Cafecito

I loved this place! I can’t believe they closed.

Had the corcetas de jamon which were pretty good, a bottle of sauv. Blanc which was chilean and it was exellent. The entrees were okay, i had the ropa vieja vut the skirt steak was some what tough. For dessert we had the cuban bombon and it was great. Overall a good restaurant except for the steak.

Been here a bunch of times and the food is FANTASTIC!
Be warned, if you go on a Fri or Sat night, the food will take forever… Only downside. After I had to complain about the hour wait, she brought out snacks and comped us a free drink.
But that should have been done without me having to ask.
Will go back again, because it is a great place, strong drinks and yummy food. I hope they can pick up the pace to keep up with the new demand of a gentrified neighborhood!

The food is about average but the prices are very high with the portions being very small. For example, we ordered the garlic shrimp appetizer, it came in a soup container filled with liquid and a ton of garlic but only 4 very overcooked shrimps.
Our entrees were $ 20 and $ 25 and the portions were on the small side and not cooked as we specified. I asked for medium rare and got medium. My wife asked for medium and got well done.
The food was very bland. Without the sauces, there’s no taste. I had the steak with chimichurri and the steak itself didn’t taste seasoned. I had to drown it in the chimichurri sauce.
To add insult to injury, they’re very cheap with the rice and beans. With the main items already small, the ratio to rice and beans were way off.
Definitely won’t be ordering from here again.

Read all the good reviews so i went to check it out on a Sat afternoon around 2pm. We only asked for 3 things off the menu and was told they were out of all 3 things? Lol. How can this be??? So we ended up just buying 3 coffees and a slice of 3 leches cake and paid $ 18 for it. That was ridiculous. The coffee was amazing but the cake was soooo horrible i threw it out. Adn it was super small too. Would never go back or recommend. Sorry.

Great place Food was great and friendly ppl !!! Small spot but bigg flavorful creations on these plates! Thanks guy’s

Loving the soup and sandwich when we go. Have visited a few times and always enjoyed the food and decent prices. On the list of places to go in the hood for sure

Pretty pricey $ 15 — 20 for big plates of Cuban food
I ordered a pernil with rice and beans. Pretty good but I wish I’d gone to a hole in the wall for this dish. Felt weird paying so much.
My friend ordered a big plate of seafood. His dish was amazing!

The best brunch deal in the east village /​alphabet city without the wait times that Westville, El Camion and bad service at Esperanto. I actually don’t understand why it’s not ever packed.
$ 12.95 = Authentic Cuban food & one drink and /​or juice that WILL fill you up.
$ 3 for a café con leche (coffee with milk) that can only compare to what I’ve had from Cuban mom and pop shops in Miami.
Vibe: casual — family friendly, cute & good service. They play some low key Cuban music that keeps the experience truly Cuban. Also, the owner is always there and checks in with the tables and servers for support.

Very solid Cuban cuisine. The garlic shrimp were exactly what I would want. The ceviche was wonderfully acidic and tender. Go

Wasn’t satisfied. Customer service was great, and it’s a cozy little spot BUT the food lacked major flavor. The shrimp were well seasoned and the shrimp sauce with the rice made for a good combination. But the rice alone was bland, the breaded chicken seemed to just be thrown in breading because there were no underlying flavors and the Maduros were a little too stiff for my liking. I’ve made better tasting food at home. Will not return.

Our friends took us here because of their ceviche, and it was pretty good. Maybe a little heavy on the olives but good. The empanadas were tasty. Garlic sauce is super strong and flavorful — dipped my fried plantains and yuca in it. My chicken dish (which one I don’t recall) was super. The skirt steak, churrasco, was really amazing. Bread pudding with caramel and ice cream — devine. Greatest waitress. Loved it

We went here for a family celebration last Sunday, and loved this place. Super charming homey feeling, with very friendly staff. The 9 of us basically ate EVERYTHING… Excellent mojito’s! Empanadas were great. The pork chop entrée with a creamy corn salsa on top– to die for!
Our steaks were cooked perfectly and delish. The plantain chips with guac were very good (guac could use a bit more salt), the insanely garlicky cream side with the plantain chip app was so potent and soooo good, but you gotta both eat it if your gonna be kissing later! ;) The deserts were very good too! The bread pudding with espresso caramel sauce, the flourless chocolate molten thing, and especially the tres leches cake with pineapple, which was AMAZING. Oh yeah, and they have an «A» rating from the city, which is the cherry on top.

SO upset. My sister just took the bar (test), and is visiting home. I wanted to get her a tres leches cake and other goodies, so I planned to walk from midtown to Cafecito (several miles, 1.5 hours). I checked their hours online-​great, they’re open. Walked on over, called them up to place a call-​ahead order, only to arrive to a closed restaurant.
They don’t have a phone voicemail box set up, no indication anywhere online or on the store that they would randomly close, wasted my entire lunch hour and then some, with no cake to boot.
Really upset.

