Versailles Cuban Bakery — Restaurant in Miami

After seeing Versailles on literally every single Miami travel guide I found online, I knew I had to give this Little Havana classic a try. My parents and I dropped by for an early dinner on a Thursday evening. Despite the awkward time (4:30 PM), the restaurant was filled to the brim and we ended up having a 30 min wait -- a testament to how widely loved this spot is! With the outdoor bar, peaceful neighborhood, and nearby Versailles Cafe & Bakery, our wait flew by, and, before we knew it, it was already time for dinner.

We were seated at a table in the center, which gave us a great view of the rest of the restaurant -- every table was occupied, although, based on their beachy outfits, Versailles seemed to mostly attract tourists rather than locals.

Their menu is a touch overwhelming, so I recommend perusing a bit beforehand -- a great way to use the inevitable wait time. We started off with their Stuffed Green Plantains, which were fantastic -- the plantains were dense and starchy, in sharp contrast to the light, slightly sweet / salty shrimp creole with pineapple and cilantro.

For our mains, we tried to get a variety; my dad tried the Ropa Vieja, which was alright, but a bit lacking in flavor. The portion size was also really small, and he ended up leaving the meal pretty hungry, despite all the extra veggies and potatoes I gave him from my Steamed Veggie Platter. My plate included a bona fide mountain of steamed potato, pumpkin, plantain, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, and was topped with a mahi mahi fillet. The veggies were all great -- you really can't go wrong with basic steamed veggies -- albeit a bit overwhelming in quantity. The fish was fine, but a bit overcooked and almost rubbery.

Unfortunately, my mom was the one to leave our meal the most disappointed. She was drawn in by one of the seafood specials they advertised on the table -- I can't remember the name anymore, but it included a seafood medley (i.e., mussels, shrimp, clams, squid, snapper). In the photo, it looked like a huge platter of fresh seafood with a variety of dipping sauces...but our reality was quite lackluster in comparison. There was only about a half plate of battered and fried seafood that had clearly been frozen. It was dry, chewy, and both overly salted and lacking in flavor. This particular dish was definitely a miss -- from that, I would probably steer clear of most of their seafood aside from their fish and shrimp.

All in all, I'm glad my parents and I were able to visit Versailles and check it off our bucket list. I'm not sure it's quite worthy of its title as the world's most famous Cuban restaurant, at least based on the three dishes we ordered. Even so, it was a fun experience and a great intro to the rest of...

Love these Cuban pastries!

To be transparent, we were tourists in Miami but lived in LA so our baseline for Cuban pastries is Porto’s bakery lol. Also, we are non-Spanish speakers- If you can, definitely learn to order in Spanish if you do not know how to speak.

We were visiting Miami and one of stops was in Little Havana. There’s a lot of Cuban bakeries but doing my research, this place seemed like an institution so we decided to try it out.

When you arrive, there’s a parking lot. There seemed to be three entrances - a restaurant, the main bakery/cafe, and a smaller to-go pastelito/coffee only place. We went to the smaller one in the middle at first but ended up going to the bakery one more door down.

There, we were greeted with all the pastries, and other goodies at the far end of the display case.

There’s no labels, so to those unfamiliar with Cuban pastelitos, make sure you do your research on what to order and how to order! We’re used to Porto’s bakery in LA, so the terms “cheese roll” and “meat pie” caused some confusion at first.

Pastries we ordered: pastelito de carne (meat pie) pastelito de Guayaba (guava pastry) jamon croquettes pastelito de queso (cheese roll) empanadas de pollo (chicken empanada) papas rellenas - I think this is the name? (potato balls)

Coffee- Cortadito- Cuban espresso with a little bit of milk

Sandwich- Cubano sandwich - make sure you specify sandwich, cubano is also a coffee drink!

Food review- Wow wow wow I will be thinking about the pastelito de guayaba until next time I’m in Miami. The guava was a perfect amount and the pastry was so flaky and flavorful. To me, almost everything was better than Porto’s! I only prefer the Porto’s pastelito de queso/cheese roll and potato balls. I’d say the Cubano is about the same too.

I also liked the Cortadito, it was pretty smooth.

The price of the pastries and coffee is also very reasonable. The pastelitos were around $1.25 each and so was the Cortadito.

Highly recommend. I wish we tried other Cuban bakeries in Little Havana for a comparison, but we...

Hi everyone, hope all is well. We visited this place on my recent trip to Miami for a Marlins game. I wanted to come here as I had previously seen reviews for it on FB/Instagram, and it seemed like a good idea for me to judge for myself. I want to start with the positive part of my visit, the Service. Our server was amazing as he was very thorough in any questions that we had and always present. Really attentive. One thing that I did not like was that there is a lady sitting outside and she is in charge of relaying how many people, so that they have the table ready when you go inside. It's a great concept, except the lady was not inviting at all. We pulled up with our backpack, as we ubered there from the Brightline station. She looked at us and said nothing, no welcome, good afternoon nothing. She called over her radio, "A number 2". LOL, I thought I was a Combo meal from a fast food place. 🤷🤦 Okay, the food!! We ordered a Cuban sandwich for myself and my wife got the Classic Cuban dish. Everything came out super fast. The Cuban sandwich I have to say was not bad, the bread was amazing, but there was something lacking. Again not bad but I've had a lot better. I give it a 6/10. My wife's dish as soon as she tasted it everything was cold and we did return it. The second plate came out warmer and the better food placement, but not good. The pork was pale and lacked flavor, the rice was ok, yucca was good and they had tamal which I had never had that version and it was decent. They did have some bomb Cuban Coffee. Would I go again, yeah maybe, to try other items on the menu, but there are so many places to eat that they would not be my first option. Again, I'm Hispanic and eat plenty of similar food regularly, so that is where my measuring stick is. Nevertheless, please try for yourself. The place is visited very busy and by tourists and locals equally just. Oh, It's very nice inside and the servers are all dressed...