Cafe Caribe — Restaurant in Citrus Park

The definition of a family owned neighborhood cafe. Walk in and seat yourself wherever a table is open, or sit at the bar and wait for your carry out order.

The ladies will quickly come to your table for your drink order and anything else needed once you are ready. My goal here was to try one dish I have never had before but something light and under 5 dollars if possible.

Even though I love a cafe con leche, that hot milk and my stomach just don’t agree, ask for an American Coffee with cream if you want to keep it simple.

Wanting something light, yet filling, I decided on the Caldo Gallego Soup and a Greek Salad. Save a few dollars by ordering the combo versus ordering them separately. This white bean soup is full of collards, chorizo and small bits of potato, the flavor is mild but well seasoned so you appreciate the ingredients, and is definitely a comfort food.

The Greek salad is a nice portion despite it being a small, heavily topped with thick feta, onions, green peppers, olives, and a scoop of potato salad hiding at the bottom of the bowl. The meal comes with a generous chunk of lightly toasted and buttered Cuban bread, and ohhhh that bread is addictive so be careful!

The portion size is very generous, especially if you are on a budget, they also have several full menu items at $5.00 and less, so yes, you can find something to fill your belly here without breaking your summer budget!

The staff is friendly all around, I observed diners who you can tell are regulars chatting it up with the staff, and others who were just running in to pick up a Cuban Sandwich greeted with a smile, light conversation and quick service.

I was pleased with my experience, especially dining alone (though that never bothers me) . The food was delicious, well worth the money, and I had a nice serving of bread left over to take with me.

So if you find yourself in Tampa needing a family friendly place to stop for breakfast or lunch, check out Cafe Caribe and tell them Unnerved Traveler...

Ordered from Uber Eats so i'm not able to rate the inside area.

We ordered 2 large breakfast sandwiches, 1st one was scrambled eggs + cheese & the 2nd one was scrambled eggs + cheese + bacon. The sandwiches were delicious.

We ordered a side of home fries. They were crispy and tasty.

We had a promo on uber eats so we ordered an extra item, a breakfast platter named "cafe caribe special". In this breakfast platter we chose scrambled eggs, corned beef hash & a large cafe con leche (& comes with a side of cuban toast). The coffee did not come with any sugar in it and there were no sugar options on uber eats. (Normally cafe con leche already comes with the sugar in it anywhere else i've ordered, as standard) That's okay i have sugar at home handy. The eggs were fine, as expected they came unsalted like many other diners w/ salt & pepper pack on the side. The corn beef has was a totaly different experience for me. It was more red in color than i'm used to. It looks & smells like it was made with tomato sauce and maybe something pickled (or vinegar), maybe Sazón?. The smell was overpowering but it tasted great, actually.

All in all i just wanted to share my personal experience with you all.

For the restaurant i just have that 1 little tip for your Uber Eats store. Mentioning next to the cafe con leche that it is made with milk+sugar in it as standard, or adding milk+sugar options (unless the waiter just forgot to put it in my coffee then disregard this tip)

Would i return and/or reorder? Yes

Thank you for...

I’ve been here a few times and each time has been above average in taste.

Picadillo- Absolutely delicious. This was not overly salty which is common in restaurants picadillo but this was flavourful with Pugh dehydrating you! 5/5

Yellow rice- this was an optional side. It was great, paired well with the picadillo. On its own, it was a little dry....maybe I didn’t get the freshest rice. 4/5.

Black bean Soup- this was an optional side. Delicious on its own and on top of the rice. Not overly salty also. 5/5

Salad- this was an optional side. This was not very flavourful with whatever dressing they provided. 3/5

Spaghetti with Jaiba sauce (daily special)- I was not a fan of this. It was fishy in flavour. I would not take this again. Luckily it’s not permanently on their menu. 2/5

Mofongo with shrimp in sauce- I don’t know why I expected this to be mixed in with the mofongo. The shrimp was “seafood boil” in flavour, which is not my favourite. The mofongo was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and came with butter with garlic in it. It came also with this cold soup/broth which I had no idea what to do with it. I drank it and did not like it. I then poured it into the mofongo and it added a little bit more flavour but I did not add the whole thing. I’d probably get it with pork the next time.3/5

Ropa Vieja Sandwich (no picture)- it was a good sandwich but the meat was a bit tougher than I would have liked. But the flavour...