Carlo’s Cafe

Smaller place in a strip mall. Could be easily overlooked, but oh, so worth the stop!
Excellent food. Black beans were simple but seasoned perfectly. Traditional pork was very good, but dry. So definitely ask for sauce on the side.
Skirt steak was delicious and garlic sauce for the plaintains was very good.
All the sauces were delectable and made the meals that much better. Dessert was perfection, sangria tasty and magic hat on tap… loved everything!

Have you ever wished Carlos Café were closer to Charlotte? My wish is about to come true! April 2012 Carlos Café is MOVING to TEGA CAY. Which for me is closer to Charlotte «than» Charlotte (closer to some parts for those who live in South Charlotte)!
Cuban Wow! I have eaten almost everything on the Menu here and enjoyed most of it enough to get it again! Today’s Lunch started with Cuban Espresso (5 hours ago and I’m still spelling a lot worse than usual). I only drank half of the tiny Espresso mug (you know they do it right). This is one of my favorite Beverages, wait it is one of my favorite Desserts too! Cuban Espresso this fantastic is also a wonderful diversion! I drank my first Cuban style Espresso here last Spring. Today I had the idea of drowning most of my order of Fried Sweet Plantains in my Espresso (inspired by remembering hearing of people dunking Doughnuts in coffee).
The Cuban Sandwich is one of my favorites here! Great smashed and grilled bread, mustard, pickles, cheese, Ham and Pulled Pork This is the first one I ordered (usually someone else orders it and I have a bite or half of the sandwich. Today I ordered half a sandwich and I was brought a Sandwich much bigger than I expected. I guess all this time everyone I have eaten here with orders a half. Half is plenty of food for a regular person so I get a Dessert (Churros: Funnel Cake inspired, deep fried rolled sticks — they were A-​OK) for six people and take home left overs. The Espresso Flan is the best Dessert here (Poprock Love took a photo of the Espresso Flan and Key Lime Pie on one of our other visits. I do not recommend the Key-​lime Pie, though it was at least A-​OK).

I love the whole process of hearing about a restaurant that’s off the beaten path, planning on going with friends, hoping in the car and finding it. I like the anticipation of looking at all the strip malls and businesses that you pass, wondering have we passed it and are we there yet?
Today we set out for big Rock Hill, SC for lunch at Carlos Café. It is a tiny, family owned business. $ 5.99 lunch specials, cuban coffee and flan! Espresso flan too! We ordered fried yuca to start, it came with a yummy basil, mayonaise sauce. We also ordered a Cubano, fried pork chunks and Cuban version of beef stew (minus carrots & potatoes). We shared everything, I didn’t like one thing better than the other. I could go back and order everything the same again.
If you haven’t had a Cuban sandwich, you should really try one, it’s on French loaf bread, loaded with ham and shredded pork, cheese, mustard and pickles, then pressed on the grill.
The dishes were served with black beans, rice and a choice of sweet or green plantains. They also offered fresh fruit batidos (smoothies). The desserts looked delicious. We tried the espresso flan and the key lime. Stay away from the key lime, it was topped with shiny fake whipped cream and a cherry. The espresso flan was boner good. I want to try the tres leche next visit. All and all, a great visit to Rock Hill today!