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Review content:
Sergio's is often busy. That just has to be because of the location.\r
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Located across from Winn Dixie on busy Coral Way, close to the beginning of Miracle Mile, Sergios is very well placed to take advantage of the passersby who enjoy Cuban food. I'm sure they do.\r
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I stopped by at 11am and was ravenous, ordered Masas de Puerco (my favorite Cuban dish) and a Bud Light. Newcastle was the beer of the day, I didn't think that went particularly well with Cuban food. A Blue Moon maybe, but Newcastle? Not for me.\r
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At $9.99 the Masas de Puerco cost 2 or 3 dollars more than I'm used to paying elsewhere. There was one special of the day, whose name I forget, similarly one special soup too, whose name I also forget. At the Cuban restaurants I go to more frequently, Las Vegas in Coral Gables and El Christo on Calle Ocho, they always have a few specials of the day to choose from. That's fun.\r
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Back to Sergios. \r
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Sitting outside, I had told my server that I needed to be served fast. One reason was that I had an appointment in half an hour. The other was my alarmingly low blood sugar level. If I didn't eat soon I knew I'd be liable to pass out/feel ill/murder somebody. I was most of the way through my beer when I realised 'Hey, this is a Cuban restaurant, shouldn't someone be bringing me bread?!'.\r
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But no-one did.\r
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(Most Cuban restaurants serve you a dish of flaky, toasted and buttered Cuban bread gratis whilst you wait for your meal.)\r
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I'm not sure whether anyone else in the restaurant got bread either. The couple behind me noticed when I tried to peek at their table. Yes they had the plastic platters that bread usually comes in and so did other tables. But they may have been eating sandwiches. They also come in platters like that.\r
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Eventually my meal came, it took over ten minutes to come. Given I said I was in a rush I really don't think that was good enough. Maybe it even took 20mins. When you're in a blood sugar crisis things get confusing.\r
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The pork most definitely looked like it had been first fried yesterday, again today. Over the chunks of pork in Masas de Puerco are sliced onions. The onions today included the tougher, thicker outer skin of the onion which I've never experienced in any other other cuisine but Cuban. Cuban restaurants often include them in their meals and I don't like it.\r
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The plantains looked like they had been made fresh, although they weren't as soft (cooked as long) as I like. Most plantains that you get with Cuban food in Miami do tend to be very soft. The black beans and rice - well, they were like black beans and rice. Unremarkable.\r
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Funnily enough I just went to Sergio's (rather attractive) website to get their address and the correct name of my favorite dish (Masas de Puercos), and they have a photo of the same looking just like I described them - over-fried (above). They remind me of the way Nigerians like to cook their meat before making delicious stews, frying it twice.\r
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It's not the way I'm used to eating Masas de Puercos and you have only to look at how fat a lot of Nigerians are to see that double-frying food is fattening (that and the masses of oil they use in their cooking traditionally). Some people like eating fatty foods and being fat, personally I avoid both.\r
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The best you usually get in a Cuban restaurant is 'OK' food - food that fills you, a few flavors, gives you the energy to go on. Even the most popular restaurants like Versailles and La Carretta aren't even so good when it comes to flavor and fine dining. If you've been to Versailles or La Carretta you'll think - 'Fine dining? That's a joke!'. Quite.\r
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Similarly Sergios may get pretty busy but it's not great food. It's barely passable food. Today is not the first time I've been to Sergios and today I went for the same reason I went before - it's on the way, it's filling, it should at least be more healthy than the McDonalds beside it.\r
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Other than that, why bother?
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