Little Havana food guide: Cuban food and how to order a cafecito

Little Havana is the neighborhood along Southwest 8th Street, known to everyone as Calle Ocho, just west of downtown Miami. It is where Cuban exiles settled from the early 1960s, and it is still the best place in the city to eat Cuban food and drink Cuban coffee the way Miami drinks it: strong, sweet, small and all day long, often standing at a walk-up window.

Where is Little Havana in Miami?

Little Havana sits west of downtown and the Miami River, and Calle Ocho (SW 8th Street) is its main street. The stretch most visitors walk is the few blocks around Domino Park at SW 15th Avenue, where you will find cafeterias, bakeries, coffee windows and cigar shops. The neighborhood keeps going well beyond that, with more everyday restaurants and bakeries the farther west you walk.

How did Little Havana become Cuban?

In the 1930s the area was largely a Jewish neighborhood. After the 1959 revolution in Cuba, exiles arrived in Miami in large numbers and settled in this southwest section of the city, which came to be called Little Havana. Cuban businesses opened to serve them, and the neighborhood became the heart of the exile community. Over the following decades many Cuban families moved out to the suburbs, and newer arrivals from Cuba and Central America moved in, so today Little Havana is Cuban at its core with Central American cooking alongside.

What is a ventanita?

A ventanita, Spanish for "little window," is a walk-up counter window on the side of a cafeteria or bakery. You step up, order a coffee and maybe a pastry, pay, and drink it right there on the sidewalk. In Little Havana, and across Miami, social life gathers around these windows. Coffee is not just a morning thing here; people stop for one at any hour.

How do you order Cuban coffee?

Cuban coffee is dark-roast espresso sweetened as it brews. The first drops are whipped hard into sugar until they turn into a pale, creamy foam called espumita, which is then mixed with the rest of the shot. That foam is what makes it Cuban. The four drinks to know:

Order this	What you get
Cafecito	A single small shot of sweet Cuban coffee with espumita
Cortadito	Cuban coffee cut with a little steamed or evaporated milk
Colada	A larger serving of cafecito in a cup, with tiny plastic cups for sharing
Cafe con leche	Cuban coffee with a lot of hot milk, the morning version

A colada is meant to be shared. Order one for the office, a group of friends or the people you are walking with, and pour out small cups for everyone. If you do not like your coffee very sweet, ask for it with less sugar when you order, since the sugar goes in during brewing.

What should you eat in Little Havana?

• A Cuban sandwich: roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard on Cuban bread, pressed hot.
• A frita: the Cuban hamburger, a seasoned beef and pork patty piled with crispy shoestring potatoes. It began as Havana street food and took off again in Miami from the 1960s.
• Croquetas: small fried croquettes, usually ham, eaten at the window with coffee.
• Pastelitos: flaky pastries, and guava with cheese is the classic.
• Picadillo: seasoned ground beef, a staple at sit-down cafeterias, served with rice.

Is the most famous Cuban restaurant in Little Havana worth visiting?

One restaurant on Calle Ocho has served Cuban food since 1971 and is the most famous Cuban restaurant in Miami. It is a cafeteria, restaurant and bakery in one, a gathering place for the Cuban community, and a political landmark where people come to talk when there is news from Cuba. The walk-up window is the quickest way in: a cafecito and a croqueta at the counter is a fine introduction. The dining room is large and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hours change, so check before you go.

What is Domino Park?

Maximo Gomez Park, called Domino Park by everyone, is a small park at the corner of Calle Ocho and SW 15th Avenue, named after a hero of Cuba's war of independence. Since the early 1970s it has been a place where older Cuban men and women gather to drink coffee, smoke cigars and play dominoes. Games are for members of the park's domino club, but players are used to an audience, so stand back quietly and watch. Check the opening hours before you go.

When is the Calle Ocho festival?

The Calle Ocho Music Festival is a one-day street party in March that closes out Carnaval Miami. Started by Cuban exiles in 1978, it fills roughly fifteen blocks of SW 8th Street with stages, music and food from across Latin America and the Caribbean, and it draws enormous crowds. The date moves each year, so check before you plan around it, and expect the neighborhood to be packed.

What should you know before you go?

Little Havana is very walkable, but Miami is hot, so go in the morning or late afternoon and stop at a window for a coffee when you need a break. Many small places are counters where you order and pay at the register. At sit-down restaurants, tip as you would anywhere else in the US, and check the check for a service charge first. Spanish is the everyday language in a lot of shops, though English is widely understood. If you find a window or a bakery you love, Mosey lets you rate the places you eat at and the dishes you order, with photos, so friends know which croqueta to go back for.

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