La Carreta Cuban Cuisine

La Carreta is one of my favorite spots for my Cuban fix. Last night I tried the chicken al ajillo had it with a side of moro and veggies. Very tasty. I just wasn’t expecting boiled chicken. Not my favorite to look at. Café con leche always a great hit! The Cuban bread was a little chewy and cold. Not very happy about that. Well I am because I didn’t eat it and I usually eat the whole basket.

For decades, La Carreta has been consistently good, but rarely amazing. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you want typical Miami Cuban food, this is the place, whether you eat inside or order something lighter from the ventanita.
The food will never be bad, but some days it is better than others. For example, on my last trip, my vaca frita de pollo (yes, they have chicken in the style of vaca frita) was a little bland, as were the black beans. In past trips, it has been much better. My husband’s pollo empanizado, however, was great that night. The tres leches is always delicious for dessert. So there is never a single «best thing on the menu» as it depends on who is making what.
The Cuban bread that they give you before the meal is always good and they’re happy to bring out more if you have a big party and go through it quickly (or if you just eat it all yourself). We always ask for raw onion slices for my dad to put on his meat, and they’re happy to bring out plenty if you ask.
Service is usually fine. On this past trip, our waiter Sandro was great. He was more attentive than most waiters we’ve had and was very nice. Service is probably better/​easier if you speak Spanish, as not all of the staff are fully fluent in English. This is pretty typical of almost any Latin American restaurant around here, though. This is Miami, folks.
All in all, you’re unlikely to walk out of La Carreta feeling as though you’ve just had the best restaurant experience of your life. But the food is good, reasonably priced, big portions so you can take some leftovers home, and it’s always satisfying.

This place has been around for years! Servers are always attentive. Food is delicious, served quickly, and reasonably priced. I enjoy going for breakfast from time to time or whenever Im craving Cuban food and don’t want to risk disappointment in trying something new. La Carreta is consistent time and time again.

Many great experiences with this restaurant for many years. The churrassco is my favorite juicy full of flavor. The Mahi Mahi is also yummy. Vaca frita is also yummy. Moros not dry so is yummy. Great job!

This is the worse Carreta location !!! They delivered frozen croquetas and didn’t want to deliver anything else to me because they didnt feel like it. They also put a note under my number to never deliver to me again. The manager Morales doesnt know about customer service and all i wanted to order was a soup bc my daughter is sick. Their food is not fresh not is their kitchen clean !

What a nice surprise. Placed an order on Christmas Eve at 11am with Evelyn at the register. Was told the order would be ready for pu by 12pm. They were very busy, and it being Christmas Eve I was rather skeptical. I showed up at 12:10pm for pu, spoke w/​Evelyn and a Christmas miracle. The order was waiting for pu. The food was great and the service was flawless.

This place is legendary! I love it! I grew up down the street and ate here often. It is so good trust me. This is real Cuban food. Anything you get will be delicious! Get some cuban coffee after. I am missing this place right now up here in Atlanta there are no good Cuban places.

Food is ok for the most part. Service is horrible. Ever go to a third world country? Well this place surely emulates one. Trash on the floor, tables not cleared when being sat. Utensils and dishes stained with food particles. Glasses not cleaned properly, I’ve seen smeared lipstick on the rim.
The hostess picking their nails and talk nonsense rather than tending to their customers.
They hear you, but they don’t listen.
I’ve been to other locations with better service, see the Miramar location for starters.

Perfect place for a fulfilling breakfast. There always super quick and always friendly. Parking can sometimes be a mission but the food is worth the service. There lunch and dinner options are also a good time and delivery is also available

Amazing cuban food. Tried their Higado italiano on this visit and it was very good the only thing is that it didnt bring much.

I can’t complain about this location. We always get good service here. Our servers are always very friendly and attentive to our dining needs.
Depending on how we’re feeling our order changes. Our staple is always a small plate of the chicken soup as an opener. I love it. It’s actually my favorite. I order it special when I’m sick too. I also always order fresh squeezed orange juice. It’s delicious!
If we feel like having meat we go for the palomilla steak with white rice, black beans, and maduro plantains. However there are a few other options to chose from in the meat section. If you’re feeling like chicken you can get pollo a la plancha (a grilled chicken breast) with yellow rice, and maduro plantains. There are a few other chicken options as well. Substitutions for rice and sides are welcome here too. They are very open to customizing your order.
I love the dessert here too. My favorite by far is the arroz con leche. It’s delicious! They have flans of course, Tres leches, natilla, and a few other options. There’s this crème brûlée with a pound cake under it. Also one of my favorites! I recommend it if you like crème brûlée.

So many childhood memories of Sunday breakfasts at La Carreta. It had been YEARS since I had visited this location, and I was so disappointed. The bathrooms were disgusting, and our booth looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in weeks. There was caked-​on food on the walls of the booth, and a dust blanket on the top ledge. The place smelled musty. The food came out quickly, our server was great and attentive. My scrambled eggs were so runny and undercooked, I couldn’t even eat them. The croquetas were gross, and the bread tasted sour. If this place gets their act together, I might give it another shot. For now, I’ll stick to Casavana.

