Papito’s Cuban Cafe & Bar

Good

Cuban perfect, devil crab perfect and fresh ! It’s changed its name to Blue Heaven not Papitos.

This place used to rock years ago with good tasting Cuban food and friendly staff. Unfortunately, now the food is horrible (my family is Cuban so I know a thing or two about Cuban food) and service sucks. The woman that served me was more concerned about her looks than paying attention to what I was trying to order. I know that some of the food that I ate on my recent visit did not tasted like Cuban food… perhaps it is prepared by a wanna be Cuban cook. Stay away folks!

Really good food. Generous portions. 2 people can easily share a plate. The Cuban sandwich is so good. It’s the best I’ve had. And huge. The restaurant is nothing much to look at but it is clean and has nice service.

This place is absolute garbage, the worst restaurant in Tampa, period!
I didn’t learn my lesson last time I went. This place used to be delicious, but got new owners a couple years ago. A couple months ago I stopped in for lunch, as I walked in I could smell the BBQ coming from Alex’s bbq across the street. So I walked in and waited for service, after a couple minutes of standing there I decided this is rediculous and went to said BBQ across the street.
Well fast forward to today, same situation walked in, the girl messing with some chicken habla no ingles. So we waited and waited and I was about to walk out again and a girl came up from the back, turns out she spoke about 6 more words of English then the other girl.
Managed to order black beans and rice and a Cuban sandwich. So she serves the absolute most discusting beans and rice ever. The rice was so old and crunchy, beans were cold, nasty nasty nasty. Fine I decide to wait for the sandwich.
It comes out and looks pretty good, one bite in and I taste something very peculiar. I’ve lived in Tampa for just over 30 years and have had Cubans from just about every roe of establishment there is. There’s lots and lots of excellent Cuban sandwich places around and it really is hard to find a bad one. Yet after having ate 100’s of them in my life time, I came across a taste I’ve yet to discover on a Cuban before: freaking ketchup!
Can you believe it KETCHUP!
It was terrible, and I eat ketchup on everything, in fact I’m a big fan of the condiment, it’s my favorite.
That was it, we went to the counter told her this was no bueno and that we would pay for our drinks and that’s it.
Don’t ever go here, the place has always been a dump, which was fine when the food was good, but this place has really been let go. Maybe my next email will be to dirty dining or the county health inspector!

I don’t think I’ll be coming back to this latin restaurant. My husband and I tend to eat a lot of Spanish cuisine. He is Latin and I was raised near Ybor City’s Latin culture. I don’t consider us particular on where we buy our plantains and ropa vieja, but this doesn’t even come close to making the cut for us. We’ve tried their menu a half dozen times and have given plenty of opportunities for error, but it just isn’t good. To be honest, it was really bad. The Ropa Vieja was extremely tough, although pretty flavorful. The baked chicken was flavorless, but moist. Both the beans tasted okay, but the yellow rice was not cooked well at all. I ordered green beans as a side, and they looked like canned, but tasted worse.
The restaurant itself, is usually empty with one or both of the doors open. This is not a welcome sign for a dining establishment. The sign by the cash register reads «Under New Management» but I don’t see a difference between the two management styles. Save your money and your stomach from this stale café.

I used to love this place but it has kind of gone down hill. It is usually pretty empty with some regulars at the bar. There is not as large of a selection as there once was. I found that the pork with black beans and rice have gotten less tasty as well. I would not mind it all that much except that the prices have gone up quite a bit as well.

My business partner and I used to eat at Papito’s all of the time, but I hadn’t been there in about a year. The place is located in a small strip mall along Ehrlich Rioad, right behind Ackerman Jewelers.
The restaurant is more of a lunch counter /​buffet as there are no menus or table service. You grab a tray, point to what you want, and that’s about it. They don’t make much of an effort to communicate with the gringos, but thankfully I know enough Spanish to call their bluff.
I ordered roasted pork with yellow rice & black beans. The rice and beans were good, but the pork cubes seemed dry.
I’ve had much better Cuban food at other restaurants around Tampa and so I doubt that I’ll be back.

This place is pretty good, not the best Cuban food I’ve had though. The portions are huge. Their sandwich was just ok. The place also isn’t much to look at, but it’s good if you need a quick Cuban food fix.

The Cuban sandwich was a waste of time, naked and lacking flavor… the other food is decent.

This place is really good, just like growing up here, with Mamita giving you big portions of delicious specials, no wait, just slap it in the styrofoam and bring it to your pregnant sister and you are good to go! When I am back I will definitely try Les L.‘s recommendation.

Usually get the «Café Special». It’s Cuban bread toasted and pressed at the same time and a cup of Café Con Lache. What’s different then most towns is that they put the sugar and milk in the coffee for you. The milk is steamed and has that creamy fresh taste. Their Cuban sandwiches are good too. Haven’t had the wide assortment from the menu but it all looks good.