Cuban restaurant a welcome addition to downtown Melbourne | Restaurant Review
More first-rate Cuban food has come to downtown Melbourne.
El Mojito, which inhabits the space on New Haven Avenue vacated by restaurants to have included the late, well-loved Island Pasta Company, is a stylish version of the cafes you found on Calle Ocho in Miami: a bit dressier than most, with tablecloths, fabric napkins and good flatware and dinnerware.
Congeniality is everywhere; all staff members welcome you as you come through the door, though nothing about it, at least at lunch hour, is loud or obnoxious. Service is immediate and helpful throughout your visit. Toasted Cuban bread with a pair of spreads, one light-colored and a bit garlicky; the other, red and spicy, with a hint of vinegar and chili, go on the table at once.
The menu has everything one would expect at a restaurant of its sort: the normal appetizers like croquetas ($5), yuca frita ($6) and other Cuban delights; ropa vieja ($21) and palomilla ($22); and seafood, chicken and pork specialties, as well as sandwiches and desserts, naturally. Paella ($37) is there too, but it is not served at lunch.
If it all is reminiscent of the early days of Cuban Island in Indialantic, it should come as no surprise, as the original owner is behind El Mojito.
We started with empanadas ($7) and Caprese salad ($10), the latter having been pretty much the standard, with appropriate amounts of basil, artistically drizzled balsamic dressing, thick slices of mozzarella and decent tomato.
The empanadas were the best we’d had in some time here. Bigger than the usual, they were possessed of a crust that was just right, flaky but solid, and perfectly fried, with no oil or aftertaste. The filling — in our case, minced chicken — was plentiful and more important, moist. If you want an empanada with filling the consistency of chicken salad but twice as dry, this is not your place.
My dining companion ordered the Fajitas de Pollo a la Cubana ($23) minus the bread, and what he got was lovely: strips of chicken, red and green pepper and onions, served with black beans, a maduro, a tostone and a cup-molded serving of yellow rice. The maduro and tostone were perfect, the beans were as they should have been and the meat and peppers were on-point.
Lechon Asado ($20) was delicious: perhaps three-quarters of a pound of pork hunks, which though perhaps a little oily, possessed excellent flavor derived from just enough garlic, spice and a plentiful amount of onions.
Again, it was served with rice, plantains and beans.
Dessert was flan ($7), and it may have been the biggest serving of the stuff we’d ever had, a thick disk rather than an inverted cup or wedge, dense enough to allow a spoon to stand up unsupported. It was not wildly sweet, with not much caramelized sugar on top or beneath the custard, and it didn’t come adorned by clever sauces or whipped cream. Good.
Beverage-wise, Café Cubano ($4) was perfect, and my dining companion greatly enjoyed the café con leche. We would have had mojitos but work precluded them. Fellow diners have said they are just fine.
What wasn’t just fine? Well, we could have done without the molded rice, commonplace (and understandable) though it is, as it kind of detracts from what otherwise is a fairly formal meal. And Cuban-style flan lover than I am, I think it could have been ever so slightly less . . . compact.
It also is not cheap, and pointedly so. El Mojito seems to want to join the list of serious restaurants downtown, and it is more than welcome.
See you there. Often.
El Mojito
Four stars
Address: 901 E. New Haven Ave., Melbourne
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday, Friday and Saturday; 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
Call: 321-327-7692
Online: elmojitomelbourne.com
Other: Full bar with spirits, beers, wines and Latin American soft drinks; Cuban breakfasts served 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekends; children’s meals
About our reviews
Restaurants are rated on a five-star system by FLORIDA TODAY’s reviewer. The reviews are the opinion of the reviewer and take into account quality of the restaurant’s food, ambiance and service. Ratings reflect the quality of what a diner can reasonably expect to find. To receive a rating of less than three stars, a restaurant must be tried twice and prove unimpressive on each visit. Each reviewer visit is unannounced and paid for by FLORIDA TODAY.
Five stars: Excellent. A rare establishment to which you’d be proud to take the most discerning diner.
Four stars: Very good. Worth going out of your way for. Food, atmosphere and service are routinely top notch.
Three stars: Good. A reasonably good place with food and service that satisfy.
Two stars: Fair. While there’s nothing special about this establishment, it will do in a pinch.
One star: Not recommended. Don’t bother.
Lyn Dowling is a freelance food and lifestyles writer based in Melbourne. Join the conversation at facebook.com/groups/321FlavorWhereBrevardEats.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: El Mojito in downtown Melbourne is upscale, stylish, delicious
