Padrino's Cuban Restaurant Review — Delicious Cuban Food in Fort Lauderdale!

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Padrino’s Cuban Restaurant Review With Photos

Traveling to Southern Florida provides one with ample opportunity to indulge in authentic Cuban cuisine!

Seeing as we already respected our Pittsburgh roots with a couple of trips to Primanti Bros, it was time to nod to my Cuban heritage with a visit to Padrino’s.

New Category: Cuban Food

Padrino's Cuban Cuisine — Fort Lauderdale Restaurant Review — Padrino’s Cuban Cuisine Fort Lauderdale Florida

Padrino’s Cuban Cuisine is a family owned restaurant with a few locations in South Florida and has been rated Best Cuban Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale by Fort Lauderdale Magazine multiple years in a row!

Padrino’s Menu

Padrino’s serves up some of the most popular cuban dishes like a cubano (cuban sandwich), pan con bistec (palomilla steak sandwich), ropa vieja (shredded flank steak), lechon asado (slow roasted pork marinated in citrus mojo), arroz con pollo (yellow rice with chicken and chorizo) and paella (all your favorite seafood cooked with yellow rice).

Padrino's Cuban Cuisine Menu — Fort Lauderdale Restaurant Review — Padrino’s Menu — Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Frijoles negros (black beans), maduros (sweet plantains), tostones (green plantains) and boiled yucca make for classic cuban side dishes.

For dessert try tres leches cake or cuban flan paired with a cafecito.

Padrino’s Drink Menu

Looking for a cocktail? A classic Cuban Mojito will never steer you wrong!

Padrino's Cuban Cuisine Drink Menu — Fort Lauderdale Restaurant Review — Padrino’s Drink Menu — Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Still, if you’re planning a Cuban Night or Havana Nights Dinner Party, you can get some inspiration from some of these cocktails and menu entries!

Added to Category: Dinner Party Ideas

Padrino’s Drink Specials

Padrino’s runs some midweek drink specials including $6 mojitos on Mojito Tuesdays, Half off bottles for Wine Wednesdays, and half of sangria carafes on Sangria Thursdays.

Padrino's Cuban Cuisine Drink Specials — Fort Lauderdale Restaurant Review — Padrino’s Drink Specials — Fort Lauderdale, Florida

If I was local, I would be stopping in on Tuesdays for Mojitos or Thursdays for Sangria, how about you?

Fort Lauderdale Food Tours

Padrino's Cuban Cuisine Inside— Fort Lauderdale Restaurant Review — Padrino’s Cuban Cuisine Fort Lauderdale, Florida

There’s plenty of seating inside and if you’re more of a booth person, Padrino’s has you covered!

Padrino's Cuban Cuisine Vibe — Fort Lauderdale Restaurant Review — Padrino’s Cuban Cuisine Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Enough decor, let’s get to the grub.

What We Ordered

Cubano — $13

Classic Cuban Sandwich of sliced ham, pork, swiss cheese, and pickles in a hot-pressed sandwich.

Cuban Sandwich at Padrino's Cuban Cuisine — Fort Lauderdale Restaurant Review — Cuban Sandwich at Padrino’s Cuban Cuisine Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Ropa Vieja — $13

Flavorful shredded beef, slowly cooked with green peppers and onions in a light tomato-based sauce, served with white rice & black beans and sweet plantains.

Ropa Vieja at Padrino’s Cuban Cuisine Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Paella — $30

A combination of scallops, shrimp, mussels, flounder, chicken, and chorizo sausage cooked with a flavorful yellow rice. Served with sweet plantains.

Seafood Paella at Padrino's Cuban Cuisine — Fort Lauderdale Restaurant Review — Paella at Padrino’s Cuban Cuisine Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Combinación Cubana — $18

Fiesta tostones, croquetas de jamon, picadillo empanadas, mariquitas and black bean salsa.

Combinacion Cubana at Padrino's Cuban Cuisine — Fort Lauderdale Restaurant Review — Combinación Cubana at Padrino’s Cuban Cuisine Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Now let’s break down every part of this delicious Cuban Sampler Platter!

Mariquitas

Crispy plantain chips served with fresh black bean salsa and garlic mojo.

Marquita's Plantain Chips at Padrino's Cuban Cuisine — Fort Lauderdale Restaurant Review — Mariquitas at Padrino’s Cuban Cuisine Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Fiesta Tostones & Croquetas de Jamon

Fiesta Tostones y Croquettas de jamon at Padrino's Cuban Cuisine — Fort Lauderdale Restaurant Review — Croquetas de jamon y fiesta tostones at Padrino’s Cuban Cuisine Fort Lauderdale, Florida

In the background to the right with the glistening chunks of meat are the fiesta tostones. Pressed green plantains, topped with creole chicken or chorizo sausage, melted cheese and fresh pico de Gallo.

Picadillo Empanadas

Crispy pastry filled with perfectly seasoned ground beef, served with homemade guava chutney

Padrino’s Review

As a media-cubana I can say I approve of Padrino’s lol. Their food was great, beautifully presented and a solid representation of Cuban dishes I grew up loving along with some fun and modern twists.

I definitely recommend getting the ‘cuban combination’ platter as it is a great way to sample a variety of classic Cuban foods in one go.

This week’s assignment: grab some friends on Thursday, split a 50% off carafe of sangria and nosh on some great Cuban Cuisine at Padrino’s in Fort Lauderdale.

Dale! 🙂