Cafe Caobana

Had lunch here with my wife and really liked everything. I had a Cuban Sandwich, and she had the Media Noche. Both were every bit as good as we expected. We tried the home made shakes and both were great. Unfortunately, can’t remember the flavors, but they were 2 of the tropical fruit flavors (not Mango or anything, didn’t recognize the names).

Charming Cuban Café with a very friendly service…
You might be seduced by all the wondrous pastries and confections at the bakery. Although it all looked marvelous, I didn’t try any of the sweets. I went straight for the food. I ordered the turkey sandwich. It was decent, there was really nothing exciting about it. Perhaps I ordered the wrong thing. However, it did satisfied my hunger, and I did like that it came with a fair amount of crispy and fresh french fries.
I will try them again and get something else. They have a great location, nice décor and cordial staff.

Their desserts are amazing, but VERY VERY VERY VERY expensive. I was recommended to buy my favorite dessert from here, which are tornillitos or sugar horns in English. I wanted to order so many, but then I was told each one was $ 3.59!!! The lady told me that after 3:00pm the prices change. Although the dessert was delicious I was very displeased with the price and will most likely not return.

I stopped here for a café con leche and tostada for breakfast. Good service and a nice clean seating area up front. There is a more formal dining area for dinner. I took a variety of pastelitos to go and they were top quality! Fresh and yummy!
We’ll be back for dinner sometime.

Great food, good service and nice atmosphere at good prices; I could not ask for much more than that. Beyond many of the standard Cuban meals offered, be sure to check out the pastry shop up front.

This Cuban place is fantastic! The ambiance is nice and makes you feel cozy! We drove from Miami and didn’t find one decent Cuban food until we got here! The food is delicious we ordered 6 beef empanadas for appetizers. These were delish! Then we each ordered different entrees, one was fried beef w sides, cuban traditional sandwich with manduros, and beef non traditional cuban sandwich with manduros. All these were fantastic and made to the order. Our server was fantastic and remembered to leave off the cheese the second visit in the restaurant too! She was very friendly and diligent in her service! Also, remember to try their homemade bakery and pasteries… MMM yum!
We look forward to our next visit and we know exactly where to recommend people for homemade Cuban food. Also, you know this place is good with the locals when lots of locals come in to dine and or order pasteries here!

With a long road trip ahead, we popped into this small Cuban restaurant. I got a ham and egg cuban sandwich with a side of plantain, and it hit the spot, especially not knowing what terrible food awaited us on 95N. Will definitely revisit when we’re in the area next!

Good food, good portions, good prices. My gf was bummed that a pastrie was not the quality we get in Hialeah. But yea.
I’ll go again.

I have visited Café Caobana on a few occasions over the last couple of years and have had a good experience each time visiting. The Café is separated into two areas: the bakery in the front and the restaurant in the back. The bakery immediately catches your eye when walking into the establishment and is stocked full of sweets and pastries. I have tried the Guava and Cheese Pastry and it is delicious. The pastry is flakey and filled with flavorful guava and rich cream cheese. The restaurant serves a large selection of traditional Cuban dishes. I have tried the Vaca Frita and it is flavorful. The beef is lightly crispy on the outside and very juicy and tender on the inside and topped with fresh flavorful onions. A basic but very good dish. The sweet plantains are sweet and a little gooey (in a good way) on the inside. The Café con Leche is also flavorful and not too sweet. Overall, Café Caobana is a good choice for quality Cuban food.

As enthusiastic as we were to try this new place, we leave very disappointed. I ordered the Bistec de pollo/​chicken steak sandwich, which the description said seasoned grilled chicken breast with onions lettuce mayo on Cuban bread. My sandwich consisted of a pan cooked chicken breast, onions, two pieces of iceberg lettuce, slice of tomatoes and the bread was soggy. The seasoning was sour and not much flavor. My husband ordered the Cuban Supreme sandwich and again the bread was soggy, not much flavor to it and salty. We also ordered black beans and rice/​Moro but the beans had very little seasoning. I was not happy to pay for this bill! The service was great and the food came out fast. The café con le he was the part of the meal.

I’m on the search for the best Cuban Sandwich in Orlando… I’m from Miami and have been eating Cuban’s since I was a kid, but since I moved to Central FL, I can’t seem to find The Best… I stopped by Café Caobana to try their Cuban, it was good. Instead of sliced pork they have shredded pork, which is a nice touch. It comes with a small side of French fries (they were shoestring type frozen fries) for $ 6.29. I was in a hurry so I got it to go. The lady at the front counter was very nice & friendly. While waiting for my sandwich, I was salivating at the decadent deserts in the pastry cases, I noticed they are reasonably priced. I may not go back for the Cuban, but I may stop in again to sample their sweets & coffee!

Like going home to Miami. I had Pollo Asado and my partner had a media noche sandwich. Both were excellent. My side of congri was also great. Plus there’s a surprise! It’s fancy inside. Nice décor and amazing bakery in the front.
I will be back to try more.

