Review: TATA Cuban Cafe

I have been chastised from time to time on this blog for not going to enough places that are anywhere but the North side of town.  Whether it's bad or not is debatable, but it is true that I usually don't do a lot of driving to go eat somewhere unless I've heard it's something exceptional or if my regular travels take me that way.  Last weekend I was in downtown Indy for a friend's  wedding so I decided to step out of the box a little and find something interesting to eat.

The Girlfriend and I were staying at the Hilton just off of Monument Circle, and while we were lucky enough to get an early check in we hadn't really had time that morning to really eat much for breakfast or lunch.  We knew that if we didn't eat we'd be pretty hungry before food was served at the reception.  I had run some ideas by The Girlfriend, but neither her nor I were really feeling any of the close by options (pizza etc).  Also, being that the heat was quite oppressive and we were dressed in nice clothes we didn't want to have to walk too far just to get food.  Just about the time we had resigned ourselves to starving until the reception I decided to take a short walk to hotel parking garage to get our mini-umbrella in case of a pop-up shower.  On my journey I spied TATA Cuban Cafe right across from the parking garage on Market St and knew I had to stop in.

From the outside it looked quite dark and I was a little unsure of whether or not they were still open for the day, but I decided to head on in anyway and I was pleasantly surprised.  The inside of the restaurant was small but comfortable and elegant.  Had circumstances been different I would have suggested we dine in, but given the circumstances I told the nice lady at the counter my order would be to go.  Being that this was, in my estimation, a pretty authentic Cuban restaurant I immediately searched for the Cuban sandwich on the menu.  Sure enough it was the first item listed.  I quickly made up my mind to go with the classic combination of roast pork, ham, pickles and mustard pressed between to pieces of hearty bread. 

I stood there waiting on the counter for longer than I expected for my sandwich to come out, but I saw that there was a lot of tlc being put into my single sandwich.  Each layer was carefully constructed and the ham was freshly charred ever so slightly on the flat top.  Maybe it was just the heat, but I could have swore my mouth was literally watering when I saw that bad boy go into the sandwich press.  It was politely boxed up for me with 2 Diet Cokes to wash it down and I walked it back to our room to enjoy.

Maybe The Girlfriend should be a professional hand model.

I was a little worried at first that the sandwich itself  cost over 8 dollars without any sides included.  However, when I opened up the box I realized that the size of the sandwich was more than enough for two people to have a nice lunch.  As you can see from the picture the sandwich is quite thin do to being pressed in the traditional style, but in my opinion it really intensifies all of the wonderful flavors of the sandwich just a little bit more.  All of the flavors and textures work in perfect balance.  The mustard livens up the pork products and the bread and butter pickles add just the perfect amount of sweetness.  In fact, The Girlfriend said that she usually doesn't enjoy pickles in any form on a sandwich but she enjoyed them in this case.  The bread was that great combo of crunchy and soft.  Delicious.  Hopefully I'll have a little more time to explore the rest of the menu on my next visit.

If you're thinking the sandwich looks small there is another 2 pieces underneath

Taste 8.5/10  Wonderful in it's simplicity.  If you've never had a Cuban sandwich before give this one a shot.  Also, if you work downtown and you haven't dropped in here for lunch you're missing out.
Value 7/10  With one sandwich and 2 cans of Diet Coke our total bill came to just over 12 dollars.  For a two person lunch that's pretty good in my opinion for such quality food.  If you're ordering for yourself 1 sandwich would probably be a little much in both quantity of food and price.