Café Del Parque — Restaurant in Cuenca

Loads of affordable menu options so I came here twice with my gf and company. Impossible to try everything but I wanted to. First experience: I had the cubano sanduche. It was not what you would expect. No jalapenos or the usual content on a Cuban, not pressed, etc (basically not a Cuban sandwich at all). However it was pretty delicious anyway and I was satisfied. Though, the server for this experience was really rude and even brought a cappuccino that no one ordered and he tried to argue that someone did. If you were a good server you would remember who ordered what. No need to turn it into a problem not to mention that may affect your tip.

Second experience: got the chicken breast parmesan. It was basically a chicken Caesar salad and I was happy with it. The parmesan cheese is authentic and delicious. The rice it came with became unnecessary once I realized I had a salad pretty much. The patacones were not good. They were hard outside, soft inside, very dry, and it relied on a minimal, yet delicious, amount of Pico de Gallo to provide the flavor since salt and pepper do not come provided right away. My gf got the french onion soup and being an avid eater of this dish, it was one of the worst ones I've ever had. Needs more cheese, and why is it sweet? Is it a cultural thing? We avoid sugar in our diets and were surprised by this. The service this time was much better than the first.

In addition, we also got coffee and wines. Coffee was great, wine was typical house wine but at a good price $3.50 for a cup!

Overall the atmosphere is great; seating outdoors (if you can handle the smokers), and great service--though the time it takes to get a menu and get the order taken are way too long from both experiences.

Still a 4 overall. Definitely...

We came for Breakfast based on seemingly raving reviews BUT THE FOOD IS NOTHING SPECIAL, THEY ARE AVERAGE TO DISMAL🫤🫤🫤. *There are poor quality components in each of the BF plates.

A notable feature is the menu presented as a small newspaper. 👏👏👏.

👎👎👎 The coffee is FLAVORLESS.

They serve two forms of coffee.

1. the FREE COFFEE that comes with breakfast is VERY BAD, NOT DRINKABLE. It’s very thin, made from French Press that is quickly made less than a minute after hit water is added🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

2. the EXTRA PAID COFFEE is NOT ANY BETTER. It is machine pressed BUT FLAVORLESS. It means the coffee beans are very poor quality.

😑😑😑 The BF plates are pretty looking BUT certain components are very bad

1. the so-called “chorizos” in 3 of the 4 plates are ULTRA PROCESSED HOTDOGS 👎👎👎.

*real Chorizo are made of rough chops of meat in a casing… NEVER ULTRA PROCESSED that the “meat” is unrecognizable *

2. the pancakes in the Pancake Breakfast are very dry👎👎👎.

3. the yogurt in the Bolivar is WATERY AND SOUR, it is UNEATABLE👎👎👎.

OTHERWISE, the two plates of Costeño, the Bolivar plate, and the other things in the pancake plate are good eating 😊😊😊.

SERVICE IS VERY GOOD👏👏👏 —- The waiter actually admitted that the coffee that comes with breakfast is bad, and the poor French pressing is the method wait staff are instructed to do🫤🫤🫤🫤🫤.

The eatery is well aired and well lit from the natural light. It is well designed 👏👏👏.

What is NOTABLY UNPLEASANT HOWEVER is the LOUD MUSIC ANNOUNCEMENT birthday greetings to two tables.

these cheery greetings SHOULD BE PERSONALIZED to the celebrating table…. NOT for public consumption

LOUD MUSIC especially at breakfast is UNNECESSARY...

I have eaten there several times. Despite a consistent slowness in service, I have enjoyed eating there. However that changed when I went last night (Friday) for coffee and dessert, around 9:30pm. Seeing that they were still open for about 2 more hours, we felt this would not be a problem.

From the beginning, it felt like a different experience. There were only a handful of people there, and they all had their food, and we received menus immediately; however, we had to flag down someone to take the order.

I ordered the brownie with ice cream, with a Double Americano. Because the last time I had a brownie there it was absolutely amazing, I ordered it again as well as recommended it to my friends. When it arrived, we were disappointed to find that it was somewhat stale, and had not even been heated. I will say the ice cream was delicious, although they put mora flavor ice cream and not vanilla on it.

The coffee I received was definitely not a double, (I've had it there before), and when it was served I asked the waiter was this a double and he said yes and left.

Other visits have shown that they have nice appetizers, and a very nice shrimp fried rice on the lunch special. But, there are more than enough great restaurants in Cuenca that offer a consistent dining experience, so that customers do not have to return to ones that do not offer consistent good...