I bookmarked this place after reading the reviews from some of the other Unilocal members. We were not really sure what we wanted so we looked through the places I had previously bookmarked in the area. We decided on Café Caobana and after plugging the address into the navigator… Off we went.
We pulled in and saw an outside area but given the Florida weather I was surprised there was not a covering of some kind. We walked in and to the right were two wonderful looking pastry cases filled with some delicious looking pastries. Nobody actually came up to greet us so we just made our way to a table and sat down. After only a minute the server came over and took the extra menus off of the table and put some napkins and settings on the middle of the table. My wife just wanted some water with her meal and I requested unsweetened tea with lime.
The server returned with water with lemon for my wife and a glass of ice and a bottle of unsweetened tea with a lemon on the glass. When I reminded her I asked for a lime she informed me they did not offer limes. My wife ordered the Cuban sandwich and I had missed that page in the menu so before I could take a brief look at that page, the server just walked away without even saying a word. About 5 minutes later she returned and I just ordered the Chicken Fajita. I actually had some questions about the menu but the server seemed to be in a hurry to take our order. She never mentioned the specials of the day or even tried to up sell the menu in any way.
While waiting for our meal the kids at the nest table were very entertaining and their parents were just a pleasure to meet. Their little boy was at a point making a bit of a stir but being grandparents, we are not bothered by that at all even though you could see the parents were a wee bit embarrassed. We let them know it was fine and in the process made two new friends.
When our food arrived it was placed on the table and not a word if we needed anything else. After taking pictures of our meals I tasted my wife’s Cuban sandwich but the press you expect was not there. The shredded pork was seasoned OK and the ham was not salty but overall, it was just meh. The French fries on her plate were frozen fries from a bag dropped into grease and not very impressive since they were not even crispy.
My plate was equally disappointing. The black bean soup was bland. I requested some chopped onions to top my soup and even that did not help. A little added salt helped but not much. The tostones were fried in grease that was too cold because they were too greasy. The white rice was actually cooked well and tasted well but that is where my kinds words on this plate end. The chicken was dry and the peppers were under cooked but the taste of the soy sauce used overpowered the taste of the chicken. Yes, you heard me… SOY SAUCE in Cuban food… There was a container of mayonnaise with some flavorless herbs on my plate but it was totally out of place with fajitas and I have never seen another Cuban place offer fajitas.
After the meal we were offered some coffee and Cuban espresso is a weakness of mine. The cup was very elegant but the taste was wonderful. The three small cookies were a perfect match to the espresso. That was the best part of the entire meal to be honest.
This place has a LOT of potential because the décor is wonderful and the location is great but the food was meh and the service was not very good. The server can make or break the experience and our server was just going through the motions. She obviously knew the couple that we were talking to by the hug she gave them as they were leaving but other than that, she never smiled the entire time we were there.
I might stop back to sample the pastry cases out front because of the cookies with my coffee but I can tell you that I was not at all impressed with the food here. I really was expecting to be writing up a great review instead of what I just wrote… SIGH

I openly admit, this was my first Cuban food experience, so i wont even try to bluff my way through a cuban food review — but wow, we really enjoyed our meal and loved the great service. My husband and I stopped by, feeling a little adventurous, on our way the airport — the bakery makes a fabulous impression when you walk in, family restaurant toward the back.
We tried their beef tamale, plantains, a shimp in sauce dish, and a some stuffed pepers — black beans and rice — everything was delicious and we’ve already decided next time we’re in Orlando we’ll be sure to make time to go again. Very fair prices, wonderful service and a menu I look forward to exploring further. Delicious!

Here’s a fine option if you want to do your body some harm. I’ve never eaten at the restaurant, so I’ll keep my comments to the pastries-​to-​go.
They’re usually good to very good. Of course there are your misses and near-​misses but I go by the rule that if it looks good, it is good. I see some people saying that the pastries were dry. That is generally a true statement. Maybe that’s how they’re supposed to be, maybe not… I suppose you’ve got to have a cup of coffee to make it a complete experience. Showing up with a white box full of pretty sweet things usually goes over pretty well.
On the downside, it’s a bit expensive and I usually feel like I’m doing something wrong when ordering (I probably am).

I love this place. My favorite lunch pick is the Media Noche sandwich, which comes with fries. For $ 6.70 after tax, you get a delicious sandwich and the perfect serving size of fries.
The only reason for me not giving it 5 stars is if you stay for table service, it can be interminably slow. But still so tasty!

the quesito was dry and not very good. The espresso was pretty decent. Staff was not very friendly sadly :(

So my boyfriend wanted something sweet so we decided to try this place since its around the corner from our house. The staff is really friendly and it was a nice little bakery with a restaurant in the back. All of the pastries & goodies are reasonably priced and for all that we got it was only $ 17. My son got their cup of mousse ($ 2.99) which he said was really good (he ate before i could get pic of it. they also have small ones in chocolate cups for only $ 0.99), we got 2 Quesitos ($ 1.39 each), 2 Horns (one with powdered sugar and one with caramel. can’t remember how much those where), a cup of Tres Leches (boyfriend ate before I could take pic of. was $ 2.39), a guava cake (boyfriend also ate before I could get pic. can’t remember how much it was) and a Guava & Cream Cheese pastry ($ 1.39). Over all everything tried was really good and their doughs are very flaky. We will definitely be back to try for lunch one day since it smelled really good when we walked in, the bonus is the baked goodies are really good so that is a bonus!

The atmosphere and staff are nice, but the food falls too short in a city with dozens of cuban restaurants, to bother returning. The food was good, it’s just that I can rattle off a list of better. Skip the bakery, we chose several different options and none seemed to be fresh. The éclair was hard and the bavarian filling tasted straight from a can, the tres leche was grainy, and the quessito left me wondering, «where’s the cheese?»

I’m surprised there arent many reviews for this place! My friends and I swung by here for breakfast before heading over to Universal Studios!
The food was great; really no complaints! Also, really cheap and tasty! The café con leche is good, too!