Cuba Libre
Hmmm...nothing about this restaurant made me think of Cuba. I don't have well formed images of Cuba, not in my mind or anywhere else, so that may be my fault. The food was good, the mojito was descent, the service was not stellar. When I pay $12 US dollars for two tacos I would prefer my service to be good. I had the Jamaican Butcher Block taco plate, it had two tacos filled with various meats and it came with rice and beans. Mitzy had tortilla soup, it was quite tasty, but it seemed to be a lot of chicken in a spicy broth. Evidently they don't give you chips and salsa there, and that's cool, it is not a Tex-Mex place. They have, I believe, fried plantain chips, but those are not complimentary or at least were not for us on our visit.
I don't know a lot about traditional Cuban cuisine, but nothing on the menu seemed to scream traditional. And, again, that's okay. I don't think that's what they're going for. Still I was disappointed, and then I was suddenly filled with an urge to really rant and rave about this establishment. About how it's one of those trendy, schmaltzy plastic restaurants that caters to an equally trendy, schmaltzy, plastic crowd. And it is, but that it is not the fault of the restaurant, indeed I read some reviews of the place on line and it gets good a lot good comments, and I went there because I had overheard some people I hold in high regard speaking so highly of it.
I realize the problem is me, I don't like these types of dinning establishments and I am not willing to spend the amount of money it takes to really enjoy what they have to offer. To get the whole experience as it were. To me these places are over done, glitzed up with cheap facades, trendy art and motif's that sort-of-kind-of have something to do with the theme their going for, but not really. They have menus with over priced items, that while good, are never that good, but merely evoke the sense that your eating something exotic, something special. It seems so soulless to me.
It may have helped if they hadn't been playing top 40 over the speaker system, loudly. As it is I don't think I'll ever go back to Cuba Libre, I feel like I was bamboozled. The key lime pie was great, but should a "Cuban" place have great key lime pie? I'll have to check into that.