Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! Time for another restaurant review and here we go!

El Ray De Las Freitas in Miami, FL

Disclaimer: This review is based on thoughts and opinion of the lead writer of this blog, alongside her taste buds! Please respect her thoughts about the place she is talking about and hope you guys visit even during a convention!

It’s been a few years since I’ve done any restaurant reviews. I did write about Peach Valley Café and this time is another location in Miami. I had to go back down there for another eye doctor appointment to see about my eye condition and so far it’s still stable but will be doing a vision field test next time since I thought I had issues with that. Will have to see about that next time.

After the appointment, my dad and I went out for dinner and it was a place that Andrew Zimmerman, the one who is famous for the show Bizarre Foods, visited Miami for some places. I think this is on his American Tour show since he does features on places in America like how Guy Fierry does on Diners Drive Ins & Dives which the last time I was in Miami was for Sakya Kitchen which was delicious. This time it was a place that my dad wanted to try and it’s called El Ray De Las Freitas which is almost like a diner style place but with a Cuban twist and it’s located on Calle Ocho or 8th Street in English. For anyone who hasn’t been to Miami, even for some of the conventions, 8th Street in Miami is the main street for anything Cuban Cuisine and this is where we go to whenever in town especially for pastries, in case if you’re there early enough, check out Rosa Bakery which they have the best eclairs and custard horns in town! If you haven’t had a Cuban style custard pastry, the custard is not thick, it’s nice a creamy and not overbearingly sweet like most pastries we find in Orlando. And yes, one other place if you want to get anything savory to take home, Palacio de Jugo, or Juice Palace, is the best place for cheese and chorizo for anything you want to make.

Back to this restaurant, when we walked in, it had a counter where you can sit at or booths of to the side like an old style diner. If you have someone that speaks Spanish fluently, make sure they are with you at all times because I can’t speak Spanish despite my Hispanic background (I’m part Puerto Rican and part German) and trust me everyone asks and I say, “I tried in school!” Anyways, what got my dad to come here is for their burgers! I find it surprising since my dad normally eats the leftover rice and whatever my mom makes and my aunt as well but this did caught me off guard a little until he told me earlier in the day what they do is add little potato sticks to whatever burger you want. This had me curious because I rarely heard a place like this since here in Orlando and Miami a lot of the Cuban places tend to serve a lot of the traditional Cuban dinner plates like roasted pork, rice with black beans, and sandwiches like the traditional Cuban sandwich or Media Noche. This place was way different and it was delicious!

The Food: The food here and drinks were reasonably priced unlike most places where you pay more for your usual stuff. My dad did tell me some of the prices like the burger without cheese is $4.00 and it was twenty-five cents more with cheese and that is not bad for what you’re getting either! I admit I had a hard time eating the burgers since I had two of them, which is not normal for me but these burgers were reasonably the size of a Mc Chicken from McDonald’s or slightly bigger, because the potato sticks fall out like crazy! They stuff that thing with tons of those and they were not soggy! They were crispy! You would probably think they would not be crispy but no they are crispy as a potato chip. Whenever I had stick fall out I restuffed my burger with them and eat any remaining ones on my plate because they were so good! The bread if you’re wondering, it is a burger bun and it’s toasted! I think the buns are baked by them because it tasted like homemade Cuban bread and it held the burger pretty well. The only one that didn’t hold well with the bun is the second one I had and it was with egg and bacon. I know you’re thinking, why an egg and bacon? Well, my dad described one of them having this and you see back in my love for Japan days I heard that McDonald’s in Japan has one of their burgers with eggs in it and I thought it would be gross since you would find it weird and as time went on, I would never thought I would try it out until today. Well, yesterday to be exact and I had to try it for myself since Japan did it at McDonald’s I wondered how a place like this would do it. How did it taste? You hardly taste the egg at all because the flavors from the bacon, the burger meat, and the potato sticks disguise it. The bun did have an uneven bit where I did have that moment where one part of the burger was looming over the edge of the bun and should’ve eaten that part first but this kitty wanted to try it so bad that I didn’t care.

Another thing we did try were the shakes! At this place they do different flavors of shakes even fruit ones which I was glad to try one out. I have had shakes at other Cuban places in Miami and it was vanilla but this flavor I tried was mango! Normally, I would go for strawberry but mango? How did it go? It was like a creamier smoothie because of how light the mango is but you get the taste of the cream and other ingredients they put in. My dad had a fruit one called mame which tasted a bit strong but I do love my mango one and if I go back I would love to try it banana since I remembered trying out banana shakes from Checkers.

Rating: 5 Star Paw Prints Out of 5! This place was delicious! It is a small diner like place on 8th Street that you would never think of when it comes to burgers. Thank you Andrew Zimmerman for mentioning this place on your show because it gives us a new spin on where to go in Miami. Plus it is reasonably priced and you must try the burgers with egg because you don’t know what you’re missing if you don’t unless you’re not a fan of eggs. Also, bring someone who can translate for you, I suggest it since you may be a little lost like I was and tried asking my dad for a translation but nope at many times. So, I was a bit lost. Unless they had someone who could translate but wasn’t working yesterday? Who knows? Anyways, if you’re coming for a convention in Miami, I also highly recommend due to the prices not being so expensive and they do come out fresh and in a timely manner on top of it. If you want a sweet treat, the shakes are also a must!

Well, that’s it for this review! I definitely want to do more restaurant reviews since it does give me a new perspective when it comes to my taste buds as a blind person. And what’s next for Nerdy Shique Universe? Another trip with Soundscape and how well it worked in Miami. Stay tuned!