El Libre

I had lunch at El Libre today with my brother. He had the Vegetarian Bowl which is rice, black beans, corn and I believe a bit of avocado. I had the Cubano pressed sandwich, which is sliced pork shoulder, along with a side of sweet plantains. The food was very good. The is a small, plastic table cloth, hole in the wall with a very limited menu. As I recall there were two main dishes, along with a handful of sandwiches and another handful of sides. However, the food was delicious and I highly recommend it. It was a little disconcerting, because I showed up at 11:45 and there were no customers inside. This is quite unusual for a New Orleans lunch place. Maybe we just hit a slow day / time? Anyway, my lunch was less than $12, hardly more than massed produced fast food. Well worth it. They also have a full bar, but since it was the middle of the work day, we did not try that.

The greatest tasting authentic Caribbean/cuban food around. Relaximg, serene atmosphere with friendly & kind staff. I will return again! They also offer a variety of tasty unique mixed drinks.

Great place with a simple menu. Wonderful people working at this place. I would spend all every weekend there. Chicken dish and beef dish are great. Nice vegetarian options. Wheelchair accessible. Great coffee.

Good Cuban place with lots of options. Their menu has just expanded in the past month or so, so if you've been to it before then, I suggest coming back now to see the additions and changes. The waffle fries with Cuban toppings are a lot of fun and they recently added a whole bunch of different Cuban sandwich options that are all very good.

Really quick and easy. Loved the food, great rice and beans dish and really lovely BBQ pulled chicken sandwich/burger. The avocado salad too is an incredible side dish. The one thing that let this place down was the quite rude staff. They didn’t seem to care and were very blunt with their service. 7/10 unfortunately.

Unprepossessing place, across the street from and next to a couple of other restaurants, but the food was really good. I had the ropa Viejo poboy while my luncheon companion had the pressed chicken sandwich, and we split an avocado salad. The food was delivered to our table quickly, and each of the items was delicious. Not much of a crowd in the place, but that is their loss. A little early on a Sunday for us, but the bar offerings looked great. We are definitely going back.

Went here last night and we were blown away. The food was awesome. My wife and I ordered the two platters that they offer, the Ropa Vieja and the Pollo del Libre. You can't go wrong with either one of them. The Ropa Vieja is served with fried plaintains. Probably the best plaintains we have ever eaten. We will definitely be back.

Best Cuban sandwich I've ever had! Hands down the best sandwich construction I've ever seen. I know that sounds silly, but when I bit into it, it was perfectly crisp enough and tender enough to bite cleanly through without the sandwich falling apart. All the ingredients stayed completely contained (no fatty meat to pull the whole thing apart) and the flavors were so balanced that no one thing was overpowering. It was a revelation because I didn't know pressed sandwiches could be like that. Not a mess, not dripping all over the place. The avocado salad was also refreshing, just avocado chunks mixed with corn and just a little dressing. Again, not overly seasoned, but brought out the natural sweetness of both. Hubby had the Ropa Vieja poboy, which he thought was a little overstuffed, but good & he asked for cheddar cheese on it, which he liked. You can get avocado added to anything, and they have a bar and coffee drinks and just started serving breakfast sandwiches, which I want to try. Also, everything was reasonably priced.