Tropical Beach Cafe

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Tropical Beach Cafe – A True Hidden Gem in Miami! We loved our experience here! The food is amazingly delicious, full of authentic Cuban flavor — and let’s talk about those portions… huge! Easily enough to share between two people (or even more, if you’re saving room for dessert 😉). The fried sweet plantains were caramelized to perfection, the main dishes were super cheesy and comforting, and everything came out hot and fresh. The vibe is relaxed, local, and charming, with bright yellow walls, cute plants, and friendly service that made us feel at home. We especially appreciated the cozy atmosphere and the thoughtful touches, like the lavender pots on the tables and signs like “Life is better with cafecito & croquetitas” — so true! Highly recommend if you’re looking for great value, flavorful Cuban comfort food, and a real Miami experience without tourist traps. We’ll be back! 📍 A must-visit if you’re in the Mid-Beach area. ✅ Big portions ✅ Friendly service ✅ Local charm ✅ Affordable! — From a happy group of travelers on a sunshine journey ✨

Very delicious food and very cheap in comparison with other places. I have tried seafood paella, ropa vieja, swai fish, flam, chicken soup, salad and hot black tea with lemon. Very tasty, homemade food, fast service, attentive waiters. I highly recommend this place! That is a gem of Miami!

10/10 affordable & tasty meal! We ordered the vaca frita & churrasco dish. Both were sooo flavorful and comforting. Their chimichurri sauce is chefs kiss!! Rice, beans and plantains are also delicious. Highly recommend! Hidden gem 🤤

Great prices for the quality of food. We tried all the empanadas and they were some of the best we've had. Service was incredible, great Cuban coffee. We'll be back.

Loved Tropicale! Don't be mistaken that it's part of a Marriott hotel. It's accessible to everyone, open to the public. Wonderful food and service - I had the salmon, then followed it up with some flan which is made in house. Excellent all around! Don't forget to try their home made hot sauce also. Prices are very reasonable and portions are generous. Such a nice find walkable from our hotel - don't miss it!

This place on Collins Ave is interesting. Good food and good prices. The place and the atmosphere are very nice. The only negative thing is that only when you go to pay they tell you that there is a surcharge for using a card, which is not the case if you pay in cash. I wonder, how many people in the USA use cash?

Amazing place with lovely people, huge portions, great and quick food, and very cheap for miami! One of my favourite places - they are so so much better than the expensive and more glitzy places. The main thing is the lovely people, especially the lovely serving girls!

This Cuban restaurant was a true gem! The croquetas were some of the best I've ever had - crispy on the outside, perfectly creamy on the inside. The cortadito was strong and flavorful, just how I like it. The service was excellent, with a warm and welcoming atmosphere. If you're craving authentic Cuban cuisine, this is the place to be!

Solid place to eat breakfast. Everything was on point! Being from the west coast, most latin food is Mexican. Cuban food is definitely different. The ladies were very friendly and the service was great.

Stopped at this cafe for some quick breakfast. Not busy at all. Plenty of seating inside. I just didn't like how I was NOT greeted compared to the next couple of people that came in but besides that I ordered to go the lady that took my order was nice. The prices are not up to date I'm a little upset about that too because that's why I picked to come here. What I wanted was supposed to 7.99$ well it was 12.99 sheesh 5$ more. Well that's not what I wanted to spend total came to like 16$ and change. The food was really really good despite its price jump lol. The bread so good!! And the fries with breakfast even better.

Everything is delicious and the prices are affordable. I recommend this restaurant My husband loves their food and guaba pastries.

Very rude over the phone. He said to me I'm busy right now are you going g to order or what ? I was like I can't believe my ear what I just heard. Don't come here

This is a fantastic restaurant to check out if you're in the area. They have a lot of food on the menu to pick from, and it all sounds good. I tried the Cuban original and my friend, for whatever reason, got a cheeseburger. Both came with fries and we both enjoyed our dishes. Not only that, but their prices are reasonable unlike some of these other places not worth mentioning. Another thing that caught my attention was the customer service. The staff working at this restaurant we're great. Our waitress was awesome and a complete blast to converse with. Also, they have some delicious juices. I tried the Blackberry and it was perfectly refreshing for a hot (winter) day. So yes, if you are in the area, I would highly recommend giving it a shot. I look forward to coming back the next time I'm in town to see what else I'll like on the menu.

