Mirasol’s Cafe – Dartmouth, MA

Mirasol’s Cafe
439 State Road
Dartmouth, MA 02747
(508) 996-2323

Service and Atmosphere
Like many diamonds in the rough, Mirasol’s is part of a tiny strip mall. The parking lot for Mirasol’s get’s quite busy around lunch time and people often wait with their engines running to pounce on an open parking spot. The interior of Mirasol’s is bright, fun, and warm. The cafe doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously with the bright colors, chalkboard art, and mismatched couches. The service was pretty standard with nothing especially distinguishing, but with the quick serve style of the cafe, that made sense.

Food
Upon entering Mirasol’s Cafe, I noticed right away a couple of glass cases full of baked goods. They looked really good, but I have no real idea about their quality because I was stopping in for lunch.

When I asked if they had iced coffee, one of the staff asked me right back if I wanted, “Light roast, medium roast, or dark roast.” I ordered the medium roast, assuming it would give me a good middle ground foundation for what to expect from the iced coffee there. I took a sip and enjoyed my iced coffee even though it was obviously hot brewed instead of cold-steeped. Nonetheless, it didn’t have a stagnant aftertaste that a lot of small cafe iced coffees can get when they’ve been sitting there for hours on end. I assumed that they perhaps brewed their iced coffee relatively fresh.

While trying to decide on what to get for lunch, I knew I wanted a sandwich, but Mirasol’s offers quite a few cold and hot sandwiches. After taking my time reading many of the sandwich ingredients drawn on the chalkboards behind the counter and letting people cut me in line as I read, I finally decided on a hot sandwich. The Cubano looked too good to pass up with its description of “Spice-rubbed Roast Pork,” as the main ingredient. Many Cuban sandwiches at mediocre places are just made with ham, but Mirasol’s boasted something more than a simple cold cut. When my sandwich arrived, I wasn’t disappointed.  What I saw before me was the heartiest Cubano sandwich I’d ever had. The crusty bread was hearty and it had a few more ingredients than usual (like lettuce and tomatoes) which added to the height of the pressed sandwich. The quantity of the perfectly seasoned roast pork was also pretty generous. The only negative points for the sandwich were that it didn’t have pickles like a traditional Cuban sandwich, the marinated onions were especially strong, and the yellow mustard felt far too heavy handed. I would definitely get this sandwich again (as well as try some of the other sandwiches at Mirasol’s), but I think I would have them hold the lettuce and give me the yellow mustard on the side so I could apply it myself to get the balance exactly right.

Overall Impression
If you’re ever around the Dartmouth, MA area and looking for coffee, baked goods, or just a hearty sandwich, then make sure to stop by Mirasol’s. I enjoyed my first experience there and I’ll definitely go back in the future.