Critic's Review
I abandoned a plan in the area and decided to re-visit La Carreta instead. I'd been here once before and had a pretty good steak. I was in the mood for some Ropa Vieja or something similar.
The apparently do quite a take out business; there are always people waiting outside, and they also have take-out only specials, which are mostly family-sized combos.
The place was pretty crowded today; it is the busiest week of the year in South Florida, so they gave me a table instead of a booth, even though there were several available.
It's a festive place with acceptable cuban elevator-type music. My server brought me an iced tea and I know from my last visit that you have to ask for Splenda.
I'm amused by places that don't put Splenda out but then give you enough for a week when you ask for it, but that seems to happen more often than not. They give you bread here, but it's not very good. Maybe they use margarine or something.
The Ropa comes with white rice and no beans, and they charge $2.45 extra for beans, so I ordered the Vaca Frita instead, which comes with Moros Rice. They might have subbed, but I wanted to try the Vaca Frita, which is normally made with Flank Steak.
It came out in less than 10 minutes.
I discarded the plantains and dug in. I thought that the steak was a bit dry and it wasn't fried crisp, and not very well seasoned. This should be served with caramelized onions, and these weren't. If I didn't know this was Vaca Frita, which is Fried Beef, I wouldn't have known that the meat was fried. Not bad, but not recommended either.
Service was fine until it was time for the bill, which took over 15 minutes to deliver. I saw my server hovering around the register. When she finally brought me the bill, she didn't offer any explanation as to why it took longer to get me bill than to eat my lunch. Totally unacceptable.
Review 1/7/13
I spotted this place on one roadtrip to Pembroke Pines and the place had an interesting look. I was in the mood for Cuban, so I decided to take a drive. The zip code is Pembroke Pines, but it could easily pass for Davie. They call it North University but it's really South; it's all very confusing.
They have a little take out booth in the front corner and there was a lot of activity around it, I went inside and they seated me at a booth. The main dining room is a big room. It reminded me of La Bamba without the Mexicans.
My server took my order and a bambina brought over some bread. My server sped away after dropping off the iced tea so I had to flag someone else down. This is the kind of place where English isn't even a second language. I asked her if they had Splenda; there was none on the table. "Que"? I had a sugar in my hand; I pointed "Yellow"? Do you have the yellow?. "Ah, yes!!". She scampered away and returned with 2 yellow packets.
The music here is pretty low and nothing that I recognized. My all-business server dropped off the Churrasco and went over to another table. It started out badly as there was a piece of sinew on the right side as I made my first cut. But it turned out to be the only issue with the steak.
This is supposed to be a skirt steak, but skirts aren't usually this uniform in thickness. It was close in taste and texture,so maybe it was just a really big steer. Aside from the bit of gristle, the steak was excellent, nicely medium rare. The chimichurri sauce was good; not quite as garlicky as the Argentinean stuff, but it did the job. I also liked the Moros Rice; rice thats cooked in the liquid from the black beans. I prefer Tostones to the usual scorched plantains, but they didn't have much taste.
As chains go, La Carreta is one of the better ones. I never got anything this good at Las Vegas Cuban Cuisine.