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Stephan...one of the many former chefs at Dino :( has a food truck called "EL FLORIDIAN" and he makes on the the finest Cuban sandwiches that I've ever had!!!!!!!! His soups are quite exceptional also....he does have a twitter and facebook account so you can find out where he will be during the day...

The only other cunban sandwich that I love is at The Caboose Deli in Del Ray...AMAZING!!!!

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Stephan...one of the many former chefs at Dino tongue.gif has a food truck called "EL FLORIDIAN" and he makes on the the finest Cuban sandwiches that I've ever had!!!!!!!! His soups are quite exceptional also....he does have a twitter and facebook account so you can find out where he will be during the day...

This is news! Chris, can you post a link to his Twitter & Facebook accounts?

Don, a Cuban sandwich with cornichons?

This made me really hungry.

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Stephan...one of the many former chefs at Dino tongue.gif has a food truck called "EL FLORIDIAN" and he makes on the the finest Cuban sandwiches that I've ever had!!!!!!!! His soups are quite exceptional also....he does have a twitter and facebook account so you can find out where he will be during the day...

This is news! Chris, can you post a link to his Twitter & Facebook accounts?

I'm not Chris but here are the links to El Floridano --

Twitter

Website

I haven't had many Cuban sandwiches for comparison, but I did enjoy the one I had from El Floridano.

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I think Caribbean Grill on Lee Hwy makes a pretty good Cuban sandwich, in a pinch Dicky's Custard at Farragut makes one that is pretty good for a office lunchtime special.

Also if you don't mind a non-traditional take, Earl's Sandwiches makes a tasty cuban sandwich.

No, I'm serious. I want the Cuban sandwich linked by Heather -- This -- and I'm ready to get on a plane to Miami to eat me a few....!

Who's with me?

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No, I'm serious. I want the Cuban sandwich linked by Heather -- This -- and I'm ready to get on a plane to Miami to eat me a few....!

Who's with me?

I'll be there at the end of September for a few days. I'll report back. biggrin.gif

I want to find the El Floridano truck and give it a try. The website is just a starter page, but it looks like the Twitter feed is updated regularly.

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I think Caribbean Grill on Lee Hwy makes a pretty good Cuban sandwich, in a pinch Dicky's Custard at Farragut makes one that is pretty good for a office lunchtime special.

Also if you don't mind a non-traditional take, Earl's Sandwiches makes a tasty cuban sandwich.

The best I have had in the area is Caribbean Grill but the quality is not always consistent. They use to have the best empanadas but stopped making them over five years ago.

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I've had the El Floridano Cuban a few times -- it is the best Cuban in the DC metro area. My only complaint is he is skimpy on the pickles. And the waits are long. And it is not always the cleanest truck or food preparation. But if you can get over all those things, you will get a hot, deliciously flavorful Cuban.

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Whatever you do, do not let the pleasant daydreams aroused by this thread (or your own recent successful forays into quasi-Cubanohood) lure you into ordering the Cubano at Capital City Brewing.

Not under any circumstances.

Ironically, the Cubano truck mentioned above seems to hang out at Mass and North Cap -- footsteps from Cap City -- on a regular basis. Sadly, it wasn't there yesterday.

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Look, I'm biased and rather inexperienced. I am very fond of Pedro Matamoros, especially given how much he looks out for farmers when he cooks. Never had a Cubano before tonight.

Apologia over and the other hand goes: pigs are my favorite animal, I have long had a thing for pressed sandwiches and melty cheese and fries and fat.

So let me tell you how much I am into the Cubano sandwich with duck-fat fried potatoes at 8407 kitchen + bar. A lot. I'd use a really big font, boldface and red, but would prefer being green as well as warm with my praise. On a rainy night, perfect. Very hot, crisp, oozy and porky with crisp, seared bits poking out the sides. Mandoline-thin slices of zucchini take the place of pickles well because there's that velvety correspondence to the layers of pork yet with a snappy kind of textural distinction (tighter warp and weft) that's just grand, plus the chimichurri sauce does much of what a pickle would do as a cutter of fat, if not with an acid, so you're not let off easy, though you can assuage some of your guilt as you pick between the saturated and unsaturated, thin, deeply golden fries because hell, you had yourself genuine veg.

Very good with a glass of Flying Dog, Raging Bitch because you get to order it out loud.

