La Esquina De La Fama

First time trying out Cuban food here and it was okay. There’s only a buffet option from what I can tell. There’s two meal options: $ 16.95 for two main courses and three sides and $ 27.95 for all you can eat, dessert, champagne/​mimosa and Cuban coffee. For two people with the option, it came to $ 100 since they charge tax and a service charge of 18%. Service charge applies no matter how many in your party. We also had Mojitos that are $ 12 each. Decent for my first experience, but I haven’t been in Miami enough to gauge if this is moderately priced.
P. S. I found this restaurant while on the Miami Hop On tour and the bus stopped directly in front of it. I would check out the other restaurants up and down 8^th Street.

The food here was pretty decent. Never had Cuban before and I liked what I tasted. However communicating with the staff seemed to be a constant struggle and the «best Mojito» wasn’t the best I’ve ever had. The restaurant was also small loud and crowded.

Stopped in here for a mojito and thought it was a really fun place! However, $ 15 is ridiculous! I liked the vibe here but the prices are insane.

Worst service & mojioto ever! For being in Little Havana, you think their mojioto’s would be perfect… especially for the price. They are pure sugar with a touch of rum, not even drinkable to some of my friends. Don’t waste your money, they do not care about their customers… they just want your money. Shame on you.

Worst food ever. The mojito is absolutely watse of money and time. The food is kept like a shworoom but its not a buffet, the lady will serve the most pathetic food of lifetime.
Dont watse time by going here
. the hop on tour bus are doing a scam by twlling that its one of the best cuban restaurant.
BEWARE OF IT.

Great food and drinks In the heart of Little Havana. Went to the window on the outside to get a mojito and a media noche. The server was extremely friendly and made the mojito with fine precision. It was the best mojito (sin alcohol) I have ever had.

WARMING :
This is NOT a self-​serve buffet as it appears. Its a PUT TOGETHER.
My guess is that the Sightseeing Miami double decker bus has an arrangement with the restaurant to drop off tourist for a 15 minute break and call this an authentic Cuban Restaurant.
The GOOD:
The restaurant looks authentic, and has a nice vibe, a guitar musician that serenades etc…
THE BAD :
Price is ridiculous for the average house food they are serving. They have the nerve to lay it out like a buffet and yet a cuban girl arrogantly takes your plate and asks you what 2 meats and 3 side dishes you want because SHE will be serving you and placing the portions on your plate .
Most of the food is tasteless, and looks rather OLD.
The only tasty but unhealthy dish they has was the pork with rice. The plantains were ok or good too.
The mojito is more than decent yet charge a nightclub price for it.
I’ve paid much less for better quality and authentic cuban food.

My girlfriend and I decided to stop here while walking around 8^th street last night. Worst. Idea. Ever. I wish I had checked the Unilocal page. ~$ 28 per person for the buffet, or ~17 $ per person for 2 entrees, and 3 sides. THEY portion the food for you. And the food is tasteless, and OLD. Shame on them for even claiming this is authentic Cuban food. I can imagine a tourist coming in here, and falling for this gimmick, and likely leaving this establishment saying, «Cuban food sucks». They are doing their own people a disservice! Girlfriend had the pork. A Cuban staple – She asked for Mojito Sauce. And the server returns to the buffet, and grabs a bunch of oil/​grease from the pork tray and puts it in a little cup. Hands it to my girlfriend and says, «Sorry we don’t have Mojito Sauce». She took one look at it, and set it back down. Disgusting. The salsa for her plantains, also disgusting. The Moros – Cuban black-​beans & Rice. Old. From the day before at least! Kept crunching in my mouth because the rice was literally dry.
For the same money ($ 28) you can go to a fantastic buffet, like «The Knife». Overlook Bayside, enjoy all the steak you can eat, etc.
Also…I’ve managed restaurants for YEARS. And I can tell you this place would not pass a health inspection. The utensils used in the steam-​table are set on a plate instead of in the food. They teach everyone in food service: Keep hot foods HOT, Keep cold foods COLD. You don’t scoop people’s food, and then sit the spoon on a plate @ room temperature to grow bacteria.
All in all, if you are literally a pig, and have no standards for what you put in your mouth, and enjoy throwing your money away on overpriced sh… food. Eat here! For everyone else with standards… try just about any Cuban restaurant in town. Pollo Norte, Versailles, etc.
Shame on you La Esquina De La Fama. I can’t stress enough how bad this restaurant is. I hope you get sued and/​or go bankrupt.

This place was so cute and authentic!
We got the batido (smoothie) made of mame. It was delicious!
Also got a tequeno. In Dallas, there’s a place called Zaguan that has amazing tequenos, so I had to taste an authentic one. It was phenominal. Like light delectable white cheese in a Pillsbury cresent-​type dough.
While the servers don’t speak good English, you could tell this was a place that natives/​locals frequent.
To add to the flair, there was a nice old gentleman serenading us on his instrument while we awaited our food.
I would come back every time. Too bad we couldn’t do the buffet since it was so close to dinner time.

