Cuba Cuba Castle Rock — Restaurant in Castle Rock

Was really looking forward to experiencing this place, and am really hoping experience was a one-off slipped between the cracks, or maybe an act of discrimination. We will likely not return to this location as a result of our experience. The wait seemed to maybe have a table or 2 per person, though everyone (atleast 5 servers) was congregating around the host stand or back patio door the whole time we were there. After making our drink selections, it took 15 minutes to get anything from the bar. The jalapeño mojito was tastey and we were looking forward to exploring more of the menu, despite the delay. Saw other tables promptly get their orders and heard a lot of praise for the food and even some of the wait staff. Put in our order when drinks dropped. To start we wanted to try the empanadas ane croquettes, and entrees of the fish sandwich and camerones for the table. Once our food order was in, our waitress seemed to have totally dropped off, though we saw her bouncing around the FoH. Approximately 40 minutes later, our entrees were dropped by another waitress, who refilled our waters as well, but our paid drinks remained empty. Never saw or heard about the appetizers. We find the fries for the sandwich to be cold and soggy, the fish cold too. And the potatoes on the saucy dish were cold as well. The sauce was hot and well flavored, so it was able to help with the overall temp. We could easily tell our meals were sitting complete for some time, only to be brought to us well past its prime. 10 minutes after entrees dropped, we finally interacted with our waitress again. She asked how everything was tasting. I explained all of the above to her, asked to cancel the empanadas and croquettes, and get our bill asap. She asked to let her know what she can do and I repeated my request. She came back with the bill a few minutes later and offered to add back on the apps and take them to go. Even went as far as saying she eats the empanadas left over all of the time, and they're okay reheated. Once again explained we were extremely disappointed with the level of service received. We were looking forward to a night out and trying a new place, even had looked over the reviews and menu before coming in, planned atleast 3 more bar drinks and dessert likely paired with the suggested rum to go along. But at that point we finished our cold meals and were more than put off by the tainted experience. She said "well if you want me to take something off of the bill, let me know". If this is a means to correct the experience, I truly feel this would be offered, not requested, but at the end of the day, we were not looking for free food, and in fact intended on spending 2 or 3 times what our bill ended up being. Maybe I should have spoken to the manager, but again, really was not seeking a comped meal, but really wanted to address the experience. I almost never do this, by reaction to the experience was to promptly pay, write out a $0.00 tip, and wrote out bullet points on the receipt of the poor service. Also explained to my dining partner that while I would have liked to handle this in house and in person, but that in combination with the tip(s) left, that I will likely be posting some reviews of the night. I am quite sure they are capable of good service, as I witnessed others, but we certainly will not be back to...

I really had high hopes for this restaurant, but my experience was so bad that I'm writing a review today, and I never do that. I called at noon to ask about reservations. They don't do that apparently, so I told the host that I had a large party coming at 6PM for my 35th birthday as a heads up. When we showed up, they has no idea and were totally unprepared. A manager I assume, a man in shorts, was rude to my sister-in-law when she inquired about how much longer after we'd waited 30 minutes because her kids were hungry. They never offered my mom with a walker or my uncle in a prosthetic knee brace a chair, so they sat at Starbucks next door on a bench outside in the light rain. When we did get sat after an hour, they failed to offer a high chair for my toddler niece or bring us adult or kids menus. We had to get up from the table to get them ourselves. Another manager, a woman in a black lace top, nicely brought the children rice before their meals came which is why I'm giving 2 stars instead of 1. Not that I care because I'm also a free spirit, but I saw her nipples every time she bent down to serve our table anything. Drinks were slow from the bar and but our waiter was extremely accurate and we'd gotten everything we'd asked for as promptly as you could expect from a busy Saturday and having a large table. Food was delicious. Nobody acknowledged my birthday at all, though they would have had to be completely oblivious we were celebrating something. But the icing on the cake was the the bill. A 20% "catering charge", presumably his tip, was added, which is fine, but this was not explained anywhere on the menu or communicated by the staff. When we asked about it, he nonchalantly told my mother he'd get "most of it" which is mostly true but partially a lie. We know you tip out the bar and hosts, don't be disingenuous to my elderly mother. He wouldn't split the check at all or accept multiple forms of payment so everything had to go on one credit card. What kind of restaurant prohibits what kind of money you can give them? Not one that wants my business again, that's for sure, which is disappointing because the food and mojitos...

Nice food, Americanized and not authentic in our opinions. My husband is first generation Cuban, and an amazing cook. He didn't even finish his black beans and when I had a taste, I knew why. The beans he makes that all our friends and family rave over aren't sweet. These were sweet and had no detectable Cumin, Cilantro, and no lime was served with it. I had the Picadillo al Caballo, which while decent, was bland to me. I was expecting more olive and caper bite. The egg arrived medium hard and not soft by the time I got it, which ruined the effect. My husband had the Lechon Asado. He complained it was bland and, as I mentioned, the beans were sweet. He ate the pork but enjoyed half of my plate better. Our daughter got the Pollo Empanizado. It was good (alas, she didn't like the black beans either) though it seems all of us are looking for more nuanced flavors in our food than perhaps this restaurant can feel safe serving in the middle of the US. Nothing here was bad. If you don't know a Cuban cook, you'll probably love it. You'll probably love it even if you do. It's good. But.... If we'd expected it to be like this we could have stayed at home and had my husband cook, or at least shoved bottles of spice in my purse to season our food with. Ultimately, there was no way to rectify the black beans. And my husband didn't even like the rice because as he put it, sticky rice is from Thailand, not Cuba. I'm guessing it's for presentation aesthetic, but it missed the mark with my fussy customer, especially with the food priced to match the allegedly exotic menu. The staff was polite and working hard, the wait, while long, can't be avoided at a popular dinner destination. I think the best plate of the night was the Tostacha appetizer, which, while not authentic, was very tasty. To date, my husband has only ever found what he considers authentic Cuban food in "Little Havana" in Miami, and at "Victor's 1959" in Minneapolis (a tiny breakfast and lunch place.) Enjoy the food and know that it's not Cuban to some...