Miami / South Florida, FLCuban Sandwich

Time Out Miami's note is about the building as much as the food: a plain old Miami shop that has held its tiny parking lot while a condo boom went up around it, with a takeaway window that stays busy and a dining room that stays full. The Cuban here runs cheesier than most and comes tucked with extra pickles. Order the Doble if you want a second helping of pork, or the Preparado, which buries two ham croquetas inside the sandwich. Closed Sundays.

Jason and Melanie Schoendorfer started by peddling homemade bacon at the farmers market, and when they opened a full butcher shop in Palmetto Bay they started selling sandwiches over the counter too. Time Out Miami puts the difference down to one ingredient: the ham is smoked in house rather than boiled, which carries smoke through the whole sandwich. It is also the pick furthest south on this list and the only one that is a butcher first. Order the Cuban, and buy something from the case on the way out.

The Galindo name dates to 1974, when Raul Galindo opened a Cuban sandwich counter on Coral Way that became a gathering point for the exile community. Time Out Miami describes a plain cafeteria with black vinyl booths and a U-shaped counter on soda fountain stools, in view of pork legs hung up to be sliced to order. The Cuban is ham, lechon and Swiss, pressed open faced and then closed, cut into quarters. Order it with a mamey batido and take your time.

A Cuban counter attached to a coin laundry a bit north of Coconut Grove, open around the clock, which is why Time Out Miami frames it as the place you have to talk your friends into at three in the morning. Most items on the menu are under six dollars, and the magazine says they will be thanking you between bites of working class Cuban classics. Order the Cuban, then a batido and an order of croquetas. It is the only pick here you can reach at any hour.

A small shopfront a block off Española Way in South Beach, run by a young transplant from New York, with a short menu of pressed handhelds. Time Out Miami notes that the pork is marinated in citrus and garlic mojo and roasted for more than fourteen hours, and that the shop also makes newer versions, including one with hot honey and a vegetarian option. Order The Classic Cubano, then the pan con timba and an iced cafe bonbon. Seating is a bench and a few sidewalk chairs.