This place was great for afternoon lunch. I'd passed it many times while visit Miami Beach & finally decided to grab some food on my last day. Great decision! Service was friendly, I ate outside since it was a nice day. I ordered lechón asado with congrí & tostones. First, so much food! I was able to have leftovers for dinner. Everything was delicious. The lechón was seasoned so well & the tostones the right amount of crispy. I also got a cafe con leche to go. Delicious. Shout out to the wrapping on top, I didn't spill that drink on route to the airport! And the price was great, everything for less than $15.

Whoa! Off the charts good Cuban food. Had the daily special of carne de papas (beef stew) and also the masas de puerco (pork chunks). Both were excellent, as were the sides of rice, black beans and salad. The spice level was perfect and each order is easily two meals. Good service too. I don't much about Cuban food, but I know good food when I find it!

I've been coming here for years and they are always great! Went today for a pleasant surprise as they just renovated and expanded their space and is much larger and modern! They have TV's displaying menus and music videos and the decor is modern! Food is great still as usual and the staff here are always nice and attentive. I got breakfast this morning, Cuban toast with butter and a cafe con leche. Hits the spot every time! I've gotten lunch or dinner here as well and they have great Cuban food options. Affordable, easy and quick!

A friendly no fuss Latin joint. Breakfast omelettes hit the spot. Cafe Cubano has an overload of sugar in my opinion. Cubano sandwich was spot on. Bread was amazing.

Seems like an authentic spot that is pretty laid back. Apparently the go to order here are the empanadas. The beef empanadas were delicous and not too spicy. Very flavorful. The chicken ones were not dried out. The ham and cheese ones were a nice snack. I wish the dough was a touch crispier and some of the empanadas were a little greasy. Perfect when hungover I bet! I also enjoyed the lemonade. It was one of the many fresh juices. People were friendly as well. Check it out!

Ordered a chorizo omelette and it was gross. The fries were cold too. And it's expensive. Will not be returning

EXCELLENT. EXCELLENT. EXCELLENT. If I could rate more that 5 stars I would. Not sure about bathrooms, I didn't see any where I was sitting. And didn't need it so i never asked. Sorry! Parking is street parking and right now there is construction in the building so it's like a covered walkway at the moment. AIR CONDITIONED. Great service! Incredibly friendly and patient! Menu is in English and Spanish! Pretty close to the water easily can grab breakfast and walk a few steps to the beach to eat it. Great meal selection, and fresh pastries (empanadas, croquetas, pastelitos and so much more). Great food and great coffee. Incredibly pricing. The quality of food far surpasses what the price is. Helpful, kind, and AMAZING coffee!! So good! An incredible way to start the day! We grabbed to go food for my dad as we ate next door at shepherds and were so disappointed we wanted to try this place to get his food and I'm telling you I was kicking myself for not just having eaten here. Every meal is served with French fries, a tostada AND coffee! Just amazing customer service, and amazing food, and a general fantastic experience. Don't let the look of it fool you. This is a hidden gem!! Oh! And fresh juices!! Super fresh you see them squeezing oranges right in front of you! I forgot to get a picture of the food I got because my dad positively inhaled it it was so good when we gave it to him.

Stopped in for an omelette. Not busy at all at 10 in the morning. Took 2 minutes to get our order taken and 50 minutes to get served. When food did come out we were not provided with our asked about condiments and had to go to another table to get myself. The bacon cheese omelette was dry overcooked and tasted off. Had to tell server I couldn't eat it. No apology and no offer to exchange, just took plate and walked away. Not a word was said or where we ever approached again. Had to wave her down for check and hard to believe, there was an automatic gratuity included. Paid, used the restroom and again hard to believe dirty toilets and sinks and no paper towels or any way to dry my hands. The water would only drip out of faucet and not hot. If you want an omelette go anywhere else.

