Coral Gables Restaurant Guide

The food at most bookstore cafés usually encourages more fear and loathing than great expectations, but the cute little Café at Books & Books in Coral Gables is actually a casual, inexpensive, unpretentious garden of earthly delights. Chef Bernie Matz's menu covers all the expected soup-salad-sandwich bases but also offers a few more adventurous options. One of the best is a salad featuring tender rings of grilled calamari with chorizo sofrito -- a sophisticated mélange of tastes and textures. Try the guava-glazed pork tenderloin with boniato mash, as well as coconut-crusted seared raw tuna with mango-pepper slaw. And save room for luscious cream cheese-coconut flan for dessert.