Carlos P.
Yelp
Café Bea is a solid spot for brunch making it available all day long (while they are open, that is).
Their schedule has been a moving target throughout the past few years - they were originally open until 9 PM during snow bird/high season (Miami winter) and they would close earlier on regular season, summer (I'm guessing they originally came from up north?).
I think after the pandemic they switched to closing at 6p, then switched closing to 4pm shortly after, and now weekends at 5p, apparently - I can't keep track (or wake up early enough on most days to do my things and be there with enough time before they close).
They are generally super busy on weekends so expect a line for a table, although today I noticed that they drastically expanded their outside sitting options so maybe the wait is less now - I showed up at 3:50p thinking they were about to close before being told weekends they close at 5p.
They spruced the place up a few months ago with a myriad of faux flowers, fruits and shrubbery; they also spruced up their prices to account for it - it must have been an expensive refurb - with this upgrade they also started prescribing themselves an automatic 18% service charge; except it's more like 21%+ once you consider they also apply this charge to the taxes and to a 1% Miami-Dade food and Beverage tax that's unique to them - I've not seen it at any other Miami restaurant - restaurant tax in Miami is 7.35% - in any case, someone should explain you can't apply a service charge to taxes and fees - before this last billing change, they used to charge a 3-3.5% credit card fee, which went away now with the new service charge and the 1% MD F&B fee - it would be hard to justify continuing with the credit card fee too.
Add all these fees to higher prices and you get a significantly higher total bill.
They used to have not just very good prices, but actually LOW prices on most items; however, now they are more on the high side, specially for the type of establishment it is, this is not fine dining - it's a tiny cafe in a small, but busy strip mall with a bustling adult day care to its left side and an even busier and highly inconvenient child day care immediately on their right side, and 70% of the weekend sitting is outside sitting - now, it'd be unfair to not acknowledge they've worked REALLY hard to make the outside sitting as attractive and comfortable as possible considering the brutal Miami heat - aside from that, $30 for a small piece of steak with a small side of mashed potatoes and $32 for a similar piece of short rib doesn't seem befitting the place - my friend didn't want to come with me because of he feels the prices are not aligned with the entrees, but he humored me - he got the $16 burger, which wasn't flavorful, and he's VERY easy to please (I'm the difficult one). $8.95 for a Flying Saucer (disco volador) is high in my opinion given it's a small sand wind; something that should be more around $6.95 IMO.
I wouldn't say that any of their dinner entrees are at the 'above average' level and thus I'm not sure they justify the above-average prices charged at a typical Cuban restaurant - specially with Islas Canarias and FINKA (the two best Cuban cuisine restaurants in Miami) literally just couple of blocks away in either direction offering an endless number of flavorful larger-sized entree choices ranging from basic to sophisticated, and for less or similar prices at the top end.
Bea's strong suit is really BRUNCH and its lunch salads and sandwiches.
In summary, if brunch is your thing, this is one of the few options in town, specially this side of town, and their brunch options are decent and VERY consistent, so you know what you'll be getting.
Consequently, for brunch, I recommend the Huevos Rotos, Croquetas, the grouper sandwich - all of their sandwiches are good to great - this is their forte - you can't go wrong with any of their sandwiches; and their French Toast is very enjoyable.
Their croquetas are more in line with the original Spanish recipe with a softer interior due to having more bechamel sauce - I like the Manchego cheese ones. So if you're expecting the typical 'hard' Cuban croqueta you can use as a projectile, know these won't be it - these are way better in my opinion. To me, these are another of their brunch specialties.
