Meet’N’Eat: Sal’s Bodega surprises South Tampa with Latin Food

A place I’d definitely go to again

Sarai Cochran, Senior Staff Writer
October 13, 2021

Recently on Facebook, Sal’s Bodega has been getting really good reviews so I had to try it for myself and they somewhat hold up to how good this place really is.

The place is almost hidden. I was driving there and I passed the actual place not thinking I’d have to search for it so you have to look out for the place when driving there.

Looking at the pictures online, the place looked better than it did when I got there so I wasn’t expecting it to look as good as it did when I showed up.

The outside has a little chalk sign with the different kinds of foods they serve. The outside of the bodega almost looks like a corner store from how it’s set up especially with the light-up open sign.

When you walk in it’s almost like a corner store and a very small restaurant or diner. There’s a really big counter to the left where you can order and pay or eat if you wanted to eat there. The back right corner is where the food is made and the rest of the bodega had things you’d see in a mini grocery store/corner store. There’s chips, drinks, ice cream, but there’s also condiments and seasonings in the back.

They serve a decent amount of things on the menu for a bodega. They have things like Steak Cuban, Pressed Italian, and chicken select which is a chicken, bacon, and white American cheese sandwich.

There’s also a few sides to go with the main dishes like beef, shrimp, and steak empanadas as well as stuffed potato with beef.

Their most popular sandwich was the Steak Cuban but ran out so I got their second most popular dish which was their Pressed Cuban with a shrimp empanada.

In the sandwich is roasted pulled pork, ham, swiss cheese, and pickle. For the amount paid for the Cuban sandwich, I had leftovers for the next day because it was so much food. There was lots of pork in the sandwich so I couldn’t really taste anything else.

I took some of the pork out so I could taste everything else and it was pretty good. Not something that would be crazy good but definitely up there on good Cuban sandwiches. I definitely enjoyed the empanada more than the sandwich. Everything about it was just so good. They had so much stuff in it but it wasn’t overpowering.

I’d rate this place a 6/10. It’s a really nice bodega to go to if your in the mood for some Cuban food. It’s not an average bodega but it’s not the best place I’ve tried. I’d go back and get the steak sandwich next time.