After quickly becoming top fans of Cedar in Covington's Mainstrasse Village, we jumped at the chance to eat at their newest culinary creation, Yuca, in Bellevue.

New brunch spot in Bellevue

Located at 700 Fairfield Avenue, Yuca is among several local favorite restaurants.  Don't leave them off the list.

The space is bright and airy, which helps give diners the vibe the restaurant's owners are going for:  a one-hour vacation from scratch with a Latin twist.

The menu has several similarities to Cedar, but with some Latin flare added.  Some of Cedar's most popular dishes are available on the current Yuca menu.

We sampled the Yuca Mosa, which was delightfully refreshing.  The salted rim and lime wedge added a nice touch.  Next, we needed to decide on lunch, and boy--was it a tough decision!

I finally settled on the Big Bad Wolf, which is a shredded pork waffle, crispy pork belly, spicy candied bacon, orange chipotle honey, and chipotle powdered sugar.  I've never had anything like it.  The sweet with spicy and combination of three types of pork was incredibly savory and very filling!  I'd order it again.

My coworker decided on the Cubano sandwich -- shredded pork shoulder, crispy pork belly, Monterey Jack cheese, chipotle mustard, house pickles, and yuca fries.  She had intended to save half of the sandwich for later, but it was so tasty that the second half didn't get left behind.  But the show-stopper?  The yuca fries.  I've never tasted fries seasoned quite like these, in a good way!  We asked our server for the secret recipe and don't tell him we told you, but there is cheese in the seasoning.  Combined with salt, pepper, seasoned salt, and other seasonings, the cheese made these irresistible!

The restaurant doesn't believe in microwaves or freezers, and you can tell a difference in the quality of the food.  The cocktail menu had several other items that sounded delicious, but it was a work lunch, so we politely declined and made a mental note to come back and sample more after-hours.  

Maybe one day we'll even delve into the vault... Yuca resides in the first floor of the Historic Campbell County Bank building, so a one-of-a-kind Tequila Vault is certainly a necessity!  

While our one-hour vacation didn't seem to last quite long enough (they never do!), we can't wait to come back to Yuca and vacate again.