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I haven't seen anyone mention Ceiba on this thread yet. I work right across the street from them (in the Old Ebbitt Grill building), and they have the best Cuban sandwich I've ever had. I've eaten there many times now, and I keep going back for the Cuban. It's not cheap (around $14), but it comes with fried plantain chips and is well worth it.

That said, I have yet to try the El Floridano truck, and have high hopes for that as well. I've had a Cuban at the Cuba Libre location in Philly several years ago and remember it being very good. I would also recommend Cubano in Silver Spring.

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Very good with a glass of Flying Dog, Raging Bitch because you get to order it out loud.

It's off topic for sure, but at American Flatbread in Clarendon you can order your date a Flying Dog Raging Bitch and she can order you a Stone Arrogant Bastard. Yes, I had a dinner like that there once. I hope they have forgiven me.

ETA: Both beers are on tap (or at least were), which is what makes this remarkable. The place has maybe 6 taps.

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I haven't seen anyone mention Ceiba on this thread yet. I work right across the street from them (in the Old Ebbitt Grill building), and they have the best Cuban sandwich I've ever had. I've eaten there many times now, and I keep going back for the Cuban. It's not cheap (around $14), but it comes with fried plantain chips and is well worth it.

That said, I have yet to try the El Floridano truck, and have high hopes for that as well. I've had a Cuban at the Cuba Libre location in Philly several years ago and remember it being very good. I would also recommend Cubano in Silver Spring.

OK, now we're getting somewhere. The best Cuban I've had in the District was at Acadiana, Ceiba's sister, but it was only a special. I notice Ceiba has it on its bar menu. Acadiana's was a doggone good Cuban and I'll have to check out Ceiba's.

The best in northern Virginia was one that I had at Blue Iguana in Fairfax. For $10 this is a darned good sandwich. The overlooked work of Chef Eric Robinson needs better treatment from the Rockwell community. His special wine (or beer) pairing dinners are not to be missed.

I don't yet have a "best" candidate for Maryland, but I suspect from everything I hear about Cuba de Ayer, it's going to be in the mix.

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I stopped in Fast Gourmet for lunch today, and had a Cubano (eat-in). I've been searching the DC area for a really great Cubano, and while this one wasn't bad, my search will continue. On the plus side, the bun was nicely cross-hatch charred for good flavor and texture, and the cheese had that pleasant melty pull. On the other hand, the ham was a single thin slice, the pickle was indistinct and the pork was pulled as opposed to sliced. But put it all together into a Cubano and would score it a passable B- or thereabouts. The fries were thin, but nicely crispy right out of the fryer. Not a bad lunch meal overall, but not worth a detour. I definitely will try other menu items in the future.

I would also add that Fast Gourmet is not really "fast" and the music is turned up to a level that inhibits the eat-in experience. However, a good sandwich shop is a rare thing in the DC area, so I'm glad this place is on the scene....but unlike a certain WaPo food critic, it probably wouldn't make my list of 40 places I would want to be a regular.

The underreported problem with Fast Gourmet is: consistency.

Seeing your post triggered a deeply buried neuron, reminding me that I saw a pretty hot-looking Cuban at BlackJack (or Pearl Dive (I was leafing through both menus awhile back when I went to Pearl Dive, and can't remember sand-witch was on which)).

That last sentence made your eye do a stutter step didn't it (I'm so good at physically directing people with my writing). :)

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The underreported problem with Fast Gourmet is: consistency.

Seeing your post triggered a deeply buried neuron, reminding me that I saw a pretty hot-looking Cuban at BlackJack (or Pearl Dive (I was leafing through both menus awhile back when I went to Pearl Dive, and can't remember sand-witch was on which)).

That last sentence made your eye do a stutter step didn't it (I'm so good at physically directing people with my writing). :)

Haven't eaten it but noted the Cubano at Black Jack (Pearl Dive's divier brother bar). As I recall, purists might be disappointed -- it appears to be a variation on the theme not an attempt to transport the diner down to Calle Ocho.

But, you know, purity vastly overrated.

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I had lunch at Kinkead's the other day. They now (and I think for a year or two) have a lunch-at-the-bar special menu, which is a sandwich (four or five choices) and a cup of either their seafood chowder or their soup of the day. One of the choices on the menu was a Cuban sandwich, which I ordered, and a cup of chowder. The chowder was excellent, as always, except for one piece of shoe leather masquerading as clam. The Cubano was good, but not great. It was certainly generously filled, but there was too much ham and not enough cheese. Still, the bar lunch menu is $12, and there are few places as comfortable as the bar at Kinkead's.

