Versailles - Miami

You can't visit a cultural hub and not experience some of their authentic cuisine.  So my friend and ventured off the beaten path of our hotel room on the South Miami Beach area and hit up Versailles, a cuban restaurant not too far from Miami-Dade airport.  Quick sidenote - Miami-Dade airport is an embarrassment to our country.  It is an international hub and its english-language signs are completely useless even to Americans!  The service is terrible and the design of the building had us walking around in circles.  ::end rant::

The Cuban Flan at Versailles, Miami

I didn't call ahead for reservations since we were eating around 5 PM on a Sunday afternoon but sure enough, there was a line out the door.  It's bittersweet seeing that.  On one hand, I'm going to have to stand in a line which is one of my least favorite things in the world to do and perhaps the worst way to spend our precious time on this earth BUT it also means the food can't be awful, right?  The time the line provided us did allow us to glean some recommendations from some potentially Cuban-looking patrons in line next to us.


After a short wait, we were seated in the back corner.  We went with an order of Yuca fries to start and two entrees, a Shrimp al Ajillo and the Criolllo Cuban sampler platter (Yellow Rice, Black Beans, “Ropa Vieja” Shredded Beef in Tomato Sauce, Fried Pork Chunks, Ham Croquette, Sweet Plantains, Cuban Tamale, and Cassava with Cuban Mojo).  Then I saw the dessert menu.... This place is my wet dream come true.  They had not one, not two, not even three or four... but FIVE types of flan!  It was at that moment that I decided to completely bypass the Yuca fries and try all of the flans.  Which meant that my foodie partner was left holding the bag eating a whole plate full of fried Yuca :)


The Yuca was pretty tasty but with all that flan in my future, I just had one or two small pieces.  The Shrimp (al ajillo is essentially a garlic oil sauce) was very fresh and garlicky, just how I like it.  The sampler platter was surprisingly good, too!  I say surprisingly because the restaurant had the feel of an American diner inside.  Yet eat meat dish was cooked really well.  It was interesting to notice that none of the dish had any fire to it, like many other latin styles of cooking.  That was almost a let down until I realized how much of a bad idea spicy food is just before you get on a plane :)


But by now I'm getting full and the cab driver has just rolled up to take us to the airport and it actually calling me every 3 minutes to let me know that he's out there.  So I just went with one flan and the check.  We chose the Cuban flan.  I have no idea what the different between the Cuban flan and the rest of the world's flans are.  Nor do I think anyone but me really cares this much about flan.  However, it was very tasty and I rated it a 9/10 on my flan-o-meter which is the world's authority metering system on flan as far as I am aware.  I wish I could have tried their double-egg-yolk flan but alas, I'll have to save that for the next trip to Miami!

Service was fairly good for a diner-style restaurant and people seemed very happy with their Cuban comfort food.  It's proximity to the airport is great so if you want to do Miami Anthony Bourdain Layover-style, try out Versailles.


Rating 3.5 out of 5 Stars.