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D Rodriguez Cuba

956 Washington Ave

Miami Beach , FL 

(305) 673.3763

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VdV Rating: 4

Food:   Cuban

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PRO: All good. Authentic, great people, awesome food
CON: Nuthin’ much

So we asked everybody we could where to go for some of the best Cuban food in Miami. And hands down, D Rodriguez Cuba kept on poppin’ up. So the other night, off we headed to see if it could live up to the lofty expectations that we had. I mean, the competition for killer Cuban Food in Miami must be like the competition for great Mexican food in LA, or awesome Hunan in Hong Kong, am I not right?

D Rodriguez is located in the Astor Hotel, a cool Art Deco spot a few blocks off Ocean Drive. They have an upstairs area and also a downstairs, very cool room with its own bar, original terrazzo floors, sexy dim lighting, good Cuban tunes, and dining room broken up by a huge glass wine cellar. The downstairs has a cool vibe, and they seated us down there because…well because we’re cool, right?! Thank you.

Right off the bat – everyone here was super fun, and very nice. From our bartender Alex, to the GM Elie, all the way up to Da Man himself, Chef/Owner Doug Rodriguez. Just friendly, laid back yet professional. As we were ordering from Alex (bartender, of course we sat at the bar!), Elie, who we soon learned was the GM,  highly recommended a special Lobster Ceviche ($22), said we had to, had to, try it. The other J isn’t a huge fan of the langostine, but we went for it anyway. Holy crap! This dish killed it. Served in a coconut, with some coconut milk, scallions, ginger and tons of huge lobster chunks with a couple Plantain chips. Great spice, very fresh and tender lobster, and the plantain made for a nice, sweet little crunchy chip to scoop some of the mixture onto.

We also ordered the Chicken Empanaditas ($10), 6 tasty nuggets with excellently spiced, tender pullestyle chicken meat in a nice, thin crispy shell. Not too doughy, just doughy enough. And with caper salt. Nice touch! This is a great appy. We also had the Cuban Melanga Tacos ($12), 5 nice crispy beef tacos and something about the spice, the queso blanco and pickled cuban peppers made it authentic, different than your typical taco. Very good. And last but not least, the Panko Bistec Skewers ($15), short rib skewers with crunchy garlic, onions and a light crunch from the panko. This dish was spot on, with tender, flavorful meat,  generous skewers with a nice mix of panko crispiness and cilantro.

And then, we were surprised with a special dessert they better put on the menu full time – not sure what it’s called, but it is a concoction of raspberry compote inside a creamy meringue ‘shell’ on top of a pistachio crust with a dollop of strawberry compote on top.  Absolutely nuts. And they brought it gratis to us. Not even knowing we were VdV!

We got chatting more to the GM Elie, who is a great guy, and who also introduced us to Chef Doug Rodriguez. We all had a great time talking food, his newest restaurant, San Francisco dining, etc. etc. These two guys are awesome. And we didn’t even learn until we got home later that night that D-Rod, as I now refer to him, is a stud celeb chef and is basically known as the Godfather of Nuevo Latino cuisine. No attitude at all, just passionate about the grub and a great guy. Plus he was on Top Chef Masters, dunno how we missed that.

So, bottom line: Y’know how we bitched about La Mar the other day? How poor service and staff can really degrade the overall experience even if the food is good? Well, D Rodriguez rocks it on all counts. They make you feel like old friends, and top it off with excellent food. We’ll come back here in a flash next time we’re in Miami. Oh and a shout out to Daniella, who gave us the name of ‘the guy’ to talk to at Delano it get in. Score!

Hours:
Sun-Thu 6p-11p
Fri-Sat 6p-2a