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Finding the best Cuban sandwich in NY is nothing short of grail-like quest: ingredient details are debated, locations are either revealed or remain secret, and the search continues anyway in the end. Just a stone’s throw from Cotton Club in Harlem is El Floridita, a workhorse diner that might skirt year end best-of lists. But remains a great destination for simple Cubano sandwiches. El Floridita is the last outpost of 3 original Floriditas; its owner opened Floridita Tapas next door this past summer.
Putting the idea that you’re probably not going to get the best Cuban sandwich of your life aside, there’s something deeply reassuring about a late night Cuban diner that serves decent, cheap, big bowls of chicken and rice. Espressos are $1 and the booths are diner standard, which means borderline uncomfortable. But it doesn’t matter; get a sandwich. Breakfast menu choices are complemented with mangu, a Dominican-derived plantain mash with onions and some fat, and portions are huge for the price. Fried cheese is served on the side of fried eggs, and there’s something to be said for a restaurant that uses dismantled cigar box tops as salt and pepper table caddies, especially when it’s almost assured an interior designer wasn’t paid $200 an hour for the brainstorm, to make the place look authentic.
Check out the front counter where sandwiches are assembled, the one that sits atop a refrigerated display case filled with fresh squishy bread, pork, and pallid tomatoes: Medianoches ($3.50) emerge from the foil-wrapped sandwich presses and rest briefly on a hunk of butcher block that’s perfectly bowed and smooth in the center from years of use. Think of the thousands of little toasted sandwiches that have come before it, sliced right there in the same spot, and that’s perfect winter comfort food.
El Floridita
3219 Broadway
Harlem
(212) 928-0653
Photo: Condiment caddy at Floridita; yeah, they’re Cubans
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Mustang Grill on 85th and 2nd ave has a very good Cuban sandwich as well. Also its in a neighborhood that Gothamist readers would probably more likely find themselves in.
85th and 2nd is not a 'neighborhood'. It's an inconvenience.
Hey, I often stop at Floridita for a hot soup on the way to Fairway. Their soups are delicious! A word to the wise (or perhaps the unwise): make sure not to just hoover it down! Chew well! They don't take all the bones out of the hunks of chicken in the stewed chicken soup! This style of cooking is very common in hispanic places, nothing out of the ordinary. You're supposed to be a big boy/girl and know how to eat without choking on a bit of gristle or bone! Or else bring your mama with you to do it for you.
:)