Bravo Gourmet Sandwich

You see, I have this friend,she makes up 50% of team Lluberes, and when she tells me "you HAVE to go to this restaurant (fill in name here)" I listen, and I listen good. Until now, she hasn't steered us wrong.
So when Silvia told us about a sandwich place in Dania, we didn't say "oh its too far" or "only sandwiches?" we just said WHEN.

BRAVO Gourmet Sandwich is located in a non-descript shopping strip in front of a Home Depot, or it could have been a K-Mart. I'm not too sure, I was too busy trying to keep Mia awake through the car ride. No nap hurricane...but that's another story. Its address is 2925 NE 6th Avenue Fort Lauderdale FL 33334, so google it before going.

A tiny place with about 10 tables TOPS, we walked in with a group of 10 adults and 2 kids...well one kid and one baby. I'm going to be honest here, when we walked in, this place was empty and I have a thing against empty restaurants...so I was skeptical. Two, the place was really cold inside, so cold that I told the hubby to please go and get a jacket for Mia out of the car. Three, as soon as we set foot in this restaurant Mia asks to go pee. REALLY? NOW?! So I take my tiny hurricane THROUGH the kitchen to the back area where they have the lonesome bathroom. As I am walking through the kitchen Mia said hi to the only cook about a thousand times and I had time to see that everything looked really clean. A thousand "byes" later (she's a very well mannered girl what can I say) and we were sitting down in a noticeably much warmer restaurant. The owner had turned up the AC upon our request. Nice.

We ask for a child seat and they inform us that they don't have any...poo. Hurricanes and regular chairs just don't mix. At all. They allow too much freedom too early in the game. But we shruged it off and plowed on ahead. Alfredo had already ordered us some Chicha (the corn based drink that I have previously explained) and I see that they have various other fresh juices to pick from. I ordered an additional Lucuma juice and as far as beverages go, Team Gambarina was set.

The waitress/owner/cashier took our orders and the conversation began. This is why I love to take Mia out with our friends. She understands that conversation is part of eating and we hope that by instilling this value in her she will want to share her daily stories with us around the table well into her much dreaded teenage years. Paquiao won? No, Cotto doesn't train as hard. Yeah, we can mount a TV in your wall. Who's going to Peru? Camping, when and where? They closed down Tootsies!? What is your favorite food? That potato looks pregnant! Where all part of the nightly headlines of the table today.

Mia entertained herself by coloring and playing with her God sent sticker books. Those books provide us with hours and hours of sanity at restaurants. We have come to rely so much on them that we break out in a cold sweat when we think about the chaos that would ensue if we were to *gasp* forget them...the terror...

Then the food came. Now, I'm not going to lie, the wait was long (hence the varied topics of conversation) but it's because we went half an hour before closing time and there was only 1 cook for all 10 of us. Plus everything was done right at the time we ordered it (we heard the wild chopping in the kitchen)so really, there is no room for complaining.

The food was really good and everyone around the table was raving about their plates. From stuffed potatoes to the fresh juices to the sandwiches, all was delish. I ordered a Pan con chicharron, which is a typical Peruvian breakfast staple.



Yeah, one look at that sandwich and you wonder how all Peruvians don't weight 700 pounds each.

The sandwich is made up of fried pork chunks sliced in manageable pieces, fried sweet potato slices and onion sauce between two slices of bread. Sounds weird? well, in this case, weird works.

Alfredo ordered a Pan con Lomo Saltado. Slices of meat, tomatoes and onions sauteed and paired with french fries and then stuffed into a sandwich. While this was a very good sandwich, my sandwich definitely kicks Alfredo's sandwich's butt. Alfredo even said so....after taking 2 huge bites out of my dinner.

There were 6 Peruvians and 4 non-Peruvians in the table and we either a)Were intimidating them into lying or b)The non-Peruvians enjoyed their meals as much as we did.

After finishing up and taking a second trip to the bathroom, Mia downed 2 big glasses of Chicha, I spoke to the owners and told them how good the food was. This is the part I love about tiny establishments, they live for these kind of comments, they work for these kind of comments, and usually they work really hard. This was no exception, I really only wish that it wasn't so far away from us.


Pros: Good food, family owned, clean bathroom and kitchen, friendly service.
Cons: Small place (but this could be a positive!), no high chairs or booster seats.