CAO Bakery & Cafe

I had cafe con leche with ham Swiss and egg on Cuban bread. Both yummy and not outrageously priced. Atmosphere was open and bright. Lots of seating. Only docked one star on atmosphere because of the lack of outlets.Service was polite and prompt. I love when an establishment defaults to Spanish and encourages my practice. (They do speak English here, but Spanish as well) cool temperature even with their big glass windows.Good music on at medium volume (not as quiet as a cafe atmosphere would be).Definitely going to get pastelitos to go because they look so yummy.Food: 5 Atmosphere: 4

I was in the area when I spotted a new business, a Cuban Bakery/Cafe. I popped in for lunch on the go. The place was clean and new looking. They were a combination bakery, sandwich shop and hot food cafe. CAO had a tidy collection of foods and beverages and a small bakery assortment.I waited patiently as 2 latina girls had a very loud and lengthy shouting match. As one girl approached she morphed into a super sweet hostess and cashier. I opted for the Media Noche sandwich and it was quite good. Since I was on the run, I took it with me for the road.It's not a place I would drive to for a meal, however, should I be in the vicinity I would likely stop in to try the steak sandwich or cuban. A pleasant place for a quick meal, without the shouting of course.

CAO is Miami pastry shop open in the Bay Area. They planned more store to be open in various locations. CAO is very similar to South Florida pastry shop way of making. Especially the coconut pastry. We got the meat, guava, coconut pastry. We also got some chicken and beef empanadas. I like chicken empanada better. We also got some bacalao Crockett. Taste is good. Even after heat it up for next day. Right now they run promotions of 1 hour before close and all pastry 50% off. Get there before the promotion run out.

To be honest I had this place on my list to try and was excited to be able to swing by on my lunch. I honestly had different aspirations for this place. When we arrived at first we thought it was closed due to no cars in the lot. We parked and walked in. One set of customers were seated at a table waiting for their order. This is a walk up and place your order type of place. There are ready made empanadas, desserts, etc available to choose from the glass displays. Everything looks so good but don't let that fool ya. I loved that they had baked versions of the empanadas! I got the baked chicken and a Colombian cheese empanada as well as a chicken croquette. The Colombian empanada was my favorite. Loved the corn shell versus the other version. The chicken empanada was ok but lacked something for me. The croquette was soggy and full of grease. The grease stain on my serving tray was actually gross. We asked for hot sauce but they didn't have any. I also asked if they had tea to which I was told it may be an option on the soda machine. The lady at the front didn't seem to know much or want any engagement with the customers other than ringing them up. There is plenty of seating available should you want to dine there.

Welcome Cao Bakery from Miami! So glad you are here! I had to check this out, and let you know we were very happy. It was packed on a Saturday and this place use to be a Latin chicken shop, so we had been to this location before.We ordered a guava and cheese tequeno which was my fave, two chicken croquetas, received a free pastelito from signing up for coupons and picked coconut. Also a media dia sandwich and cafe con leche.Very happy with everything. It did take a long time but I can tell that the place was popular. The location is nice and spacious and has the same decor as the previous place which is also comfortable and clean.Definitely check it out for your fave Cuban snacks.

The BEST Frita I've had a years! The bread was perfectly toasted, the patty had all the right Frita flavors and it was moist. The crunchy potatoes were perfection.

Pretty good steak sandwiches and Latin pastries. Apparently they are the Latin Starbucks of Miami, and now we in Tampa get our very own! Thus far I've had a few items. Pan de buono, guav cheesecake, pan con churassco, and pan con bistec, all with cafe con leche. So, I really love variety of treats they have here. The one thing I zeroed on was the guava cheesecake, because to me it's the most unique and where else can I find that. The cheesecake was more of a guava pie to me, but nonetheless, I loved the tropical sweet taste of the guava in a smooth, creamy cheesecake topped with more guava paste. Their bread is notably light, fluffy, and delicious, in both the sandwiches and the pan de buono. I love pan de buono, and normally I get this from the bakery a little closer to me, but I love trying pan de buono from different places. This was like a fluffy cheese cloud, mildly sweet. The sandwiches are good too; the meat is always soft, tender, and well-seasoned. I love the papitos they have in the sandwiches which add some texture to it. The service here is very friendly, they also greet me when i come in. I love how clean the place is as well. This place used to be the Pollo Supremo chicken place, and even though I'm very sad they're no longer there, it's nice to know that another great restaurant is in its spot.

Trying these guys out at the taste of south Tampa festival I had to visit here! The breakfast sandwiches, pastries, churros, potato croquettes everything was a hit for me! I truly enjoyed my meal and the staff was the sweetest, can't wait to go back!

Fix your drive thru. I have been several times. And typically the speaker does not work.

Another Tampa bust. Let me start off this review by saying I grew up in Miami and Tampa eating Cuban food/baked goods. I was really hoping that this place would finally solve the problem of crappy Cuban bakeries in Tampa (they suck compared to Miami's thousands of great Cuban bakeries; Tampa has very few). But this place is even worse than what we already have in Tampa. I don't know where these pastries are coming from; are they being shipped frozen from Miami? Or do they just simply not know what a pastelito de carne or guayaba is supposed to look like or taste like? I assume they are coming frozen from South Florida, because there is NO WAY they could serve this crap in South Florida and be successful.I tried a variety of Cuban pastries from the case here and all of them were awful. The pastry tastes like it was defrosted and improperly baked/rolled. The pastry never rose (puffed), resulting in a dense, chewy pastry. The pastelitos had holes in them too. Also the fillings were horrible. Taste nothing like they should. Pastelito de carne made with ropa vieja instead of picadillo and the meat filling was salty/watery. Guava pastry filling had cinnamon or some spices that are not traditional Cuban. I don't think there is any actual baking going on in this place. Go take a look at the photos on Yelp from CAO Bakery's locations in South Florida, and their pastries there look NOTHING like the junk in their Tampa location. Something is not right in Tampa. Maybe they need a better baker in Tampa? On the plus side, the restaurant was SUPER clean and nice and the displays were beautiful. However, none of that matters if you are serving crap. I would literally rather drive 5 hours to a Cuban bakery in Miami and than eat this garbage.