Great food the and the amount was amazing would definitely recommend this and will return the next visit to Miami

The food here was surprisingly not good. The only plus was the fries were crispy but I also got the grilled chicken sandwich and the bread was so soggy from the grilled chicken??? And there was not a hint of mayo on it - super dry

Remodel makes it friendlier to non locals. Great cafe con leche y tostadas breakfast. Service still a little iffy but thats typical of miami beach, Ive learned to accept it

Amazing Cuban food! Ate there for breakfast and dinner! I will definitely come back when I visit Miami again.

The best empanadas! Great service! We went back 3 times for the empanadas. We also had several other places but they were pricy and not as good.

Incredible Cuban coffee! Great fast casual spot. Tried the Cuban toast and guava + cheese pastelito. Want to go back and try the empanadas.

Good spot for when you're exhausted at the pool or beach all day. Close to our hotel. But the food itself was very mediocre. Pork sandwich was fine. Bread was soft. Average sandwich. Papaya shake was filling but honestly could barely taste any flavor. Very great service though and spacious. Loved coming here after a swim

Loved this place , the staff is great and the food is amazing! Will definitely revisit. Price is fair and portions are big . I had the café cubano , my wife had a cafe con leche and the breakfast was delicious. For lunch I had the churrasco steak with fries , again ... amazing.

Come in hungry. The servings are definitely enough for two meals. This is an authentic Cuban restaurant and locally owned - which I am all about supporting local businesses! Lucky for me, it was walking distance from my hotel. We passed it the first night but knew we needed to check it out. Glad we did and you should too!

This place has a new larger space that is nicer than before. Service is friendly. Ordered the churrasco steak with yellow rice, black beans and extra side of fried plantains. All were good except the meat ($21). Skirt steak was cooked to order but generally not tender. In fact, pretty tough and a small piece at that. Should have had the pork Lechon for half the price.

Large portions, easy going environment. The coffee is simple yet immaculate, which also goes for most of the stuff here. We initially stumbled upon this place but will definitely be returning :^)

This was a hit or miss. In our party of 4 two dishes were delicious two were not, so it depends what you order. I am cuban so I compare to my aunt's amazing home cooking. Pan con lechon, churrasco, yellow rice all delicious. But the palomilla lacked flavor and was dry, the white rice and congri was a bit hard and not very hot. Oddly each of our meals came at different times. Also a bit pricey for a very diner-esh cafe.

Highly recommended but unfortunately it misses the mark. The Cubano Sandwich misses the mark in flavor and authenticity. It was missing a key ingredient to the sandwich. They cut my sandwich in 4's which is weird, and felt like a kid plate.

I love this place. In the past I gave it a very favorable rating but now .... Beware: they won't tell you but when you order takeout they charge 15% gratuity and .99 if you use a credit card. The waitress didn't want to show me the detailed receipt. She kept insisting the customer copy was all I needed and then pretended to not understand English. I figured it out because it didn't add up.

This place has pretty decent and authentic Latin - Caribbean food . Service is ok but as another customer mentioned they will charge 15% gratuity and will not mention it . So be aware of that . They also charged me 15 % on a to go order and I wanted to complain but they were extremely busy . Otherwise the food is pretty good I had the vaca frita which is fried shredded beef . Very flavorful

Such good food for the price! We were hesitant to come here since it looked so small compared to the big hotel restaurants around the area but we were happily surprised by the food! It's not a fancy place but it hits the spot if you just want a place to grab food after the beach without the hassle of dressing up. The portions here are huge and there's also a large selection of food. I don't think you can go wrong with anything on the menu

I ordered the garlic shrimp with rice and salad. Perfect combo! Shrimp was very saucy and garlicky. I finished off with a guava pastry! Woah :D This place was so tasty and the vibe was pretty laid-back. Loved it! Make sure you have an espresso after your meal and enjoy the window view.

Food was ready quick and place was clean. Waitress was nice and courteous. Recommend.

