Restaurant Review: Café Del Hidalgo of St. Augustine, Florida

The Café del Hidalgo is located in historic St. Augustine, and offers such items as gelato, specialty coffees, pastries, salads, and panini sandwiches. One may order a premade salad like the Greek Salad (made with tomato, red onion, Feta cheese, Kalamata olives, cucumber, and homemade Greek dressing over Romaine lettuce), and the Sicilian Tuna Salad (made with Albacore tuna, tomato, onion, lemon, celery, sliced egg, parmesan cheese, and lemon herb dressing over baby spinach). Alternatively, one may build their own salad, with a choice of lettuces, dressings, and "toss ins" like carrots, croutons, corn, roasted red peppers, mandarin oranges, marinated Portobello mushrooms, grilled chicken, prosciutto ham, sun dried cherries, and more.

Alternatively, one may purchase various panini sandwiches, such as The New Yorker (prosciutto ham with pesto, Swiss cheese, and roasted red peppers), The Rock (roasted turkey, Swiss cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and Grey Poupon mustard), and The Vermonter (Portobello mushrooms, cucumber, red onion, peppers, Provolone and Swiss cheeses, olive oil, and oregano).

Café del Hidalgo prides itself on serving coffee drinks made with an Italian espresso bean called Antica Tostatura Triestina. One can order all kinds of hot and cold coffee drinks such as cappuccino, breve, café mocha, iced latte, iced mocha, as well as espresso.

There are all kinds of desserts too, such as cannoli, tiramisu, Key Lime pie, biscotti. However, the main dessert showpiece is the gelato, which is prominently featured in twin cases at the very entrance of the Café. At least 20 flavors are offered for tasting and purchase.

While in the historic St. Augustine area, a friend and I stopped in at the Café del Hidalgo and ordered a Coppa to Share, which consists of 10 scoops of gelato of your choice, plus a topping made of fruits, nuts, white and dark chocolate, and whipped cream. We decided against taking all the nuts and chocolate so as to better savor the flavor of the gelato, and were pleasantly surprised when the cashier took off 10% on our bill as a result.

We went about picking out our 10 gelato flavors, which was a harder task than initially thought, given that we first wanted to taste the flavors. Finally, the flavors were picked out and topped with loads of whipped cream. Fruit was added along the sides of the plate.

We took our gelato feast to a table and dug into its multitude of flavors. We had taken gelato flavors such as amaretto, coffee, hazelnut, mango, grapefruit, vanilla, pistachio, and chocolate. The fruit flavors were wonderful, with grapefruit being the most intense. The pistachio and chocolate flavors were the richest.

We finished up our gelato with a breve, which is espresso mixed into steamed half and half. The coffee flavor was smooth, and the breve carried a nice coffee intensity expected of any drink laced with espresso.

During this time, we also saw several patrons walk in and get served their requested gelato and coffees, despite the place being closed. One can't help but admire restaurant staff willing to accommodate their customers in such ways.

I would definitely recommend the Café del Hidalgo for others- in fact, I returned there only two days later to again try the place's gelato and breve. Here is some additional information about the Café:

Café del Hidalgo

35 Hypolita Street

St. Augustine, FL 32084

Phone: (904) 823-1196 and (904)823-1198