Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar — Restaurant in Dr. Phillips

Writing this review at the table of Cuba Libre…

Horrible. Table of 11. Called multiple times in advance to make reservations, no return calls. No communication from the online reservation. Specifically stated we were coming for a retirement party. Arrived with a couple table decorations, gifts, and a small cake. About 20 minutes after arriving they try to tell us we have to pay $3 PER PERSON for bringing a cake…. Um…no. If you can’t return any phone calls, messages, or the online reservation after a week, then you don’t get to surprise us with a ridiculous fee. (By the way, at least half of us were planning to order their desserts…) Ordered nine appetizers and most of our party got alcoholic drinks. Appetizers arrived after a bit and tasted good. Dinner was a while different story. Ordered our food and waited a bit. ALL of the ordered meals came cold. Cold Cubans x4 dinners…. Cold Masitas de Puerco Fritas x4 dinners. Just, every single thing was cold…. Not even warm. I LOVE Cubans and was greatly disappointed to get a sandwich that was hot at one point but served cold. They did replace three of the Masitas meals, but none of the Cubans, so I guess it was nice of them to serve hot food… The manager was in the kitchen according to our server and was supposed to come out and talk to us at some point, but never actually did. He DID however come out of the kitchen TWICE to stare at us and talk to a couple people. Three Fireball shots were ordered and we were asked if we wanted them chilled or room temp. Room temp for me and chilled for the others. They were either NOT Fireball or they horribly water down their alcohol. I am a Fireball lover and know I did not get Fireball. When I e asked about the room temp shot, we were told there was one bottle of Fireball and it’s kept in the fridge (so why ask?) One of us went to the bar about the non-Fireball shots and they were told oh, that’s not Fireball… Then, she went to the bar again and they told her that we asked for them chilled, so they added ice cubes… But…. How did the ice cubes melt from the bar to the table??? The waiter, who was awesome, brought us plates and forks for our cake. Wanna laugh??? The clean forks were WARMER than the food we received. The he also told us he wouldn’t charge us the $3 per person fee for the cake because of all our issues. Um, how kind, but we weren’t going to pay that fee anyway… After all this I just couldn’t give them more money by ordering Tres Leche. No matter how much I want it… I won’t give them any more money. Ever. Just as I was finishing this review, Denis the general manager came to our table and apologized. He gave us some parking vouchers...

I wanted to go to the restaurant several times I visited but never got the chance because on weekends, dinner turns into a club environment. We finally got the chance and were very disappointed. The only items that we enjoyed was the mango butter with the bread which was excellent. I'm not sure if this is everyone's experience or we just got the worst chef. We ordered the most expensive $88 Plato Gaucho Mixed Grill meal they had with all meat types (steak, chicken, shrimp, lobster, and sausage). Both liquor drinks tasted terrible (but passed the strong levels). All the meat except the sausage was overcooked. The management did try to fix the issue by remaking the steak and chicken which was better the second time but the meat quality isn't lean. Overall, the shrimp, lobster, and chicken were dry and rubber like. The skirt steak was mostly fat and poor quality. My son ordered the burger and he spit out all four bites and attempted to eat it each time. The burger meat is the same as the steak, which makes the taste similar. The waitress cut the meal in half, for the burger which made it more tolerable to eat but my son didn't want it anymore due to the amount of fat as it wasn't lean meat. Management did apologize as we provided feedback and removed the item for the bill. While we weren't looking for a credit, it was thoughtful and appreciative of the staff to credit back. I've traveled to every state and international and the food quality at this restaurant is in my worst top 5. The waitress was very kind but maybe understaffed because most of the visit it took a long time to get the bread and water. Only for that reason did I rate service a 3 star. We will not be dining here again,...

I want to share how disappointed I am in this restaurant. As a local, I've been here many times over the years (all enjoyable experiences) but my most recent experience has soured my feelings for it and I will never return. As a warning to everyone, DO NOT make reservations in advance for large parties. If you cancel (and they make it really hard to do so), you will be charged $200. My reservation fell apart the day of due to unforeseen circumstances with my family who was in town. I tried to cancel in the morning as soon as I knew, attempting to communicate with the restaurant through multiple avenues with no success: 1.) The app does not allow you to cancel through it. Wasted a lot of time trying. 2.) The restaurant does not open until late afternoon. Tried calling throughout the day, 11am, 12pm, 1pm 2pm. No one picked up. No answering service. It was not until the app sent a text confirming the reservation around 3 that I was able to cancel. I didn't think anything of it at the time. When I reviewed my credit card statement several weeks later, there was a $200 charge. This cancelation charge for large parties is apparently stated during the reservation process through the app. News to me. But there it was and nothing i could do about it. To me, this is an outrageous penalty for canceling a reservation, especially when they make it so hard to do so. I would have been fine with $25, even $50, but $200! GTFO. For this reason, this restaurant will no longer be receiving any further business from myself, my family, or my friends. Goodbye Cuba Libre. Wish you the best but with sheisty business practices like these, I don't see you making it...