Sandy's Cafe

There's a place that aaaalllll the locals know about, and the very privileged tourists know about. There is tasty Cuban food at this spot and it's pretty unique. What place is this, you say? Why, it's Sandy's Cafe.

As you can see from the picture above, Sandy's Cafe is a humble place.  There are only about 5 places to sit right outside of the building. Actually, this is the new and updated Sandy's Cafe. About four or five months ago, they shut down to remodel--now everything is shiny and brand new.

You can walk up to this place and take a good few minute to decide what you want--there's all kinds of decisions. There's breakfast items like cheese bread (cuban bread with cheese), cafe con leche, and even a southern classic, grits. There's typical Cuban/Hispanic grub like black beans and yellow rice, picadillo, and maduros (ripe grilled plantains). 

Yummy Cuban style black beans to go with all that yellow rice that goes with your meal.

Oh, but it doesn't stop there: Cuban sandwiches (the Cuban Mix is GOOD), fish sandwiches, pork, ham and cheese, vegetarian, the list goes on and on and on--and that's just sandwiches. There's a lovely choice of soups, Mexican burritos, tacos and quesadillas. There's wraps with roast pork, stead, buffalo chicken. Breakfast wraps with steak and eggs and cheese, bacon, turkey, ham. There's omelets! There's the Dinner Plates which are the bestest like Grilled Pork Chops, Palomilla Steak, and Shrimp in Garlic Sauce.

Palomilla Steak with yellow rice and maduros
(black beans comes with the meal, but aren't pictured)

But, I don't want to just list these things like they're nothing--I want you to understand that all of this is GOOD.  I've eaten here so many times that I don't even have that many pictures to post, because I'm so distracted by the food, and I don't remember to take pictures until I've eaten half of it already :-/

Things that I have eaten and can personally attest to their deliciousness on their menu: Cuban Mix sandwich, Fish Sandwich, Cheese Toast, Plantains, Rice and beans, Buchi (Espresso), Cafe con Leche, Shrimp in Garlic Sauce, Picadillo dinner, Palomilla dinner, Grilled pork chops dinner, and sides of plantains and bacon (really thick and crispy).

Oh, and when we're talking about cafe con leche, if you're not from the area (or if you really like cafe con leche already), you HAVE to try it. It's espresso and hot milk. Wait, espresso and milk?...that's a latte, right? No--it's cafe con leche. I know..big woop, right? NOT! We order cafe con leche and cheese bread at work every Wednesday. Why? Because it's good. Just order it.

Oh, and to make this better for you if you're in town doing the tourist thing: They deliver (as long as the order is $10 or over) all over the island, aaaaannnndd they're open 24 hours a day! But, check this out--they take cash only. So, when you prepare your taste buds for this good food, don't arrive with your credit card--you'll be politely told "we only take cash."

For Key West, the prices are very nice. And even better is that you get a lot of food.

For example, to order a side of plantains costs $3.95. Not shabby, right? But look how much you get in the order:

Side order of Plantains

That's about 10 hunkin pieces of marvelously caramelized ripe plantains you're looking at there. Plantains come with the dinners, but I always get extra.hehe. Or scroll back up and look at the Palomilla steak dinner--that huge steak, black beans, rice and maduros all for 11 bucks?? I'll take it! And you should too.

Located on White Street, it's sort of far from the downtown tourist area on Duval Street (I say sort of far because the island itself is barely 3 miles long), but its worth the trip if you want some really good food at a really fair price.

The service? Really good. The people are always friendly and I've noticed they don't get upset when you arrive and you have no idea what you want. I like that, in particular, about Sandy's.

SSoooo....

The Bottom Line

Food:  The food's really good and has lots of flavor. The new grill is getting seasoned, so it's getting even better!

Price:  Nicely priced. There's lots of food for the money. So, really you could get a meal an split it, making it even more economical.

Service:  Cool people work there. They're patient with you and do their best to get your food right.

Overall:  Umm....if ya haven't gotten the message by now, you should go there. Tasty, economical, and definitely a part of the Key West local scene. On o a scale of 1 to 10; 1 being horrible, 10 being amazing, I'd give it a solid 7.9...they still need to let that brand new grill get seasoned like it was.