Soto's Cuban Kitchen on N San Fernando Blvd is a family operation running at 4.5 stars across 24 reviews -- a small review count that reflects a newer or smaller restaurant rather than any shortage of quality. The description in the review says everything: the closest you'll come to an amazing home cooked Cuban cuisine.
Home cooked Cuban cuisine is a specific thing. It is not the Cuban food of restaurants that have adapted the cooking for a non-Cuban audience. It is picadillo the way a Cuban grandmother makes it: ground beef with sofrito, olives, capers, and raisins, served over white rice with black beans that cooked all day. It is vaca frita that someone took the time to boil, shred, and then pan-fry to the correct level of crispiness at the edges.
At 4.5 stars, Soto's is earning its rating among a small but committed customer base. The family cooking model -- where the person who decides how the food tastes is the same person who grew up eating it -- produces results that larger operations struggle to replicate.
For Burbank residents in the N San Fernando Blvd corridor, Soto's Cuban Kitchen is the neighborhood Cuban kitchen that cooks the way home cooks cook.
