La Cocina
Cuban restaurant · Newark ·
Cuban-American sandwiches, empanadas, coffee, and daily specials
Cuban-American sandwiches, empanadas, coffee, and daily specials
"This family-owned Cuban restaurant across from the Rutgers-Newark campus isn’t fancy, but it offers great, no-frills, traditional Cuban dishes. La Cocina opens at 9:30 a.m. on weekdays (no weekend service) with a full menu of sandwiches and empanadas (get a Cuban sandwich in empanada form) and cafeteria-style dishes. Check out the daily specials: On Thursdays it’s rabo encendito (oxtails); who doesn’t love a saucy pile of slow-braised-to-richness meat served with black beans and yellow rice?" - Hank Zona
"Nonprofit La Cocina will also come back with businesses operating as the La Cocina Taco Tour." - Dianne de Guzman
"I noted that three percent of proceeds from the King’s Pie will go to La Cocina, a small‑business incubator centered on immigrants and women of color that operates a food hall in the Tenderloin to support those businesses." - Dianne de Guzman
"An immigrant-, women-, and BIPOC-focused kitchen incubator, La Cocina has organized the Voices from the Kitchen storytelling event since 2016 and serves as a platform for culturally diverse food voices that might not otherwise be heard. I learned that the organization typically relies equally on traditional nonprofit fundraising and earned income from big catering jobs and kitchen rentals, but the pandemic wiped out many of those revenue streams—La Cocina even chose not to charge rent for its kitchen facilities—and the result is significant financial pressure. In response, La Cocina established an Emergency Relief Fund that has raised over $750,000 and distributes monthly, no-strings aid to member businesses; donations and meal-kit profits from events like Voices go into the general fund, though donors can give directly to the relief fund. Despite the strain, La Cocina prioritizes people’s well-being, helps members negotiate rent forgiveness, and continues to support entrepreneurs such as Damansara while using events like Voices to amplify underrepresented stories." - Luke Tsai
"A nascent Tenderloin food hall, La Cocina is among the venues participating in the Tenderloin Outdoor Dining initiative, which will close sections of Larkin Street and Golden Gate Avenue starting Thursday, September 24 and run Thursdays through Sundays (8 a.m. to 11 p.m.) with restaurants moving into the roads from noon to 7 p.m., enabling La Cocina to operate expanded outdoor dining in the street as part of the neighborhood effort." - Eve Batey