Love my favorite !!! I only recommend this place. If you want true Cuban, authentic food, this is your place.

I love Cuban food and so does my wife. I have been looking for a good Cuban restaurant, since moving here... saw great reviews and it was close to my house.... This was my first time. I went in yesterday to put in a to-go order in for my family & the customer service was top notch!!! Also great prices and amazing lunch special! When I got the food, the portions are a great size and the FLAVORRR! OMG!!!! My wife got the palomilla steak & I got picadillo!!! Everything was BEYOND scrumptious and we were so happy! The owner and all the staff were so kind! You all gained a customer for life!!! read more

I was running on empty, in need of food, feeling hollow, faint from hunger; starving, starved, famished; able to eat a horse. You get it. I was Hung-RAY! After 5 hours in the scorching sun at an event (where there was burgers and beer, but I decided not to eat any! Why? Not sure really...but it lead me here, so it's all good!) I was ready for a meal. Pulled out the trusty Yelp app and found Don Carlin. I've been in the mood for food from my motherland for a while now - and we jetted over. The place was empty when we arrived - but I noticed the employees taking their lunch breaks - eating the food they served here. That's gotta be a good sign, no? We took a seat in a cozy table in the corner and ordered a Jupiña! If you've never had pineapple soda - what have you been doing all your life. Get one. I promise, you'll like it! They give you a basket of bread - lightly buttered - to open up your appetite. Not that I needed to do so. But I really liked it wasn't overly greasy/buttery like other Cuban spots. Started with croquetas - they are .75 each and smaller than the ones I was used to in Miami but they were great! They came with a side of platano maduro. Really? NEVER had them served this way but I'm not complaining! The croquetas were suppper crispy outside and the inside was ooey-gooey! They were great! Then I got Vaca Frita and the wife got Tamal (with pork on top) and a side of moro. My Vaca Frita was good - not great...but the pork on her Tamal was INSANE. It was moist, perfectly marinated in garlic and onions and just perfect! The tamal itself was good too - but the pork was the star. The moro was good but no pork belly chunks in it? This isn't the congri I am used to at a Cuban restaurant but it was still good. The maduros were amazing - crispyish on some parts and gooey on others. Super sweet and delicious. I know this highly depends on the plantain you are frying up, but on this day...they nailed it! As we were finishing up it started getting busy. A couple of families and a couple folks to watch the World Cup started to fill up the restaurant. Will certainly be back again for my Cuban fix soon! read more

Don Carlin - Croquetas! .75 each - super crispy breading. And came with a side of platanos. Get some! - Cuban Near Me - Sunrise, Florida

The menu had a price and they charged me more. When I questioned the employee they told me that it was wrong but never gave my money back or even apologized for the inconvenience. Used to be a good customer for this place now I will take my business somewhere else. Not service at all. Have no idea what happened with them. read more

Don Carlin - Cuban Near Me - Sunrise, Florida

We visited today with a craving for Cuban food and this little restaurant did a great job. Our churrasco was great as was the matas de pollo. The staff was all friendly, service was quick and the place was super clean. The atmosphere reminded me of the landmark places on Calle Ocho, but we didn't need to travel south! We will be back, definitely! read more

See all

Incredible authentic Cuban food. Friendly and competent servers. Food is delicious! We had a birthday party and everyone was happy with their meals. read more

The ONLY place I will go for Cuban food. Lucky for me, it is a 5 min drive from my house. The staff is always friendly, the food is always magnificent. Everything I have ever gotten has been amazing. The prices are good too. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR and come eat here. Your tastebuds will be happy you did. read more

A very mom & pop establishment which is how like it when I get comfort food. The staff is so nice and inviting. The food here is always good. I typically get the fried pork chunks. They are fried to a nice texture but the inside is still tender and moist. The maduras is always sweet and friend perfectly. The Cuban bread is done to perfection as well. I love the weekly and daily lunch specials. They are very quick and efficient with completing food orders. read more

My fav hidden gem best Cuban food around for sure. Never disappoints and very clean. Also the service is great....!!!!