We came to Miami often to take cruises, we finally took the hop on hop off to do some sightseeing around Miami. This restaurant was the stop in Little Havana and highly recommended by the driver so we decided to give it a try.
The restaurant looked really amazing with paintings, posters, pictures of Cuba, the real Havana and classic cars. The buffet looked tempting so we decided on the all you can eat for $ 27.95, the 2^nd choice was for $ 16.95 for 2 items. They had all the usual Cuban dishes we had known before from living in NY/​NJ and going to the Cuban enclave.
It was a buffet so of course that was self serve or so i thought, it was actually semi self serve, a server gave you what you wanted but we went to get seconds ourselves, we ordered a mojito to go along with the food. It was quite expensive, $ 12 + 18% tip + 10−15% tax, it came out to about$ 18. It looked beautiful, came with a real sugar cane stick and fresh mint but the taste was not as good as the mojito I had right in LA.
The most popular dish in the Cuban cuisine was Lechon or Roast pig, it was flavorful, the best I had ever had, it went great with the cabbage. I looked for the famous Cuban steak but they did not have it so I had some «Ropa Vieja» that was shredded beef, it was nothing special.
I loved their fried plantain and yucca, I did not like anything else. So my tip to all Unilocalers who wanted to try this restaurant is to pay $ 16.95 for 2 items and 2 sides, forget the rest.
I think I got ripped off because this was a self serve restaurant, why did they tag on a 18% mandatory tip? there is no tip required in any of the buffet I have been to in LA, I would still tip 10−15% but 18%? then the tax was ridiculous, including the mojitos, it came out to over $ 100!
The only reason I would rate a 3 stars instead of 2 stars, was because they had some Cuban musicians playing some nice salsa music.

If you’re in Miami, make time for a visit to Little Havana. AND MAKE SURE YOU STOP HERE! Great service, great atmosphere, great mojitos

Owners a scumbag: told him I was a vegetarian, so he made me a grilled cheese. He charged me $ 16 for the grilled cheese sandwich, $ 5 more than anything else on the menu. I think he tried to take advantage of me because it was late night and probably thought I was drinking (even though I was dead sober).
Clearly he needs the money more than I do if he has to be deceitful for a grilled cheese. It’s one thing for bad food, but an untrustworthy owner; beware, I would avoid at all caution.

The best mojito is up the street at the Calle Ocho Museum. Esquina’s prices are too high for what you get, and they’re always trying to sell you CD’s or food you don’t want. Go somewhere else.

Short and simple. This place is horrible!!! I saw The people from The kitchen working and they work without any type of hygiene. Fighting to each other all the time. Inside the restaurant, waitress dont know at all how to talk english, bad presentation from the girls, flirting to whomever. All the time the same food, dried and reheated from the morning.
The environment its disgusting.

Came here on a whim while walking through Calle Ocho on a trip to Miami. Lured by lovely live music, I decided to try La Esquina.
It’s a somewhat confusing set up, as a buffet is advertised but it’s not self-​serve. Essentially, you have to flag down the waitress who serves you from the buffet. However, after the first round of food, the waitress ignored my companion and me. I ended up serving myself from the buffet and no staff tried to stop me, so I didn’t mind.
I actually quite liked the food, although I don’t eat pork so that was a bit limiting. I had their steak option with black beans and rice.
I loved the mojito although it was certainly overpriced.

I recommend this place most highly for one reason: a really cool and kind guy who works there. I am pretty unreliable with names, but also am pretty sure his name was Miguel. He was one of the finest folks I have encountered in Miami or anywhere across Florida.
So as for the food, it was good. I think. I hardly remember it because of how funny and interesting the waiter was. It really made my trip.

This place was great. I loved the live Cuban music. I’ve been to Cuba before and coming to this restaurant made me feel like I was in Cuba again. Please keep in mind that this restaurant does not have AC, or they simply weren’t using it that day. They did have a buffet but we ordered papa rellenas, croquetas, and Cuban coffee instead. The papa rellenas were cold in the center. We asked our waitress to heat them up and they were still cold. Overall, it was a fun experience. 4 stars!

Gets 2 stars for cheap croquettes but they are not very good. The mojitos are $ 13 so walk a couple of blocks down and get one somewhere else for $ 6 or $ 7.

We were introduced to this place by the city bus tour. We were the first ones here & then the placed became packed with people.
The buffet cost $ 16.50 and they had everything you could want. You get three sides and two meats and they pile it up on your plate. I ordered morro de black beans and extra beans on top, with pork & chicken & batata aka sweet potatoes. The pork was the most tender, flavorful I’ve had in a awhile. So good I couldn’t leave any behind even though I was full.
Drinks the lemonade was good and the
Mojito was delicious! Would go there again anytime.

Came here because a friend of a friend said they has the best mojitos. We were told in a advance it’s kind of pricey– no problem.
When you first walk in, they advertise having the «best mojitos in town». Our waitress told us about their mojitos first (of course) and we agreed to get two. Now for the mojito– it was very pretty and drinkable. Not sure if I would say «best mojito» but it’s not my drink of choice so I can’t really say otherwise. I do for certain… it wasn’t worth $ 12 bucks each!
Food is served awkwardly. No menus so it had to be explained how it works and what they have– in Spanish because of course they don’t know English but luckily, I know Spanish. Not sure how they would work for people who aren’t fluent. Common thing to find in this area.
Back to the food… it’s buffet style but you don’t get it yourself. They get it for you as you basically point out what you want. I thought this was really odd. Who thought this was a good idea? My friend hated the empanadas which she had one bite of and basically two whole ones which waitress noticed. She asked about it and my friend said it was dry but guess who was still charged $ 6 bucks for it? us.
Food was good but not anything I need to drive 30 miles for again.
What I will agree as other reviewers have mentioned, it seems like a tourist trap. A tourist bus employee asked if we were on his bus which I said no. He then asked where you from and I gave him «are you serious look» and then he asked if that’s a baby in the carriage and I replied «no it’s a fake baby that blinks». He walked away and talked with employees so he clearly comes after his daily tourist drop offs.
As a restaurant, don’t have other businesses ruin your business for you.