Gustazo Cuban Kitchen & Bar - Cambridge — Restaurant in Cambridge

It's truly a shame to have to rate this restaurant lower than the food quality. Gustazo has some very tasty food and well balanced cocktails. Unfortunately, the rest of the restaurant leaves a lot to be desired.

My fiancee and I went recently after wanting to try if for a long time. To say that our dining experience was lacking would be a major understatement.

Our server was overworked, lacking in knowledge of the menu specifically the cocktails, and mostly absent during our meal.

Starting at the beginning, we were led downstairs to a row of two tables that had been set up alongside a downstairs bar that was no longer in use. The row was so cramped, that servers were constantly having to duck around each other and step into our seating spaces to avoid colliding with each other. This would not have been nearly as much of an issue had they not also been running food out of the back area right behind this row, so we had a constant flow of stop and go traffic around our table the whole meal. Our server, was unable to even comfortably able to take our orders without having to move around other staff trying to run food or dishes in and out of the kitchen. I understand that plans for restaurants change all the time, and while the initial intent may have been to have a full service bar in the downstairs section having two rows squashed next to an abandoned side bar is impractical, not pleasing aesthetically, and makes for a terrible dining experience when the patron feel cramped. We would have asked for a different table had we been able to locate our server.

Our server, seemed to be working every table in the entire lower seating area. He was constantly running around and unable to be attentive to our table. This led to us receiving incredibly poor service and noticing several tables that were seated much later than us receiving their food before we were able to even order ours. When he finally did come to our table, he informed us that we were given yesterday's menu which had items that we could not order only after we tried to order them and did not even think to correct the mistake by providing a proper menu for the day. Further, when my fiancee asked about the sweetness level of a signature cocktail, he replied that "All cocktails tasted sweet to him." He did not even bother to go into detail about the balance of the drink or offer to have someone well versed in the house cocktails assist with giving information about the drink. We also noticed more than once that the floor manager was pointing out several tables to him that needed checking in on as the discussions were happening right on the floor infront of the patrons.

Lastly, we were told that for the menu, it was recommended that we order 6 tapas dishes. We ordered our 6 and were surprised when the first three came out late and then the second three were nowhere to be found. We finished our three dishes, waited, waited, and waited. Finally, our server in a rush past us, informed us that the restaurant seating filled up and that some stations were behind, not even noticing that both of our drinks were finished or nearly finished. It was several more minutes before we were finally able to order additional drinks which were brought to the table by a totally different person. We finally had to ask not once, but twice about our remaining three plates before they were finally brought to the table.

The whole experience really soured what should have been a great meal with very good food. We will typically give a restaurant a pass for poor service, but the layout, the bus terminal seating, and the total lack of awareness that things were not right at our table left me with a really bad taste in my mouth even days later.

Would recommend the food as it was good, but make sure that you are seated upstairs and definitely do not go...

I've been meaning to try Gustazo for a while after hearing many rave reviews. It was pretty easy to get a reservation for Friday dinner earlier in the week -- I didn't realize that they had a spacious downstairs section, allowing for quite a lot of seating. We sat in the downstairs section which felt pretty secluded at first but was quickly filled up as peak dinner time approached. We had five people so were able to try a variety of dishes. Overall I would say that the food we had was quite heavy and creamy for my tastes, and I would probably try to order the lighter items on the menu if I returned.

I'll categorize the items based on whether I would get them again or not.

Would get again Ceviche - We got the haddock ceviche and it was delicious. It was well-balanced with some creamy avocado sauce, acidity, crispy topping, and fresh fish. Mussels ($18) - I actually really liked these. They were perfectly cooked though you had to remove the beards yourself. The sauce is good (though creamy). Yuca frita ($11) - Great texture, good fry, dipping sauce was tasty and garlicky.

Good, but probably wouldn't get again Croquetas de jamon ($9) - Nice fry, basically just cheesy bacon filling. Too heavy. Pulpo ($19) - It was cooked well but it was in a cheesy potato sauce which I didn't love (tasted like the inside of the croquetas). Rodaballo con almejas ($36) - The fish and clams were well-cooked (though the clams had some sand in them). The sauce was again very creamy and I couldn't eat much of it. Chicharrones ($16) - Crispy and well-cooked with guac and spicy salsa. Not my favorite preparation of pork belly I've had, but good texture. Guava blossoms drink - Good guava flavor, quite strong.

Definitely wouldn't get again Cazulea de coliflor asada ($14) - We got this at the very end when we were hoping to have some veggie relief after all the cream overload. Should've known -- it was extremely creamy and you could barely see the cauliflower in all the thick cream. Very very heavy. Should've read the menu better :') Tres leches cake ($10) - Nothing wrong with this one, it just wasn't anything special for me. The presentation was nice but the cake was a bit grainy and the coconut flavor was pretty dominant. Churros con chocolate ($8) - I thought these were quite bad. It just tasted like fried dough and the churros didn't have any chew that I would hope for from a churro dough. The chocolate was decent. Mango mojito mocktail - Just tasted like sparkling mango nectar, very sweet.

If I were to come back I would definitely get the ceviche again. I would be much more careful about what I ordered because it seems like the majority of dishes were very heavy on the cream. For tapas style places I would probably go somewhere else like Barcelona down Mass Ave. I think overall Gustazo does flavors well but those flavors were overpowered by the creaminess for me. It was also pretty pricey for what we got, especially the large plates. Not for me, but glad I...

Update (6/9/2025): We got food poisoning on 6/8/2025. My wife and I returned. We dined on 6/8/2025 and sat around 5:15 pm. Service was great. Atmosphere was enjoyable. All the dishes tasted delicious (Ensalada de habas, Ripa Vieja, swordfish taco). However we got food poisoning. Not sure where it came from. The salad did taste sandy (presumably unwashed greens), but it was so delicious we foolishly convinced ourselves that it was the tortilla (or similar) crumbs that were added and chose to eat with bliss. Two sequential visits separated by 5 years, both of which are terrible experiences.

Original Review (circa 2020): I did not have a good experience here and do not plan on returning. We came to celebrate a birthday, and brought a cake. Upon entering, rather than saying something like, "Happy Birthday, glad you came", they said it's going to be $5 per slice (extortion a bit?). Luckily they agreed to waive it. We were seated at a table on the main floor, back corner. It was dimly lit...we all started to fall asleep after 30 minutes because it was so dark. We all ordered our meals - some of us ordered tapas, others ordered the larger dishes. Soon enough the tapas started coming out. They didn't all come out, but we weren't concerned. We've been to other tapas restaurants (and Gustazo in Waltham); they arrive as they're ready. Well, 1.5 hours later, we're still waiting. We ask the servers, they said they had brought out the appetizer tapas first and will then bring out the main meals. That makes no sense, there were no "appetizer" tapas...that's not how things work. It's just some people orders tapas and others ordered large dishes. They then rushed the food to us, clearing out all the unused utensils and dishes, replacing them with new dishes and utensils (what was the point of that?) and brought out the remaining tapas and large dishes, mostly covered in salt. We complained about the service and experience...no manager cared enough to come. We complained about the salty food but were questioned why it was eaten if it was so salty...they seemed unfazed with the response of "medication requires food" and "waiting nearly 2 hours to eat".

I've been to Gustazo in Waltham. That place has great food and authentic atmosphere and good service. This place has none of that. They are trying to make this restaurant more uppity than it should be. It's worth going to the Waltham location instead or just going to any other restaurant...99% chance at getting...