Floridita
3219 Broadway New York, NY 10027
(212) 662-0090
(800) 201-0090 - Toll Free
We ran into Floridita while trying to look for parking in the area. Floridita is in a squat industrial-looking building in a rather desolate area close to the West Side Highway. The beaten-up exterior, neon signage "Cuban diner" (intriguing!) and the double-parked row of cabs looked promising.
As promised, Floridita is a bona fide Cuban diner, of the old style kind. It felt like a true Miami joint, with a lot of regulars from the neighborhood. As soon as you walk in, you are greeted by a display case of Cubanos ready to go.
The menu seems geared for breakfast, although there was a lot of dinner traffic. The daily specials looked really good. For apps, we ordered sopa de garbanzos, papas fritas, and chorizo a la plancha.
Papas fritas.
Chorizos a la plancha. DJKung found the flavor to be reminescent of the sausages he had in Spain.
Sopa de garbanzos. I'm not sure how they make the sauce bright yellow (achiote?), but it is mightily flavored with smoked pork hocks. Along with some bread and butter, this was a meal in itself.
Arroz con calamares. The rice is delicately flavored with squid ink and onions. It comes out in this nice metal pot, like the kind you steam rice with. The little bits of chopped squid were tender and flavorful. Overall, a slammin' dish.
Oxtail with rice and black beans (in bowl). DjKung loved the oxtail, which is fried. The beans, which I tried, was full of smoky goodness.
We were too full for dessert. They had some lovely cakes sitting at the counter (on cakestands like in old diners, instead of in a display case). I'm sure one of them was tres leches. DJKung had cafe con leche ("now that's f---in' coffee!" he remarked). It was nutty, balanced and delicious.
This was a great find, and we'll certainly be back to try the other daily specials. And the cake, too.
This place looks yummy. thanks for the info. I am looking forward to trying this place.
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