CAO Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Citrus Park

Okay my friends, I'm going to overlook how pricey this place is, compared to other Latin bakeries I've been going to; only because the quality of food was outstanding. The flavor is "home made"-like and that outweighs any amount of dollar in my opinion. I have not tried the whole menu yet, this was my first time, but the beef in the pastelito de carne tasted like I cooked the meat myself!! Not much quantity in the pastry per se, but the flavor made up for the amount i found (if u know what i mean) The guava and cheese pastry was great and that breakfast sandwich (ham and eggs) was huge. (Additional charge for cheese) They have the extra large "red" cup for $8.49 which is a bit pricey in my opinion, however if you bring it back to refill, you'll only pay $3.00 for any drink which is a great deal of course. Keeps customers coming back, and I will forsure! The Cafe Con leche was great, not too much sugar or espresso which is good for me. At 8am there were 3 people waiting to be served and I only saw 2 people behind the line.. So I think they need more help. Their variety of food is pretty good, plenty to choose from so I think you should give it a try. The place is small and the wait time might be long so maybe you can go online and order to pick up. I don't think their drive thru is working at the moment. Welcome to the neighborhood Cao bakery and Cafe, wish you guys the best of lucks. See you again...

Can’t fathom HOW people live this place a good review. Went on a Sunday around 130pm. 2 simple orders took 30 minutes and it definitely wasn’t very busy. My coffee was okay AT BEST. Pastelito de guayaba was no better than one I could buy at Publix. Had a breakfast croissant with an extremely over cooked scrambled egg and by the time we got it the croissant was soggy. Had 2 bites and couldn’t finish it. The pan con churrasco was all PAN ( bread), the churrasco was not only flavorless but almost nonexistent, the lettuce was bigger than the churrasco. French fries were okay, at least they didn’t taste like old oil. But they’re fries.. kind of hard to mess up. Tables were dirty and nobody cleaned them while we were there. Multiple people behind the counter and everyone seemed lost. Some of them didn’t speak English and although I speak fluent Spanish, this is unprofessional and the person I came with couldn’t communicate with staff. If I could give this place zero stars I would. They should be ashamed to bring their big Miami name to Tampa and offer such low quality food...

Being Cuban and from Miami they did a great job here with the exceptions of a few key points.

-They don’t press the tostada long enough to melt the butter and make it crunchy and thing. It wasn’t just mine, it seems they do what to everyone’s tostada. The bread was delicious tho.

-my papa rellena and croqueta were cold. And therefore a bit “sandy”. Maybe the warming bulbs are not strong enough?

-the pastelito de carne (meat pastry) was AMAZING

-croqueta preparada was DELICIOUS.

-they are a bit slow in the sense that they don’t “pack” your food as your ordering it or after you order it. Which is what is traditionally done at these pastry shops. You Order And wait. A bit pointless. I shouldn’t have to wait 5-10 minutes for something you can grab and pack as you’re taking my order.

Besides those few little nitpicky things, I’ll definitely come here again. I just hope they pick up the same cooking and ordering style as they do in Miami. And PRESS DOWN THOSE TOSTADAS! lol!!

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