Cocina 214 is a contemporary Mexican Kitchen and Bar with its name, cocina, coming from the Spanish word for kitchen and 214, the Dallas area code, and home place of the owners of Cocina 214. Tucked off a side street from busy Park Avenue, its location on Welbourne Ave can be easy to miss, but once inside you will find it to be more than memorable.
The decor here is elegant and classy, and definitely well deserved of its title of the best place to bring a client from the Orlando Business Journal.
The owners of Cocina 214 missed the Tex-Mex food of their native state of Texas so much that they created this restaurant off of Park Avenue to bring the flavors that they missed to Winter Park.
The 214 salsas are all made in house and come as mild (fire roasted salsa), medium (verde and pineapple habenero), and hot (habenero and coconut habenero). Start off with some of their hand mashed, chilled guacamole with chips and a wedge of lime.
Chunky mashed guacamole, enough to share with a group
The taqueria menu features a number of “street” tacos made in different ways like the brisket tacos, with beef brisket, pico de gallo, and cheese served on flour tortillas, or the Don Carlos, blackened fish tacos with slaw, avocado, and jalapeno vinaigrette salsa. The tacos here are served on a very different style of tortilla that we are accustomed to, made in house and very light and fluffy, almost the consistency of the Indian naan or roti bread, and very delicious.
In addition to the tacos, there is also of course an exhaustive selection of margaritas, mojitos, tequilas, and specialty cocktails for enjoyment.
Brisket Tacos made with beef brisket, pico de gallo, and cheese on house made flour tortillas
The Park Ave Lux margarita, made with Patron Silver & Patron Citronge, hand shaken with fresh lime juice
Tres Leches Cake three-milk cake, a sponge cake, also made in house, soaked in three kinds of milk: evaporated milk, condensed milk, and whole milk.
Cocina 214
151 E. Welbourne Ave., Winter Park (between West Morse Boulevard and West New England Avenue)
