Best empanadas, and coffee in Miami…and what to avoid; best soft serves in the world (and its not Kith!)

One thing you have to eat in Miami is Latin food. Because of the demographics of the city, it has tons of good Latin food, both cheap and high end. I tried to find a great empanada in the morning for breakfast and finally found a winner:

Cortadito (best empanadas; various locations but the one I went to was on Washington Ave, Miami Beach)

This place had the best empanadas I had while in Miami on this trip (for another amazing option, see my previous post about the bakery in a gas station). They had ham & cheese, beef, chicken and spinach. I tried the first two. They were very well seasoned, full of flavor and JUICY! I wish I tried them all. I thought about these everyday. I also tried their Cuban sandwich which was also moist and delicious. The downside of this place is that their cortadito was just OK which is a shame as the name of the place is cortadito. Also, the churro was not that great. A bit stale/tough. Still, the empanadas more than make up for the other factors.

Tropical Beach Cafe (best cortadito) – This place had the best cortadito. The ratio of coffee to milk and sweetness was perfect. The food was just OK. I had the Cuban sandwich and the Miami sandwich. The latter was better. I also tried their tres leches cake, one of my favorite cakes of all time. It was good but wasn’t made in house so I would not order it again.

Charlotte Bakery (most unique – hallacas from Venezuela) – This bakery was near Cortadito and when I walked in the lady at the counter explained all the different Venezuelan items they had; and I am so glad she did. I would of never discovered the absolutely delicious hallacas that are a staple of Venezuelan food around Christmas. They were so good that I split one, finished it, then ordered another. I probably could of had another after that too. I also had an Argentine style empanada which was pretty good, but not Cortadito good. The coffee here was OK. I highly highly recommend this place. A hallaca is like a tamale but inside the corn dough is an amazing stewed mixture of chicken, olives, and various other things. Its so savory.

Bar Luca (best for feeling like you are in South Beach; and the food is really good too) – Bar Luca was started by a chef from Lucali, the famous pizza joint, and is located in a nice art deco hotel. We sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine and architecture. We had the Cuban sandwich and steak and eggs. Both were delicious.

Now for two highly rated places to avoid:

1. Be Bakery – This is a very highly rated bakery in South Beach. Its is also highly disappointing. The service is SUPER slow and the empanadas were haphazardly warmed up. They were cold in pockets, slightly warm in other, and overall lacking flavor.

2. Kith – I tried the soft serve at this super popular clothing store and it was disappointing. Sometimes there is a line, and I definitely don’t think you should stand in line for this. Luckily, it was not busy when I went. I had it mixed with fruity pebbles which was the only good thing about the whole thing. The texture is too thick, and the soft serve itself doesn’t have a creamy taste. Kind of bland without the cereal.

The best soft serves in the world are (in order of greatness):

#1 Baekmidang – the quality of the cream or milk is so good, and the texture has the perfect amount of ice crystals so its not just a dense cream. So delicious and so perfect.

#2 Mongolia – I don’t know what this store is called, but if you go to Ulaanbaatar they are all over the place. Again, super perfect milk/cream and texture, but slightly less delicious than #1, but not by much.

#3 Hokkaido Milk – This place is called Tokachi Shinmura in Sapporo, Japan. Its located in Coconosuskino. Tastewise, its probably the best, but loses a bit on texture.

All three above are mind blowing and life changing!