Latin Cafe 2000 in Miami, FL

After a day of exploring Miami, I wanted to get a good Cuban Sandwich for dinner. I ended up at a restaurant called Latin Cafe 2000 on Biscayne Blvd, just north of Downtown. They had a takeout window selling the desired sandwiches that looked like it was doing lots of business, so the Cuban sandwich prospects looked good.

Once seated, we were served a basket of pressed and buttered bread by the very attentive waiters.

I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but since this was at a Cuban restaurant, I'm including a picture of the Cortidito that someone else at the table ordered. It was a really small cup of strong coffee with foamy milk on the top. It looked sort of like espresso to me, but I'm no coffee expert.

I walked into Latin Cafe 2000 thinking I was going to get a Cuban Sandwich. I sort of got distracted once I started reading the menu by all the other tasty sounding food. When I finally made my decision, I ordered the mystery meal at my table and got the Sopon Marinero. The English translation was kind of vague and said Big Seafood Soup. The waitress wasn't much more help at explaining what type of seafood was in the soup, but she said it was good, so I gave it a try.

The soup came in a huge bowl and had a tomato based broth. The seafood consisted of calamari rings, mussels, clams, shrimp, and a type of white fish. With some fresh squeezed lime added to the soup, it was really tasty. The clams were kind of chewy, but otherwise I had no complaints. I'd gladly get this again!

I didn't get my Cuban sandwich, but that could wait until my next trip to Miami. I really enjoyed my meal and it reminded me that Cuban food can be really good. I definitely need to start trying more Cuban restaurants...

Harry's Seafood in Lakeland, FL

When I saw the Harry's Seafood in Downtown Lakeland, I knew I wanted to eat there. I ate at the Harry's in Downtown Ocala several years ago and was really impressed with their cajun food. Later on that day, I found a coupon for a free appetizer at Harry's and that pretty much settled it to where I'd be eating dinner.

The appetizer coupon was for free fried calamari or fried green tomatoes. Although I've never tried tomatoes like this, I'm not the biggest fan of the fruit in their natural form so I went with the calamari. My dining companions were disgusted by the thought of eating fried squid, so it was all for me. It was good calamari, not chewy at all, and they even served plenty of tentacles on the plate...

For the main course, I had the Jambalaya. Consisted of shrimp, chicken, and sausage served over rice. I enjoyed it, although I thought it could have been spicier.