La comida es muy delicioso y todo empleados muy simpático y amable!!! Me encanta todo gracias

We had such a great experience back in February, we decided to come back for more Cuban food last weekend while on vacation. I don't understand why this place doesn't have more stars because the Cuban food at this cafe is delicious and legit! Food and service is no frills. Yes, there is a gratuity tax that gets added on, but that is common in Miami Beach. You should be tipping 20% anyways. For people to give one star reviews over this is ridiculous. We've been eating a lot of Vaca Frita in Miami Beach and this place definitely prepares it the best. If you love pork belly like me, order the Masitas de Puerco w/ Yellow rice and beans, it is out of this world! The pork belly was so tender, it melted in my mouth like butter. It was a good price too, I think it was $11 or $12. If you are staying at a hotel nearby, I definitely recommend this place for a casual lunch or dinner

Only in Miami for the weekend and was really looking for a nice local spot near our hotel-- this place has the friendliest staff and such yummy sandwiches!

I came to the restaurant on my lunch break and what started off good ended up a nightmare. I was looking at 2 choices of the menu was the grilled filled fish and the breaded fillet fish. I asked the waitress what type of fish and she told me. I told her I would like to order the bread fish fillet, the waitress said ok and put my order in. I finally got my food and something didn't look right. I ate a couple bites from the fish and was like no this can't be bread fish fillet. I called the waitress over and said is this bread fish fillet and she said yeah, which I knew this wasn't bread and I called for the waitress again and another one said it was grilled. I told the waitress that I told you specifically that I wanted bread fish fillet and she apologized and walked away. After 5 minutes, I called her over and said are yall going to make it over with and she said no you have to pay for it. I said let me speak to your manager. Of course she went to the manager to make it look like I was the bad guy. The manager came to me VERY RUDE basically told me that I shouldn't have taking a bit out of it. They started saying things in Spanish and I told them I don't speak Spanish and then she called some guy to translate. I told him forget about because they wasn't hearing me nor care about my side of the story and I just paid for the meal. A waste of $17.62 for some unflavored grilled fish and soggy ass French fries and bland wrinkle salad. This was my first time coming here and I'm never coming back. The food socks, customer service socks and overall it was a terrible experience. Please don't waste your time and money dining here. Please avoid this place. I beg Please. Awful experience.

Reliable, friendly, tasty, affordable! We go here every time we visit Miami Beach. Don't change a thing.

Definitely a spot locals come to by the looks of things. I got a Cuban regular sandwich which doesn't look like much but it was very tasty! It comes with fries which I thought were awesome actually so I enjoyed it. The total was also cheap for Miami so a perfect spot for lunch. Seemed that sandwiches are their speciality but there was a variety on the menu. I got there a little after 11 but it was quite busy and there was a constant flow of customers.

Amazing.. tried a little bit of everything. Staff was very friendly, food was mouth watering, very casual and clean.

Great food, great service, there is construction outside but staff is friendly and accommodating.

Totally agree on the extra charges other reviews have mentioned. First os 15% food service charge on the detailed bill then if you use a credit card they add another $3 credit card fee Food - the yellow rice was wonderful but the steaks are supper small and not worth $21. The grilled pork chops were great and the hamburger was excellent.

Down to earth authentic and fun Cuban spot. I went for breakfast with my family. For breakfast they offer eggs and egg whites either hard boiled, scrambled, or cooked into an omelet with one meat/cheese addition. Each dish comes with a Cafe con leche, french fries, and a special type of bread that has a crispy outside and a soft buttery inside. The Cafe con leche comes as a cup of milk with espresso on the side, and you add as much (or as little) to your milk as you like. They also offer a couple of meat dishes for breakfast. In addition, we got a banana leaf which was delicious. The servers were very friendly, and the Cuban coffee was very sweet and delicious as well

