I don’t know if Versailles is the best Cuban restaurant in Little Miami or in greater Miami. It is the most famous and the largest I’ve seen, and has had more customers ordering in Spanish than in English the four or five times I’ve had the pleasure of eating there (once for lunch, never for breakfast). There are tourists there, but it seems to me that the bulk of the restaurant’s business is Cuban Americans, who are better judges of what is “authentic” Cuban cuisine than I. (This is an extrapolation of checking to make sure there are diners of Chinese descent in Chinese restaurants, which I have always found a reliable indicator of quality.)
I don’t think the Miami Versailles (the flagship restaurant on Calle Ocho/8th Street in the heart of Little Miami, with a satellite at the Miami Airport) is related to the half dozen or so Versailles Cuban restaurants in the Los Angeles area (the first of which was opened by Orlando GarcÃa in 1977). I think the LA ones are trading on the fame of the Miami one(s). I’m also not sure whether the restaurant was a French one before Felipe Valls, Sr. started the Cuban Versailles restaurant in 1971.
The restaurant’s decor is heavy on mirrors and etched glass, like the palace of Versailles (a drafty palace in which I would not want to live!). The menu is very extensive, but I did not see any French dishes on it. (Barbara (AC’s Eiffeluv) ensured we got French food at Le Provencal in Coral Gable!)
On our most recent visit, J thought that the fish (whatever the “catch of the day” was) he ordered was too dry. I stayed with my favorite combination, Criollo, a platter with spicy braised pork stew, olives, a ham croquette, a pork-filled tamale, platanos maduros (fried, sweet plantains), yucca (the world’s second-least savory staple after breadfruit), a garlic dip (supplying some taste for the yucca), black beans, and yellow rice.
The other combination, the Classico, is similar except that it has white rice instead of yellow and chile colorado (beef stew with red chiles) instead of the pork stew.
For the unadventurous, there is Churrasco (grilled beef). There is nothing I would consider picante — but like my Spanish, my conception of hot food was fashioned in Mexico. And I do not think “too much garlic” is a possibility — certainly nothing at Versailles registered on me as even strongly garlic-inflected.
Garlic fried bread arrives between the taking and the delivering of the orders. The kitchen is efficient. The waiters, are too. Their dominant language is Spanish (and Cuban Spanish at that, which is difficult for those of us accustomed to Mexican Spanish or to those speaking castellano to understand), but we have not had any difficulty communicating what we want… or getting it!
The dessert menu includes half a dozen kinds of flan, half a dozen kinds of cheesecake, and crema catalanam, the Cuban version of crème Brûlée. Considering how large the portions of entrées are, a separate visit for dessert and Cuban coffee (thick but not bitter) is the only way most adults can eat dessert.
There is a bakery with an extensive selection, and window service for coffee and some pastries. Not to get started on the varieties of Cuban sandwiches that are available! And soups. I’m not much of a consumer of soups, but the Versailles ones are reputed to be excellent.
We have been lucky to find parking in the lots on the block of the restaurant every time. There is an overflow lot with a guard. across 36th street. Parking is free.
Hours of operation at the 3555 Eighth Street (Calle Ocho) location are 8:00 AM – 2:00 AM, Sunday through Thursday: 8:00 AM – 4:30 AM, Friday and Saturday. Yup, you can eat very late on weekends at Versailles!
In addition to the Miami Versailles restaurants, the Valls family (Valls Group, Inc.) owns eight La Carreta restaurants, and the up-scale Spanish restaurant Casa Juancho less tha a mile up Calle Ocho from Versailles (2436 8th St. to be exact).