The food is always great and ready quick for dine in or pickup. The staff is very nice as well. We have been eating there at least twice a month for over a year! read more

I had lunch here yesterday with a few of my friends. Everything was EXCELLENT! I had the baked chicken and it was lightly spiced and cooked to perfection. My friends had the ox tails (I've had them before) and they said they had never had better! I love this place! The service is friendly and fast. I think I've had everything on the menu, and this restaurant is in a class by itself! read more

Best Cuban food in Broward. It is a must have if you are hungry and on a budget! The service is also great, quick to come out with the food and they don't hover over you. Overall, great little spot in Broward. read more

Quaint little Cuban restaurant with pictures of Cuba on the walls. Has that authentic Cuban atmosphere. Friendly service, great food, big portions and parking. The place is always packed. My coworkers and I come here for lunch once a week. There are weekly lunch specials (Tuesday and Fridays have oxtail, yummy) and the lunch menu has about 10 items on it. The lunch items come with 2 sides, rice (yellow, white, or brown rice with each order. I believe the brown rice counts as two), friend sweet plantains, tostanes (sp??) with garlic on top. Cuban bread for the table. I highly recommend the Palomilla Steak. I also had the fried fish, Cuban sandwich and Chicken Creole. All dishes were delicious!! Cuban coffee ends the meal perfectly. read more

I was in Florida for business, my hotel suggested this place and I truly enjoyed the food. The server Gil was extra kind and very helpful. Best service ever!! I had a wonderful experience and will definitely stop in here again when visiting for business! Thanks Gil for the excellent service and the yummy food suggestions! read more

See all

I've been coming here forever. I've had my share of bad experiences here with management, but I still come back, the employees are great, service is awesome, food is always the same, "delicious", five stars cause these guys earned it. read more

Always great food. What more do you need to know? I love their pork and the black beans are awesome.

We moved to sunrise from Hialeah and were super worried that we lost our Cuban completas at every corner. Fortunately we found don carlin 2 min from the house with better tasting food than the Hialeah completas! They have the best food, I love the pansitos and the bistec a la milanesa. They are a little pricier than Hialeah but the quality is better so it is a win-win read more

Really good Ceviche, excellent authentic Cuban Food, Great Service and very affordable. Great find in Sunrise. Highly Reccomend!!!

After reading reviews we decided to order in once and it was ok. Finally decided to go dine in and we can tell for sure the cooks must not be Cuban or owners. The food does not have authentic Cuban flavors, portions are small in comparison to other Cuban restaurants. We will keep Going to Padrinos or Las Vegas. read more

Been here twice now. Once at lunch and then for dinner. The waiter recommended Ox Tails for lunch, all I can say is WOW! What a fantastic flavor. Ordered them again for dinner and was impressed again. Plan on coming back for my birthday dinner. read more

Still my favorite cuban, I aim for Fridays now because that's when they have ox tail special! Slow cooked with lots of good stuff it melts in your mouth so good!!! I think they also have it on Tues but don't quote me on that. read more

Don Carlin - Rabo encendido subbed tostones - Cuban Near Me - Sunrise, Florida

For great authentic Cuban food, Don Carlin has it. I've been a customer for almost 20 years and have never come home hungry. Check out their menu and I'm sure you'll be pleased. Don't let this review decide for you, stop by and make your own decision. read more

Located in a strip mall in Sunrise, Fla. this Cuban restaurant is truly a hidden jewel. If you're not from around here and don't have yelp to guide you there's a good chance you'll pass this place by. Our friends recommended this place because of the authentic Cuban dishes served here. The inside is not much to talk about, not overly decorated. There's old black and white photographs on the walls of what I would guess is Cuban Harbor, beaches and coastline. There was only one other couple when we got here around 6:15, by the time we left all the tables were filled with patrons that were on first name basis with the staff. So here we are two out-of-town visitors who could not have been made more welcome by the staff. We were greeted like regulars. They do a fantastic take out business that was almost non stop from the time we got there. Not going to get too much into the menu since they offer so much variety and I would have to write a book. We ordered our drinks, a red Sangria and a Modelo cervesa. We went light on appetizers and ordered croquet filled with ham and a chicken empanada that came with three sauces to go with them. For the main course we had the cubed fish chunks that came in a sauce criollo style. And I ordered the fish fillet and shrimp combo. Both dishes were delicious beyond my expectations. The sides were the traditional white rice with the black beans and the maduro frito, or the sweet fried plantain. To cap off the perfect meals my wife and I shared a Cuban flan with two espressos. Will definitely be back on our next trip to Fort Lauderdale. read more

See all

I used to be a regular customer. No between the convenience fee and takeout fee it's $4.00 more. Plus they want you to tip on top of that

Fantastic food, Always a great place for take out. Every time family and friends make it down late from Orlando they request this place for last min dinner and always ends on a great note. Their rice is fantastic and has great flavor. The only thing I would say I dislike but it is not enough to remove a star is that every time you call they would end the call asking if we can pay in cash? ..... Always rubs off the wrong way ... I just say "sure ". When I get there I pay with the AMEX. read more

This is not Real Cuban food the rabo encendido is too spicy and portion is too small for the price plus you have for a second side, I spoke to the owner and she got upset advise me to go somewhere else. read more

