Cafecito – Now Closed

Last week, I had dinner at Cafecito in the East village. Cafecito means “small coffee”, believe me, the coffee here is tiny. But it’s the cutest thing on the menu, too. There are actually some great cute restaurants tucked away in the East Village by the way, I definitely should find myself down there more often. Especially when they have great bartenders like the one at this spot. You could even almost say I was greeted by a mojito here, a strong mojito that I was dying to try since it’s the rave from what I was hearing prior to my arrival.

The Cuban punch, which I also got to try, is a BANG. Literally, the strong flavors are so unexpected and this is your space of access to the happy juice. Please eat before you have this one, which I intended to do.

The special of the day was fried jumbo shrimp with Yuca fries that came with a side of mojo that had the right texture and flavors I was anticipating. Though I’m not a big fan of Yuca; the fries were done well and the shrimp was tender, and that’s important. This wasn’t going to contain the Cuban punch though ladies and gentlemen, so I ordered the ropa vieja, which came with rice and beans.

Surprisingly, the rice had much more flavor than I expected. And for this to be white rice, I was intrigued. The beans were incredibly flavorful and the ropa vieja was beyond juicy, holding strong flavors from the peppers mixed in. I could barely finish my meal before I ordered dessert and the sweet staff could see it in my face.

But still, I ordered the flourless chocolate cake and the Cortadito coffee which is an espresso topped with steam milk. The cake was extremely airy but I fault that to me picking up on the flourless attribute. This is clearly a place for coffee lovers but also nice to tuck away with someone special who might appreciate it.

Update: This restaurant has closed.