I stopped at this Cuban place at Woodland Blvd (is that the cross or the main street?) on Sunday at lunch while coming back from Cedar Key. It is on the side of some hotel that may or not be an artisan hotel or is called the Artisan hotel. They said they have been there for two years after moving from another location. There is a main room and a awning covered patio. They both run down the side of the hotel. Rectangular. They had no host. I had to walk to the end of the long room to be told to grab any seat. Most still had not been bussed. The floors were dirty. I had a bowl of chicken soup for $5 and the Chica's chicken platter for $11. The soup was pretty bland. The noodles were disintegrating. Fairly healthy though. Real veg. A fair amount of chicken. The platter came with two sides. I chose tostones and yucca mojo. The tostones (3) were kind of dry. Not sure of their age. The yucca was excellent. Garlic and onion. Good consistency. Big portion. The chicken was like stir fried Chinese. They said it was thighs as if that was a selling point and not the cheapest part of the bird. I know. It's the most flavorful. Gimme a break. The oddest thing was that I coaxed out of them that the "special" sauce ingredient was ranch dressing. How Cuban! In any case, it was alright. A fair portion. The menu is me-too Cuban. The place has some attempts at decoration that are probably leftovers from the previous tenant. It seats about eighty. It was full. Service was a little flighty. They brought both dishes out within minutes of each other. It's not a destination spot.
*Be prepared for an assault of posts. I cut short my spring training trip because traffic was murder and hotels scarce on the Gulf Coast. So, I have a rental car and time to fill. I'll try and space them apart by two days. I already have three multiple restaurant posts in the queue. Not much new in Deland. A new taco truck on the side street that has Persimmon Hollow. Plus another brewery is in the works down the street. Hyder something.
**Travel Notes - Florida Gulf Coast: If you every get to Cedar Key (Gainesville and then down on 24 or 40W to 27N to 24) try and find a little seafood wholesaler called Cooke's Seafood. Through the main part of town. They have great stone crab, blue crab, shrimp, clams and oyster prices. A pound of stone crabs was $17 (mediums) or $26 for large. Nice family too. The better restaurant there was called 83 West. Sit upstairs. Twice as nice and half the price of the competition. It made no sense.
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