Cafe Versailles (MIA – Concourse E Satellite)

• 2100 NW 42nd Avenue
• Central Terminal, Concourse E Satellite
• Miami, FL 33126
• (305) 876-7000
• Website
• Menu

Time to go home.  We spent eight days in Miami working long, long days.  Our fly home day was Monday and the only flight from Miami to Grand Rapids is at 9:00 at night so we had a whole afternoon to kill.

We checked out of our hotel at about 11:30, headed to lunch in Miami Beach then rented a couple of lounge chairs at South Beach and just laid in the sun.  I listened to a couple of podcasts and just did some people watching.

We got the rental car returned just before 6:00 then headed into the airport to head home.  Miami International Airport is HUUUUUGGGGEEEEE.  We did a lot of walking and had to take two trams to get to our gate in the satellite of Terminal E.  We got our luggage checked in, through TSA, and finally made the long trek to get to our gate.

I wasn’t super hungry and there weren’t many options where we were at.  We passed a lot in the main terminal that I would have eaten but we just wanted to get to our gate.  We did pass a Cuban place just before we got to where we were going so once we got settled, I got back up to grab a sandwich while we waited.

The small sandwich shop was actually Cafe Versailles.   The Versailles Cuban Bakery is one of the most famous Cuban bakeries in the country.  The main cafe is in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood and the airport actually has five different Cafe Versailles spots in different areas of the terminal including one pre-security in Concourse F.  The one I was near was in the Satellite Terminal of Concourse E near gates E-30-33.

The cafe is counter service.  There is a case of baked goods as you first get in line and a TV screen that’s kind of hard to see with the sandwich menu on it.

A lady behind the bakeries case asked what I wanted.  I ordered a Famous Cuban Sandwich.  She went to a panini press behind the counter with a pre-made sandwich to press it out.  While it was cooking, another lady waved me over to a register to pay.  I told her what I had ordered and that someone was already working on it.  She rang me for just the sandwich which set me back right around $9.

I stepped back so others could put in their orders and just a few minutes after I paid, the woman who made my sandwich handed me a foil wrapped package and I headed back to a seat in the terminal waiting area to eat it.

The Cuban sandwich is so simple but always so delicious.  This sandwich had a beautiful, crispy but somehow still soft home made Cuban bread stuffed with pork, Swiss cheese, mustard, and pickles.  The sandwich was a little bigger than I expected looking more like a sub sandwich and that was fine. I wanted more when I was done because everything about this simple sandwich was so delicious.

I was bummed we didn’t actually have time to go to Little Havana to eat but this kind of made everything OK.  Sure, eating in an airport terminal doesn’t have the same atmosphere as the Cuban restaurants in the city, but the sandwich was quite delicious and I achieved my goal of having a Cuban before we left town.