Soul de Cuba Café on Crown Street in New Haven — and, according to the restaurant’s website, a location in Hawaii — offers Cuban fare in a vibrant atmosphere that adds a flare of excitement to your typical lunch break.
We arrived on a Thursday around 11:30 a.m. and over the course of our meal, a decent-sized crowd showed up for lunch. If we’d been any later, we might have had trouble snagging a table for three.
Appetizers range from $7 to $19. We started our meal by sharing the Soul Sampler ($17) and a plate of empanadas. The crab croquettes are part of the Soul Sampler and are available to order on their own; the papa rellena, a fried ball of mashed potato with a surprise, seasoned ground beef filling, is also available as a solo app. An order of empanadas comes in a set of three: one each of chicken, beef and vegetable. The crust was light and crispy and the fillings were different enough from each other and equally delicious in their own right – tasty enough that we found ourselves already eating the leftovers on the ride home.
Soul de Cuba’s has a long menu of chicken, beef, pork, fish and vegetarian entrees ranging from $17 to $24 — but it was the lunchtime sandwiches that really drew us in. Served until 5 p.m. daily, sandwiches are served with your choice of greens or chips. All sandwiches except one, the Soul Cubano, are $10.
Media noche (“midnight” in Spanish) is a favorite late-night snack in Cuba – what a tragedy that we can only order this sandwich in the afternoon. The pan con bistec was served on a roll stuffed with thinly sliced marinated steak and caramelized onions.
Not the cheapest of the cheap eats but if you were going to spend 10 bucks on a panini at lunch anyway, you might as well treat yourself to something different than whatever grilled chicken pesto sandwich you were facing and switch up your lunch with a bit Cuban soul.
Soul de Cuba Café, 283 Crown St. in New Haven, is open Sunday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m; and Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. 203-498-2822, www.souldecuba.com.
