Cuban American Restaurant in Kenner

Finally had the opportunity to try out this new Cuban-owned restaurant, and it totally exceeded my expectations. I heard some positive feedback about it from a few other Cubans, despite the place being new and literally impossible to find online.

I ordered plenty of items to sample, and took most of it to go. The menu has a number of non-Cuban surf and turf dishes, but the Cuban dishes that is has are totally traditional. I started the meal off with a picture-perfect Cuban Sandwich. Layers of hot juicy ham topped with slices of moist, slow-roasted pork, melted Swiss Cheese and mustard on fresh baked Cuban bread. Hands down the best Cuban sandwich that I've had in Louisiana in years, absolutely on the money.

Followed it up with their ropa vieja, a traditional Cuban dish of shredded steak, tender and simmered in a tomato sauce with garlic, sofrito and other seasonings. It came with a side of frijoles negros, fresh black beans seasoned with just the right amount of garlic, cumin, paprika and bay leaves. Also on the side was fluffy white rice, to enjoy either with your ropa vieja or frijoles. As a side I asked for some fried yuca served steakhouse-fries style, which was good (though I'm partial to boiled yuca).

I boxed most of this up and asked for a medianoche to go. A medianoche is basically a pressed Cuban sandwich that is served on sweet yellow egg bread as opposed to traditional Cuban bread. It's not on the menu, but I suspected that they sold them. It's slightly smaller than the traditional sandwich Cubano, but stacked just as well, and the few bites that I got in before leaving were incredible (I was already excited about the traditional sandwich, and the medianoche blew that one out of the water).

This is easily one of NOLA's best-kept secrets, I can't remember having Cuban restaurant food this good outside of Havana. The service, though, was lousy. One waitress, and it seemed like it was her first day on the job (or she has really bad ADD the way she continued to forget about her tables). The prices are about $2 higher per most dishes than what I would have expected, but well worth it.

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It occupies what was Rick's Famous Cafe on Loyola drive, across from Wendy's (from BR take the Loyola exit right, it's 1/2 block on your right before you hit Veterans).

Cuban American Restaurant
2841 Loyola Dr
Kenner, LA 70062
(Loyola @ Veterans)
504-469-1649
Map