Tico’s Cuban Cafe

First time my wife and I went and the food was awesome. The red beans are the best I ever had at a Cuban restaurant. The owners are great very friendly and attentive to our needs. We will make this one of our spots.

Always hot and fresh. Excellent quality food with fast friendly service at a reasonable price.

Hungry for some Cuban food and drove over to Tico’s before it closed at 2pm. Met the owner Mr. Albert who is so sweet and kind and very busy! He’s a chef, server, cleaner, and cashier rolled into one.
Decided on a few appetizers: Ham Croqueta (Croquettes), Papa Rellena (Potato Balls with Ground Beef), and Pan Tostados (Buttered Cuban Bread). Also ordered an entrée Lechon Asado comes with beans and rice. It tasted very very good but I realized I meant to order the Masas de Puerco (fried pork chunks) instead. No problem. Ate the Lechon Asado with onions and every bite is delicious!!! Loved the appetizers but was slightly disappointed the bread was hard and barely buttered. I rather like this with maybe some cheese or side of bruchetta. No desserts were available so I was sad not to have any flan nor tres leche cake.
Overall I enjoyed the meal but felt it really needed more than burgers and sandwiches on the menu. Tico’s should provide more Cuban dishes; maybe pernil, chicken stew, guava cheesecake, cuban sugar cookies, media noche (sweet challah-​like bread).

I have been searching for a good cuban restaurant (I LOVE Spanish food). And I have definitely found one! The food was amazing the service just as great! Will definitely be a regular.

Fantastic Cuban sandwich. In fact, I would say it’s the best Cuban I’ve ever had.
Very friendly staff, and reasonable prices.
Do yourself a favor and get some Café Cubano as well.

I wish Unilocal let me rate the service separately, because our server Daniel was an absolute sweetheart. Very quick and courteous.
My fiancée and I came by for an early dinner on a Friday. We reach had an empanada and a sandwich– Cuban for me, croqueta for him. Empanadas were good, nothing earth-​shattering. The house made hot sauce was good, big flavor punch. The sandwiches weren’t really to our taste. Kinda seemed like they took cold fixings on stale bread, coated it in butter, and grilled it just enough for the cheese to melt.: /​The fries were just bad, not hot enough and mushy. Papi’s in Lawrenceville or Mojito’s in downtown Norcross are way better from what I can tell.
I would still try it again, maybe the pork chunks next time? Didn’t hate it, and the service was wonderful.

This is one of my favorite places to eat but, there is not a lot of device going on during popular days. Overall good food

We discovered Ticos by accident. It is great! Albert is a great owner. Food is very good. Quick service and very reasonable prices. We love this place.

Great service and great food! Would recommend the sandwiches, and the homemade hot sauce is amazing

I have gone to this place twice now. I really enjoy their sandwiches. They are delicious and really big. The place is always clean, and the waiter is always super friendly. I will definitely be returning back to this place!

Great food & cute place right in Buford! I love finding gems like this near where I live; I don’t have to drive into Atlanta to get authentic Cuban sandwiches or tres leches cake. Which you have to get because it’s one of best tres leches cakes I’ve ever had! Will definitely be back.
Just a tip though, it would be great to have waitresses that knew a little more about the menu. Our waitress was nice but had no clue what most of the menu items were. I explained what a tres leches cake is to her so just a thought!

I’m a Miamian, and truly miss the Cuban cafeterias in Miami (somewhat spoiled). The one thing I truly miss are the pan con bistec. Tico’s brings that essence that I have missed so much here to the GA. So much better than Papi’s (in my opinion). It’s a little out of my way, but definitely worth the trip.

Ticos is a rare treat, family restaurant, great value, and some of the best food you will ever have. It is very informal, and very friendly. The sandwiches are great for lunch and the bread is baked on premises daily. They even have a full bar and a little nightlife on the weekends. Cannot recommend it any more highly.

Soooo this place is amazing. Best Cuban food in Georgia. The steak sandwhich is to
Die for. Great and friendly owners. Owners are Cuban and it shows in the quality of the food. Good prices. Nice selections. Really cute waitresses and just overall good time. I honestly can say I’ve never had better service anywhere recently. Always nice to eat somewhere and meet some great people in the meantime. The waitresses weren’t Cuban (maybe Mexican or Puerto Rican) but they were perfect! Been looking for a great Cuban place since I moved from up north. Finally found one ! A must try for everyone !

