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NOTE: Islamorada Restaurant has been closed and re-opened as Cocomo’s Grille, an island inspired restaurant.

Since moving from South FL, I’ve been looking for a really good Cuban restaurant in the Melbourne area. I’d heard a few people mention Cuban Sandwich down on Babcock, a place in downtown Cocoa Beach, and Islamorada Restaurant in Suntree. I figured I would give Islamorda a shot since it was close to the house, but after I learned they were only open for dinner, I was a little disappointed. Recently, however, in our local community paper, Islamorda has started to advertise about their new hours and lunch menu. This is great news to me; I finally lucked out and was able to try something other than a Cuban sandwich thanks to lunch pricing. That being said, I found that dinner pricing was a little steep, but nothing more than can be expected for a specialty restaurant.

Islamorda is a quaint little restaurant located right next to the YMCA in Suntree. Islamorda combines Key West and Cuban cuisine into what turns out to be a really tasty fusion. Additionally, the atmosphere is cozy and the wait staff are polite. Now my favorite lunch choice has always been the “media noche” sandwich, but unfortunately Islamorada does not make them; they do however make some other very tasty alternatives. For lunch, my wife and I ordered the roast pork with moro rice and tostones (~$10), a Caribbean chicken salad (~$6), a soda (~$2, canned), and a side order of fried sweet plantains (~$3). Our meals came with Cuban-style rolls and their great candy-like, whipped key-lime butter. Our food arrived after a few minutes, nice and hot. The roast pork was delicious, stewed with onion and seasonings; a little Mojo sauce added some nice flavor to it as well. You can’t lose with moro rice, tostones, and fried sweet plantains which were prepared equally as well. The Caribbean salad was a great blend of lettuce, tomatoes, croutons, carrots, pinneapple, and olives served with single breast of chicken marinated in a jerk-like seasoning and grilled. The salad came with a single serving of the raspberry vinaigrette, but you may want to ask for one more due to the salad’s size. It would have been nice to see more darker green leafy veggies in the salad as well, but it still tasted great.

Overall I’d say Islamorada Restaurant is a definite, “must visit” for residents of the Melbourne area. Good food and good people have made our experience there a pleasurable one. Look for their “10% off one entree” discount coupon in the Suntree/Viera paper while it lasts.

Islamorada Restaurant is located in the YMCA plaza at 6300 N Wickham Rd, Melbourne, FL.

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