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I'm at Willard's in Chantilly right now enjoying a chalkboard special: the Bay of Pigs Cuban Sandwich ($8.29 with two sides). It's definitely a barbecue house's take on a Cubano, but it's also good - they load it down with smoked pork loin, sliced ham, pulled pork, melted Swiss, negligible pickled peppers, and I got my chipotle mayo on the side (the sandwich doesn't need it). My two sides are baked beans and black-eyed corn (a hash of black-eyed peas and corn which is quite good). This is not food for the faint of heart, but it sure is good after a workout, and if you finish this whole thing, then you were hungry. If it wasn't for the ham and Swiss, you wouldn't guess this was a Cuban sandwich, but I guess you can say that about every Cuban sandwich. It's certainly a good value for the money - fountain sodas (unlimited refills in a 24-ounce cup) are $1.56 for some odd reason.

Did you know Willard's doesn't serve french fries? They don't have hush puppies either, so I suspect they don't have a deep fryer (that's probably also why it doesn't have any odors other than smoked meats).

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On 10/29/2011 at 0:17 AM, Kibbee Nayee said:

Where would that be...?

Are you talking about Cuba Libre on 9th and H?

Bumping this to the top, and quoting Kibbee Nayee so it shows up as a notification.

Since you mentioned elsewhere about still being on the hunt for a great Cubano, please report on what you've tried recently?

I am happy with the Cubanos at Cuba de Ayer in Burtonsville, and Mi Cuba Cafe in Columbia Heights.

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1 hour ago, Simul Parikh said:

The major issue, until recently, was the embargo. I had to get all my Cubano's in Windsor when I'd go to my parents house in Detroit. 

Well, while Canada may actually be closer, Miami (Enriqueta's), New Orleans (Cochon), Key West (Sandy's Cafe), Tampa (Michelle Faeda's On the Go), and Naples (Fernandez the Bull) are on most of the lists of best Cubanos in the USA.

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52 minutes ago, Kibbee Nayee said:

Tampa (Michelle Faeda's On the Go)

Darn, my husband is going to be in Tampa tomorrow and Friday and I was going to make him bring a Cubano back from this place for me. (After all, I brought him barbecue from Jack Stack in Kansas City last week, so it seems only fair.) But I don't see him tracking down a food truck.

I think the closest Cubano to me at home is at Cubano's in downtown Silver Spring. I wouldn't call myself a connoisseur (yet), but I think their Cubano is pretty good. My only complaint is that they use pulled pork instead of a slab of roast pork. I'd prefer the slab. Cuba de Ayer isn't that far from us, and I've been meaning to check it out.

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From a few of my previous posts in this thread, I've been on a quest for a really good Cuban sandwich in the DC area for many years. One or two have occasionally popped up at unusual places....but I found a really good one today.

On the lunch menu at Rustico in Ballston is a righteous Cubano that hits all notes. I will definitely try it again, maybe a few times, to make sure that today was not an anomaly, but this sandwich was very, very good. Sliced ham, sliced pork, good cheese, pickles....yum!

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On 8/11/2017 at 4:19 PM, DonRocks said:

I had one at Earl's Sandwiches a couple of weeks ago - it was a good (non-traditional) Cuban sandwich, but the one fatal flaw was an over-application of honey-mustard.

I probably eat something from Earl's 1-2 times a week.  Hadn't had their Cuban in quite sometime, but having seen this post I thought I'd give it a more recent try.

I enjoyed it quite a bit.  Its a hearty sandwich at $10 and non traditional it is, as they clearly mention--its their variation on a more traditional Cuban...changing:

  • the bread
  • ham or glazed ham to prosciutto
  • swiss to provolone
  • pickles to fried pickles
  • and mustard to honey mustard

Well well well.  That is clearly a VARIATION on the theme.  LOL.   Nevertheless I thoroughly enjoy this variation.  I think in switching from ham or glazed ham to prosciutto they lose some of the sweetness factor, but the honey mustard and fried pickles provide that taste element. 

Certainly non traditional though in my mind it does a wonderful job of creating a tasty and recognizable variation.

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