Ok. I have been reluctant to eat here for fear of being disappointed. I was completely wrong to hesitate. I Don’t feel like i am a expert on Cuban food, but i lived in Florida for 9 years and have had a good amount of Cuban food. But, everything i had was delicious. The tostones came with a excellent, super strong, garlic. aioli… dip. deliciousness. Also had a pico of onion, tomato, cilantro and pepper. Super well done.
This is very much a family establishment. One son took our order while the other came from the kitchen to prepare my drink when there was a selection choice. They were friendly and genuinely seemed to appreciate that we decided to stop in.
The kids went with their less than adventurous chicken strips and cheeseburger. Both were tasty and eaten by the kids. Good sized portions
But my wife and i split the seafood stew special and the pico dillo. Both were really good. Tasty. Great portion for the cost. Really delicious mussel, scallop, white fish and shrimp in a fragrant tomato based broth with onion and green pepper, jalapeño and plenty of flavor. The mussels and shrimp were tender and taunt. The scallops were tender. Well done. Not over cooked.
Ask for the house made hot sauce. Our server, who happened to be one of the owners, suggested it. He said it is popular among the regulars even though you dont necessarily expect «heat» with Cuban cuisine, it is fan– frickin-​tastic. And it has some good heat! Not crying heat, but «oh… yeah. this is real» kinda heat. All while maintaining great flavor. Please bottle it!
The pico dillo was very good. It had a very rich flavor and the perfect consistency. I will say there were no raisins in the mix so there really wasn’t a sweet side vs the briny green olive side. But plenty of annato taste. That back of your jaw savory-​ness that you want from Cuban hamburger helper! Total comfort food.
Tres leche was perfect traditional. Not the meringue type topping stuff you may get other places. Just milk cake, sweet condensed milk and whipped cream. Simple and delicious.
I admit that i havent had «authentic» or local Cuban food in over a year. But i wanted delicious cuban comfort food for dinner and i was totally satisfied.
I hope you like it as much as I did. Cant wait to try the ropa vieja and the roast pork.

Checked out Unilocal for a great restaurant nearby. Great reviews brought us in. Not terribly busy for a Saturday night, but we were glad for that because the kids were hungry. Waitress was attentive but not obnoxious. Food came pretty quickly and everything was fantastic. Really great. And we like our food.
I had the Cuban sandwich. It was prefect. Hubby had the Cuban steak entrée. The waitress called it peasant food. Steak good. Rice good. Beans goooooood. Hot sauce good… and hot. Fried plantains — well it doesn’t get much better than that.
Highly recommended. You won’t be sorry. I promise.
Now go eat there.

One of the best Cuban cooking I have had. Homemade. everything was so delicious. The service was quick. The dessert and hot sauce was awesome. You should try the pork chunks.

Great service, prices, beer AND food! Their croqueta sandwich and steak sandwich are very good. Their fries are perfect. Empanadas and croquetas are my favorite appetizers. For the service and price, this place is awesome. On Friday and Saturday they are open until 2 am, Friday night being their most popular and live dj.

Came here after watching a fellow Unilocaler checking in pretty regularly and never knew it was so close to home. I got me a cuban and fried plantains and it was fabulous. Really nice staff and service was fast and good. Got it to go and went over to Mulberry park to eat. Small place, not real fancy and has dance nights I thought was a twist but just wanted a good pressed cuban and really liked it. Had a mixture of options so definitely different but something new to me in the area I had to try. Will be back for sure and try a few more items I’m reading up on. Def strong 4 stars for me for the food.

Very good location.
Was having second thoughts when we walked in at 6pm on Saturday and absolutely nobody was in the restaurant but us.
Glad we decided to stay. The server stated that 7pm is the key time. My wife had the shrimp dish, me the pork chunks. Both were excellent.
Long story short since I am in a time crunch, will we return? Yes. Will we refer? Yes.
Also when we departed about 7:05 the place was filling up as our waiter and also bartender stated.
Good place!