I use to really like this as A quick after work pick up place. After Cove it I tried it again and was kind of disappointed. The quality seemed to have gone down. Just ok read more

The Rabo Encendido is wonderfully tender and tastes, amazing and full of flavor. The chicken tenders are always a great go to for the kids. You can't go wrong with the black beans and rice and yucca. read more

Great Place To Eat! Always Treated Me Like Family! Can't beat the quality of Cuban Food for the price. Great Cuban Food! read more

I ordered the roast chicken with white rice and beans that included sweet plantains. The rice and beans were bland. The chicken to me seemed like it was cooked without seasoning. I'll grant you chicken Breast can be dry and this was. They could have provided some sauce or chimichuri that could help. The sweet plantains were ok. Baked in their own skin sweet plantains are delicious rather than fried and greasy. Sorry but it's mediocre food. read more

Food is always fresh and service is always top-notch. Only complaint is that they often run out of popular meats

You can't go wrong here! I absolutely love this place. We returned from a road trip to Louisiana a few hours ago and I was NOT in the mood to cook a thing. In comes Don Carlin!! I called in an order for fried fish chunks (me) and fries pork chunks (my beau). Both items comes with white rice, black beans and sweet plantains. The associate told me it would be ready in 10 minutes. I went to pick it up and she prepared my freshly buttered and pressed Cuban bread (yummy). I retrieved my order and couldn't wait to get home to chow down. The aroma in the car was such a tease and I could smell the garlic, yaasssss. I arrived home and was pleasantly surprised at the amount that each of us had. This isn't some fried swai or whitefish either, this is GROUPER!! Whattttttt??!!! The chunks measure about 3 inches each and I believe there were about 7 or 8 chunks. Two compartments of the 3-compartment take out was rice. The beans are placed in a separate ramekin. I only ate about 4 of the chunks and was full. This fish was cooked perfectly. It may be my new favorite dish here and I was a big fan of the fried red snapper. The pork was tender per my beau (I don't eat pork). Excellent choice for our meal tonight! read more

See all

Cuban food is really good. They first bring you some tasty bread that looks like it was fried. I ordered their red wine. It didnt taste like wine. It was very light. They added apples and oranges as well as ice to my wine which was very new for me but I enjoyed it. I also ordered shrimp and fish. The sauce was very pleasent. You can pick from a variety of different sides. I chose vegetables and french fries because we have been traveling a lot lately and I needed something light. My husband had shreaded beef with yuca and yellow rice. My son had cuban special sandwich. It is a great place to experience cuban food. read more

See all

Excellent well-seasoned food, large portions, friendly service. Tried one of the daily specials, Oxtails with side of rice and black beans and fried plantains. Had plenty leftovers to take home for a midnight snack. read more

Don Carlin - Oxtail daily special - Cuban Near Me - Sunrise, Florida

See all

Cannot love this place enough. So much flavor in all of their dishes it's amazing! The red beans, full of flavor, the ropa vieja to die for! The cuban sandwich was prepared perfectly. The plátanos delish! The relleno de papa and croquetas are amazing and the mojo sauce is full of goodness. Def missed all the goodness. Just wish they can move to southern California where I live now. read more

Don Carlin was recommended by a friend and it is spot on! Today I ordered Breaded steak with white rice and red beans. Yummy read more

Don Carlin - Breaded steak white rice and red beans - Cuban Near Me - Sunrise, Florida

Was on a trip to Florida from California, always wanted to try Cuban food. While I could have sought out restaurants in the Bay Area, I knew there's a huge Cuban community in the Miami area so I waited to try Cuban food in it's most authentic form, this restaurant exceeded my expectations! Ended up going to this restaurant 5x in the span of 9 days. Loved the yellow rice with cheese, ceviche, and palomilla. Will always come back to this restaurant if I'm in the area. read more

Incredible food and decent prices! Very authentic Cuban food wide variety of options.

Great little spot. Good food. Service was genuine. The experience we had was positive and I would make it a point to come back when in the area again. read more

My friends and I decided at the last minute to go out for a quick dinner in the neighborhood. We decided on Cuban food. So I checked Yelp and Trip Advisor and decided to go to Don Carlin. I ordered the Cuban sandwich with a side of tostones. One of my friends had the "Ropa Vieja with rice and red beans". My other friend ate the steak with onions, sweet plantains and white rice with black beans. Food was Not bad but not great. The service was great. The ambiance is family style and a little loud. Great for kids as well as adults. It was very busy with a tremendous "take out" business. Will go back and try other menu specials. read more