Enigma Bistro — Restaurant in Delray Beach

Second time this season going there and again the salad size of actual lettuce is laughable. Plus the dressing is Kraft. Can’t they make their own? My wife told the waiter that if our guests who came for my wife’s birthday were not going to have a decent amount of lettuce in their “salad” as the last time we ate there it was pitiful, that she brought a bag of lettuce. She showed him her bag of lettuce. Sure enough, the waiter made sure her bowl had lettuce in it, and even commented to her that her bowl had lettuce as he made sure , but didn’t make sure our friends had, and our friends and myself barely had any. He knew. My wife ripped open the lettuce bag and our guests then had a side salad not little shredded pieces with some cucumbers, shredded carrots and a tomato slice. We left the empty bag on the table at the end of the night. Furthermore, there was some mismanagement of the serving of food as some in my party waited a lot longer for their food then others. Rice, as a side dish, was served barely warm to less than room temperature. Vegetables were slightly over cooked. Chimchurry was tasty. My friend had to send back her lamb chops as she had asked for them to be medium, but got medium rare (I prefer rare, but that wasn’t what she ordered). The onion soup barely had cheese on it and the chef can use some sherry to make it taste better or take a lesson or look up on Google how to make onion soup. My wife makes a delicious French onion soup! The clam chowder soup was ok. Both soups were not served as hot as they should be. My friends enjoyed the veal parmigiana. The fish was good but nothing outstanding that would drive one back to have more. My wife’s garlic steak was delicious. The waiter told us they didn’t have a lot of bread left so they had to ration. They apparently didn’t make enough for the day. The bread they serve is a little larger than a quarter with slabs of butter delivered as per person. The bread basket didn’t have enough for the whole table with the first basket delivered to the table and rather than put all the bread into the basket, the waiter said he had to get a second basket. He knew there wasn’t even one piece per person in the first basket. So even the bread couldn’t be served to everyone at once. At the end, the waiter and the boss lady asked us to pay in cash as their machines were down, but that was not so true as some friends only had cards. There was no warning prior to the service that they wanted cash. The business was forced to accept the cards. The boss lady said the internet was down. Not true as my friend checked on her phone and service was just fine, and the terminals for the cards was working. So some friends paid with their cards. The waiter tried hard, but was overwhelmed. The sangria was delicious. Overall, this was the second time we have gone this season (November 2022 -2023) and it’s February 22, 2023. Last year it was so much better. It’s sad. We won’t return. It used to be so much better. The waiter should work somewhere else where they are better able to process the kitchen and he can get lessons on serving two baskets of bread at once or one basket of bread with enough bread for everyone. After all, ten little quarter sized pieces of bread are not only small enough to fit in their baskets, but definitely light enough. I give it two stars: one for the waiter who had little to be proud of because of the restaurant he works in and he needs better opportunities and training if this is his career, and my wife’s steak which was good. Oh and the...

We went here based on a friends referral with high expectations warm atmosphere, quaint decor.. We started with Sangria which was very good. Warm bread, salad, again very good. We were excited. Ordered the yucca croquettes, lacked depth of flavor, insipid. Calamari was frozen, over cooked, and tasted like old oil. We sent it back. Had lobster bisque which had a nice flavor, but no lobster, and some kind of mushy white fish in it. New England clam chowder was good, and conch chowder was also good. We really wanted to like this place. The reviews looked so good. I don't know if it was just a off night, or if this is how the food always is. I am just giving my review based on tonight's meal. Now onto the main dishes. We went with the recommendations, skirt steak, paella, and macadamia nut crusted grouper. The skirt steak was cooked properly, but had no taste. It lacked flavor, lacked spices. The rice was overcooked and seemed day old . The dish had too many things going on, on the plate. The appearance was not appealing to look at, the cauliflower, broccoli side was mushy and over cooked again lacking flavor. The paella was over cooked and in no way represented a true paella. The rice was overcooked mushy, the seafood was frozen, lacked flavor and was gummy. The grouper did not taste fresh. It was mushy, fish should get flaky if it is fresh. The crush had a burst oil taste, and again each entree looked as if food was just thrown onto the plate with no love, no care, no passion. We couldn't even eat them. Our dog will hopefully enjoy the leftovers because our stomachs were so disturbed by the confusing mix of Cuban, Spanish, if you want to even call it spanish, flare. This restaurant does not focus on doing one or 2 styles of cooking and doing it well. It's all over the place with different cuisines. Italian? Bahamian? Cuban? Middle Eastern? Cajun? Mixing all of these cuisines together and not taking the time to present the food in an appetizing way. Prices are reasonable, but food is disappointing at best. We finished the meal with 1 flan to share, which was presented in a martini glass and looked very good. It was so incredibly sweet that we all shared 2 bites and left the rest. If you have elevated taste buds this is not the...

Okay this is definitely not authentic Cuban food we visited on June 28 2024 based on white peoples reviews my husband is born in Cuba raised in Cuba as a child I’m Puerto Rican both from NYC mother-in-law is an authentic Cuban cook owned her restaurant and is a retired cook from Hialeah Miami and the staff and owner were very nice but I quickly realized that they knew nothing about their own food once I quickly called them out on the food and menu they served me a regular rubber ducky chewy steak with gross yellow rice over season with cumin no palomilla steak but server said sorry no palomilla only serve skirt flank steak it was a disaster I asked them why they don’t have congri or white rice with black beans no croqueta no mamei juice flan had cinnamon that’s a sin umm no! If your a true Cuban know your Cuban heritage then pass on this place sorry the server was well aware I was not at all happy i questioned him why do they serve steamed vegetables and he laughed embarrassed and said it’s because 98 percent of people are white and don’t know any better they were elderly people the entire restaurant was full of white folks and we were the only Hispanic people there again staff and owners were very friendly and nice but this was not at all what the reviews claim I quickly realized the reviewer were not of Cuban origin nor Hispanic so they just settle to cater to foreigners who would not know what Cuban food really is so try Padrinos in Boca Raton or Guarapo’s in Boynton Beach this is not Cuban food sorry just...