Have been coming here for years with my family. The breakfast is a great deal and it tastes incredible! The lunch and dinner items are usually dead on with taste. The only bad thing I would say about this place would be how the service is so up-​and-​down. Has a really nice location in front of a shopping mall. The prices are not bad at all.

Unimpressed to say the least. Stereotypical Miami franchise– die hard customers, and a crappy standard of service.
When I came in (by myself) they couldn’t seat me, because apparently they had no tables. Which was funny, because I could see a dozen open. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, and just assume they didn’t have enough staff to take care of those tables. The place was a ghost town, though.
When I did get seated, my waiter wanted my order before I even got to look at the menu. Since I wasn’t ready, he disappeared for awhile (20 minutes). My fault, again, I suppose.
The Food:
I ordered the Carreta breakfast and the café con leche. Just greasy. Had heartburn the rest of the day.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that it’s Miami. Meaning service just doesn’t matter in most places, but La Carreta was kind of bad even for the city. I don’t think I would go back.

Croqueta Preparada– Cuban sandwich with croquettes, ham and Swiss cheese pressed in between Cuban bread. Staple to the Cuban tradition.
You are welcomed in Spanish and most everyone speaks in Spanish. It’s almost as it feels like you are expected to speak Spanish here.
Ham croquettes– very fluffy croquettes and pretty much perfect.

Oh my goodness. I have never had a more perfect churrasco made to my liking! First off, they served me a nice big fat thick piece of juicy skirt steak on a plate of its own, plus another place with plenty of rice and some plantains. The rice portion wasn’t too little or too much, and the plantains were fried go the perfect tenderness with just a little crisp on the edges. I asked for medium rare and FOR ONCE I actually got a medium-​rare steak on the first try! Usually I find myself sending my steaks back to the kitchen because it’s too bloody or too well done but la Carreta’a culinary team is ON POINT!
It was the perfect amount of bloodiness, not overwhelmingly red but just pink enough. The bread was served fresh too, and our waters were constantly filled without having to ask. One thing did disappoint me about this whole experience though… The most important thing that goes with churrasco is the chimichurri sauce. Now I’ve ordered churrasco a good number of times to know what the sauce looks like and this was NOT IT. There were so little herbs in it that I could literally count them. The whole sauce container was literally just liquid. Sure it kinda tasted like chimichurri but I don’t want to dip my steak in a ramekin of solely vinegar. Sigh… Condiments are important to me and my fav part of skirt steak is the sauce that comes with it. Too bad theirs was just awful.

La Carreta is a franchise of Cuban restaurants in Miami. The food itself is great, I am only giving ³⁄₅ stars because of the iffy service at this location. It can be different at others!
Churrasco, can never go wrong with that.
And as sandwiches go, my personal favorite is the media NOCHE or the frita Cubana.

Yum yum! A must have if you find yourself in Miami. This is the place to go if you’re looking for delicious Cuban cuisine and your wallet will thank you too.
While this location feels a bit crammed on the inside, a great food adventure awaits. Their rice and beans are always delicious and the churrasco is absolutely delicious with the chimichurri sauce.
Although this place is just pure awesomeness one thing that always bugs me is that they put too much milk on the coffee and by the time you put just the right amount of espresso you end up with a cup full to the brim and you either have to lean into it or risk spilling it on yourself.
Sometimes the waiters are very attentive in your needs and sometimes they just brush you off but overall I’m too busy eating to care enough.
If you’re into vegetables this is not the place for you… you come here to eat fried greasy deliciousness only true foodies are safe to enter. Leave the diet somewhere else yall ;-)

The short of it:
— great Cuban restaurant
— very reasonable prices
— large portions, great food
— Favs: café con leche, roasted pork and vaca frita de puerco
The long of it:
So much delicious Cuban food, I could eat here everyday! The menu is quite extensive and on top of that they have specials for the day. Miami is known for Cuban so decided to check this place out. Our entire group enjoyed all their dishes, I did not hear one complaint! For myself, I ordered the roasted pork lunch special which came with moros rice (rice mixed with black beans and flavored with pork) and fried plantains. The pork was very flavorful and I love the onions they put on top. One other very memorable dish that day was the vaca frita de puerco which is shredded pork that is pan fried until it is crispy. It was so tasty and I love the crispiness of the pork. This dish paired really well with the white rice. We also ordered a stuffed chicken salad avocado dish to share. The avocados in Florida are ginormous! One avocado is more like 5 California avocados! This was a nice dish to share and I just placed it on top of the garlic bread from our bread basket (which was so good too). Lastly, I loved the café con leche here. It’s basically a cup of milk and you pour your sweetened shot of espresso into it. Can’t have Cuban food without Cuban coffee! I’m having Cuban food withdrawals already! Wish I could have some right now!

Very good as usual. the churrasco steak was awesome. The trigo smoothly a little too sweet, but other than that. Very delicious.
Service was fast and the waitress nice!

Comida muy sabrosa y excelente atención. Los platos salieron rápido y muy bien presentados.

Carnita de Cerdo con Congri!!! ummmm delicious!!!

Comida muy sabrosa y el ambiente es bien caluroso. Comí picadillo con habichuelas negras y estuvo buenísimo.