Aguila Sandwich Shop
They can't all be the best.
One of the things about the cuban sandwich market in the Tampa Bay Area is that pretty much every shop makes a claim that it is “the best cuban sandwich”. Based on newspaper contests, based on online polls, based on the cuban sandwich festival, and many other criteria as well. Aguila is a shop that ended up on my list because of the number of people who have mentioned it as the best cubans in Tampa and yet it had never crossed my own mouth, which made it a perfect target for my second stop on the #SummerOf Cubans tour.
You’d be forgiven for not having been to this place before, as it turns out it is actually kind of difficult to find. Given it’s location on Hillsborough Ave, one of the main thoroughfares in Tampa, I’ve probably driven by it hundreds of times by this point in my life, and yet had no idea what it was. Finding it when I was actually looking for it was tough enough; the outside has virtually no signage, and there’s maybe enough room for one car to pull in the front (which I did, and then immediately decided that wasn’t a thing you were supposed to do, so backed out and went around the corner to look for parking).
Once I figured out how to get to the store, the next step was to then figure out how to actually order the food. I think in the before times that the building to the left was used as restaurant space, with tables and chairs and all that good stuff. In the post-covid world now, the place seemed reduced to a walk-up window with a large piece of plexiglass in front that you need to order around. I snagged a copy of the menu and started to put together an order, but saw an immediate red-flag… salami was “by request only”.
As I said in my intro post, to do a cuban right you have to include the salami, so having it as a “by request” option cast serious doubts this could really be the “best” Cuban sandwich in the area. Still, the proof is in the sandwich, so I ordered a regular size cuban with salami (thank you very much), a side of platanos fritos sweet plantains, and a cortadito to wash it down. I happened to have my compañera Hambre with me on this trip and she ordered a couple of empanadas (one beef, one chicken).
We took the food back to the car to eat in the AC rather than the outdoor tables, and quickly dove into our meal. It was all good, but with one bite I knew it wasn’t the best. The bread was good quality Cuban bread, but they didn’t get enough toast on it to really cement the crunch, and to be honest the pork didn’t do enough to overcome that deficiency. It wasn’t a bad sandwich by any means, but certainly wasn’t the best. I think this followed on to the rest of the meal as well. I took a few bites of the empanadas but was happy to not trade any of my Cuban for more of them. I will say the cortadito was exactly what I was expecting with it’s overpowering coffee flavor cut by the plentiful amounts of azucar they must have dumped into the cup.
So what’s the conclusion? Well, in my opinion, it isn’t the best, but certainly a reputable establishment. I’d be tempted to come back and try their media noche at some point, especially if they were to open the restaurant portion back up.