On my way back from a trip to Atlanta I decided that going straight home wasn't an option for me. Do you ever go out of town to handle some business and because of the weight of that business when you get home you need a break before actually going home? This was that kind of moment for me so I decided to head down to the beach and enjoy the waves a bit. On my way there I decided to stop here for a quick bite to eat because flying these days will leave you hungry if you don't get to eat before your flight. This restaurant is located not too far from North Miami Beach and I wanted to try something new. I ordered a tuna sandwich with fries after looking over the menu and realizing how much I couldn't eat because of all the meat options. I eat fish and I wanted something that wasn't too heavy so the tuna seemed like the best option. I chose to sit by the window hoping to get a nice view, something that would take my mind off of my trip and plane ride. It was okay, not much to see. The place felt a bit stuffy and the counter area looked overcrowded. It's an older restaurant that felt old. The decor and wall hangings looked like they'd been there for a while. By the time I sat down I just wanted to eat, leave and head to the beach. The food was just okay, hence the 3 star rating. I was unimpressed and felt like they could have done better. The service was good, friendly, nothing to get excited over. Overall, it was just okay.

This place is by far the best restaurant I've been to. The value for money? There. Food? There. Service? There. I love the homey feel and welcoming environment. Las coladas? Exquisitas! Recomiendo por completo este lugar si uno está visitando Miami!

The front desk at our hotel suggested to venture out to this cafe. They supposedly serve authentic Cuban food. It was our last day in Miami, so we took the walk to check it out. We ordered Cuban coffee with no sugar, turkey and eggs, and ham and eggs. Let's just say I could have made the same breakfast at home, and I'm far from Cuban. My two eggs weren't seasoned, the turkey was a bit cooked, and I had a side of French fries. My husbands plate was identical, but he had ham instead of turkey. I wasn't impressed. There was nothing out of the ordinary that was on the menu. On the bright side, the coffee was great!

I really enjoyed this quaint little café because it was really close to our hotel and the prices were quite reasonable. It was great in the morning because their eggs are not overly buttered nor their french fries overly oily. But I have to say the Cuban coffee was fabulous

This is a nice little cafe right by the 27th and Indian creek trolley stop. Their Cubano was the bomb dot com. Literally everything I could've hope for. The club sandwich is also amazing and I would highly recommend either of them. When you get inside it's seat yourself and don't get the lemonade. They say it's made from scratch its not .. it's definitely country time powder and water with a lemon squeezed in it. The only compliant I could possibly come up with is our fries were cold but it didn't matter because after eating the sandwich I couldn't have eaten those fries anyway. The staff were super friendly and attentive. Just an all around good spot not to mention it's afforadable!

If i could give this place a minus 10 I would. I ordered a plate that was $9.99 plus a drink. Checking out, the server said it $20.85. I had to give her 3 $10's bc I had no change. She took off with my money and I had to track her down. Sh gave me back $5 and I said wait a second. They said oh its taxes and gratuity. Already gave her $5 in which she wasnt a good server at all to deserve that much. This place is a complete scam. DO NOT EAT HERE

the food was delicious i had the vaca frita with white rice and sweet plantains. one of the best meals i've had on the whole trip.

The good points about Tropical Beach Cafe: The food and the prices. The food was excellent. I had the grilled snapper with green plantains and black beans. The grilled snapper had little to no seasoning, but it was cooked perfectly. I also thought that the portion size relative to the price I paid was a great deal...it was quite a large fish fillet, and it came with my choice of two sides. I did not return to try their sandwiches, but it also looks like that would be a great option for a cheap lunch. Less good: The service. I had to wait quite a while from the time I sat down until someone came over to take my order, and I waited even longer to receive the bill when I was finished. Other than the speed, I'd also recommend reviewing the menu prices and receipt carefully. I believe that my bill came back a couple dollars higher than it should have...perhaps there was a gratuity already included or something? Either way, I was in a bit of a hurry by the time I received the bill and didn't bother trying to figure out the price difference of about $2 for my lunch, but I would appreciate having all of the charges stated more clearly.

Still a great little place to get tasty sandwiches, burgers, salads, and Cuban specialties. The grilled snapper is very good, as is the churrasco (skirt steak). Fast service. I did note, however, that their prices have gone up from a year ago, presumably--like many other businesses--to recoup the loss in business during the pandemic.