CAO Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in North Miami Beach

My friend and I are visiting from Maryland. I grew up visiting my Cuban family in the Miami area, but my friend had never tried any Cuban food, so I wanted to take her to a Cuban bakery. She wanted to try several different things, and the selection was great, so we spent several minutes looking at all of the options before approaching someone to order. One of the employees greeted us at the counter. My friend started going through what she wanted, but she couldn't remember all of the things she wanted to try, and she had to keep going back to the case to look before telling the employee. That seemed to annoy the employee very much, and she was all but rolling her eyes every time my friend pointed at the case. At the moment, we were the only ones at the counter ordering anything, so I'm not sure what the problem was. In any event, my friend finished her order and paid, and the employee started putting everything together. After the employee brought everything to the counter for my friend, she looked at me and then called out a number. Apparently, you need to take a number to put in your order. However, the numbers are to the right of the door, at the end of the counter, so you wouldn't see them unless you knew to look there. We're not locals, so we didn't know to look there or take a number. In any event, I had to wait for 3 people to put in their orders before she called my number, despite having taken my friends order without a number, I had to wait about 10 minutes to place my order. I actually knew what I wanted, but the employee still seemed impatient with me. So maybe that's just their default? She did smile when I put several dollars in the tip jar. I ordered a medianoche, capuchino, guava pastelitos, and chicken croquetas (mostly to go). Everything was very tasty. My friend ordered a variety of pastelitos and empanadas, and her favorite was the beef pastelito. We both agreed that the medianoche was very tasty, and our favorite of everything we got. I originally planned to go back to order a bunch of pastelitos to take back home, but after our experience with the service, I will try somewhere...

My brother a native 305 Miamian called me from Orlando (transplanted there) complaining that there are no authentic real good CUBAN bakeries in Orlando. He asked me to order my nephew a graduation cake from Vicky Bakery. All I could think to myself was why does he miss those big heavy sugary meringue cakes with those big pink , blue flowers etc.. ??Didn't he have enough of them growing up? I looked online and so that there were none ! I decided to go to the Vicky bakery on 163rd street to speak to someone myself. I could not disappoint the 305 and my family.. When I got there I was asked to check out there cake book and choose a cake form there. There was not one graduation cake in that book! They saw I started to panic and and a then came Mariely Diez a super professional, understanding, and nice person to rescue me. She listened to my entire story and said bring me a picture of what you want and I will make it for you. She did.. It was beautiful and Delicious! The inside of the cake tasted like a lemony pound cake with a Natilla filling ( custard for you gringos) with a famous Cuban meringue but done delicately as you can see in the picture. Mariely saved the day! She brought alot of smile to our special day. Everyone had seconds. We also took up the traditional Cuban hors d'oeuvres , Pastelito de carne, croquetas, pastelitos de guava , bocaditos, Cuban bread etc.. All delicious and fresh!! Shout to Mariely..!! She is awesome... Vicky Bakery giver her a...

The service is below mediocre, with a few people being relatively okay but some people being pretty bad. Today I left a 3$ tip on a 15$ order and the girl was nice up until I gave her a 3$ tip instead of 5, then she got all cold and Miami’ed out. A 20% tip would be perfectly fine for most people I deal with when all you’re doing is putting a piece of cake on a box and putting money in a POS register…

The food is a mixed bag. Coffee is good, tiramisú is not a real tiramisu but a dried out, stale, prob few days old colored cake drunk with cognac to make it moisty — really bad. Bread pudding is gas. Medio día is a great little sandwich snack but 8$ for a pastelito with a slice of ham and cheese is theft when the pastelitos be like $1.50, but try it once or make at home. Cheesecake is aight. They don’t make anything (except pastelitos maybe?) at the spot but at a factory days prior, so aside from the pastelitos etc nothing is really fresh. The Cuban sandwiches are reheated too so I wouldn’t get one here.

Overall some of the food is worth the money, and some of the food is mediocre, bad, or just served old and stale …. but if you like good service with a friendly attitude this probably not it. Honestly, every time I come their attitude reminds me why I only come here every few months — and for the record I’m Cuban-American too.

After getting attitude after tipping over 20% and spending 15$ for a cheap excuse for tiramisu, I won’t be going back anytime in the...