El Sitio Coffee Bar — Restaurant in Miami

Miami’s downtown 🌇 area is the hood for you to adventure yourself in local Miami cultural flavors like the one offered by El Sitio, or in English, The Spot, which probably is literally “The Place” to eat if you are looking for comfy 🇻🇪Venezuelan traditional food that will satisfy your appetite, as well your budget. The service is quick and warmly set up by the team, especially when it is led by one of its charismatic waiters. I ordered the “Catira” 👱‍♀️arepa which mixes chicken and yellow shredded cheese, and the filling was pretty consistent, as well as the chicken was freshly prepared. My friends opted for a Pabellón Arepa which consists of sweet fried 🍌plantain, 🫘beans, and pulled-seasoned 🥩 meat. Pabellón is the Venezuelan national and traditional lunch dish, and basically, this arepa is stuffed with all of it in a single take, so imagine its heavy structure. Even though the fillings were very generous, the toast of the arepa🫓 wasn’t enough, actually, it was very soft and kind of tasteless in the corn wheat mix, if they grilled the outside, it could actually result in an authentic arepa experience. My other friend went for a cachapa which is a sweet corn-based pancake🥞 topped with Venezuelan Guayanes cheese. The Guyanese cheese is the best of a cachapa, because it melts in its buttery layer crepe loaft. This version also includes meat as a topping, which makes it even more of a complete option for you to crave a Venezuelan tasty snap. Overall the portions are huge and considering the price, it is one of Miami’s most affordable places where the three famous Venezuelan “B” characteristics are accomplished, ✔️Bueno, Bonito...

I had the pleasure to meet their friendly staff. A special shout out to Camila our waitress and Diego! You two did amazing!!! You made us feel at home. 🙏🏽🫂

Now the food…my first time tasting Venezuelan dishes. You can totally tell the chef has taken a lot of pride in his presentation and flavors. The dishes I posted are nothing I’ve never tasted before. The “taco” looking dish is called a Chachapa. Cachapas are a traditional Venezuelan dish of corn pancakes. They are made from maize flour and can be prepared like pancakes or wrapped in corn leaves and boiled. Cachapas are typically eaten with queso de mano, a Venezuelan fresh cheese, or butter. They can also be filled with cheese, meat, and herbs and spices. The other dish, Chicharrónes were 😱soft with a crispy skin. I loved that they didn’t have that pork taste to them. The empanadas were filled with shredded beef. Those were amazing too. This restaurant also has two house specialty salsas. One is spicy and the other is sweet. According to our waitress the owner created these. Let me just say…SUPERB 👌🏽 again thank you to all the staff and kitchen for such an amazing...

unfortunately, my experience was extremely disappointing. From the moment I walked in, the service was unprofessional, and the staff’s attitude was shockingly poor.

To start, the food took an incredibly long time to prepare—far longer than I’ve experienced at similar establishments. When it was finally ready, instead of promptly serving it, one of the employees left it sitting on the counter, allowing it to cool completely before deciding to hand it to me. This level of disregard for customer satisfaction is unacceptable.

What made matters worse was the behavior of a specific staff member. She not only acted dismissive but also openly cursed in Spanish, assuming I wouldn’t understand. This level of disrespect was appalling and completely ruined what was supposed to be an enjoyable meal.

I rarely leave negative reviews, but the combination of slow service, disrespectful staff, and cold food makes it impossible to recommend this place. Management needs to address these issues immediately to ensure no one else has to go through such an...