Setting outside was nice on a beautiful day! Service was good. Latin music in the background transported me to another place. Ordered buttermilk pancakes which were good and included lots of berries.

Delicious!!!
Good, accommodating people.
Fast and accurate delivery.
A bit overpriced especially on Avenue C.
Downside: For some reason, this is the only Cuban spot that is terribly inconsistent with their Maduros. They are sweet and soft only half the time… the rest of the time, they are bland and taste more like tostones. Pick your plantains with care!
Also, sometimes the meat in the Cubano sandwich is a bit tough.
Other than that, and the fact that for some reason they were on the «Santacon» list this year, love the place.

Maybe it’s because I’ve never actually had Cuban food before, but I thought the food here was fantastic! Discovered Cafecito from the City Shuffle dining deck. We went on a very snowy Saturday night. The place is tiny, but in a nice way — it feels very homey and intimate, and the servers are super friendly.
I ordered the Playa Veradara Entrada — the only vegetarian entrée, which was fine because it was fantastic! It was a platter of «boniato hash, bolos, avocado, mixed greens and white rice». What are those first two things? Who knows, eat them! The boniato hash (I think) are these delicious fried balls made with sweet potatoes, corn, black beans, and probably magic. It came with a great corn salsa. The way to eat it is to mix it all together. Everything works wonderfully together.
We were too stuffed to try the desserts, but they looked great!

Ordered takeout via Seamless and it was just that… seamless.
I ordered the grilled chicken salad and a side of the papa rellena (stuffed potato balls), which came to just under $ 25.
The salad came with some mango slices (some more chunks would’ve been nice) avocado, and a variety of greens, all of which tasted fresh. The dressing was also light and lot over powering.
The order of papa rellena was two balls, roughly the size of lacrosse balls. They were filled with ground beef and some other spices before being deep fried. At $ 6.25, it’s a bit steep, but they were tasty nonetheless. The green sauce that accompanied stole the show — spicy and flavorful. BE CAREFUL!
I ordered around dinner time and takeout was ready in 20 minutes, which is great. I’ll be back to try the churrasco and maybe dine in with some friends as it looked cosy.

Cafecito is a small Cuban restaurant on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. I found the place to be intimate and welcoming. The service is very friendly and personable.
The Food: I ordered the churasco steak. The entrée comes with rice, beans and twice fried plantains. I was underwhelmed flavor wise with this entrée. The steak was kind of bland and the plantains had were not salted and there was no garlic so those were lacking as well. Nothing was bad but considering I frequently eat this type of cuisine I know how flavorful it can be. For example at Sazon, the churasco is so flavorful it rivals $ 40 steaks at some of New York City’s finest steakhouses. This just wasn’t the case at Cafecito.
For dessert I had the Tres Leches cake and was impressed with that. This milky, rich, sweet cake topped with pineapples is a little slice of heaven. I love tres leches in general but this slice was better than most I’ve had, it was perfect. If I came to Cafecito again I would try a different entrée but certainly would order the the tres leches.
Cafecito scores high marks in the areas of service and dessert but considering the main corse was average I’m giving them 3 stars.

This was the best meal I have had in ages. Everything was perfectly cooked. I had the sea bass and the sauce made me was to lick the plate but I am too much of a lady. LOL The drinks were good and the empanadas were delicious. I am a big maduras fan and these were perfectly done
The space is nice and the staff is wonderful. I can’t wait to come back.

5 stars for the pork shank; 3 stars for everything else.
The pork shank is everything pork should be: supremely tender, crispy skin, smooth tomato sauce. The thing is, it’s only a special, not a permanent addition to the menu. It’s also huge, with enough for at least 2 people. Without a guarantee that the pork shank is on the menu, I wouldn’t venture out deep into Alphabet City for Cafecito.
The rest of the food options were good, but some were flawed. The tostones weren’t crispy enough for my liking and the bocaditos appetizer had too much garlicky sauce (though it is a good sauce). The fried chicken is decent, but could use something to add texture or additional flavors, like stirfried onions or some lime.

After browsing some of the photos here on Unilocal,I got pretty excited about trying the pork shank and shoulder here. However, when I arrived for lunch, the shank and shoulder were not listed on the menu and when asked about it, they said they just ran out. I ended up ordering the camarones al ajillo. They make it very well here! It comes with shrimp in a buttery garlic sauce, rice, beans on the side, buttered bread to soak up that sauce and sweet plantains AKA the perfect combo for me. Only complaint is that the bread would be better if it was not cut lengthwise, but cut into thin slanted pieces and toasted… I then would be able to put it all on that bread like a bruschetta, even though this is a Cuban place… but still! The texture contrast on that would be amazing!
Even though I was sad that they ran out of the pork shank when I arrived, this dish hit the spot for me. Hopefully, they’ll have the shank next time.