair shre of Cuban sandwiches, and I love rice and beans. Somehow, old Cuban Café doesn’t quite serve what I have come to expect in these two dishes.
I stopped by on a weekday afternoon with a couple of coworkers to have some lunch. Once we were seated, we were all rather surprised that there isn’t a moderately priced lunch special. In fact, there isn’t even a lunch section on menu. The Cuban sandwich costs about $ 9, and comes with fries only. It would certainly be nice if they offered a half sandwich with a choice of plantains or beans and rice as a side, for say $ 7. There was plenty of meat on the sandwich, but the bread was just lightly oiled, and mildly pressed. I’m so used to Cuban sandwiches in Miami & Tampa that have been slathered with oil/​butter, and pressed till everything is crispy as hell.
On top of a complete lack of a lunch menu, the service here could use some work. Our waitress was friendly, however our food took an awfully long time to come out. There were only three of us, and we all ordered the Cuban sandwich. Meanwhile, a table of six which arrived after us, all got their food before we did. I’m not sure where the fault lies here, but it wasn’t appreciated.
There aren’t too many Cuban specific restaurants near UCF, so I am a little disheartened that old Cuban Café didn’t work out. Hopefully, they can improve, or perhaps someone else can.