Miami Food Disappointments: My First Cuban Cuisine Letdown

Trying Cuban food for the first time, I picked the highly recommended Puerto Sagua. It was Thanksgiving, so I ordered the turkey special and followed the hype with their $28 oxtail stew—turns out, the meal left me confused, summed up as "edible but never again." 🦃 Thanksgiving Turkey: Sour to the Point of Frowning The turkey arrived lukewarm, with no crispy skin, and dry, stringy meat when cut. The worst part? An indescribable sourness hit my nose—not the rich tang of black vinegar or the bright zing of fruit vinegar, but more like "acid reflux from an empty stomach," mixed with under-marinated meaty stench. After two bites, I felt nauseous. Later, I realized it was probably a reheated pre-made Thanksgiving dish, even the side roasted potatoes tasted slightly off. Definitely not worth the "holiday special" title. 🐂 $28 Oxtail Stew: A Ripoff Less than five minutes after ordering, the oxtail arrived with the turkey—so fast it felt like it came straight from a microwave. There were only three or four pieces on the plate, more bone than meat. The meat was tender but completely flavorless; the sauce was just plain salty, no hint of spices. Compare that to the oxtail I had in Spain (Photo 7): theirs was fall-off-the-bone tender, with a rich red wine sauce that clung to the spoon, so good you’d soak up every drop with bread. This $28 version felt like they overcharged for the plate. 🍌 Sides: Uniquely Sour and Confusing The sides were classic Cuban white rice and fried plantains (plátano), and they also missed the mark: the rice was dry and hard, like leftover grains. The fried plantains had a weird sourness, as if made with unripe bananas—crispy outside but astringent inside. The only edible way was mixing rice with the oxtail broth—using that faint saltiness to choke down a few bites, forcing a polite smile the whole time🙂‍↕️. I’d wanted to try ropa vieja (Cuban shredded beef), but my stomach was too upset from the sourness, so I skipped it. 🍦 Azucar Ice Cream: A "Sugar Jar" of Overwhelming Sweetness Sticking to my rule of "trying local ice cream in every city," I visited the popular Azucar. The exterior has colorful murals, full of Cuban flair—great for photos. But the ice cream itself was a letdown: the vanilla flavor was cloyingly sweet, with a texture like melted-then-refrozen cream, nothing like the smoothness of gelato. No wonder the name means "sugar" in Spanish—it tasted like they dumped half a jar of sugar in, two bites left me craving water. Definitely "more for than taste." 💡 Random Thoughts Grateful on Thanksgiving: at least I didn’t go hungry. I’ll give Cuban food another chance tomorrow, hoping to find real Cuban flavor (not pre-made ripoffs). #MiamiFoodFails #CubanFoodReview #ThanksgivingDinner #MiamiEats #FoodieFails