Havana 1957 Cuban Cuisine Espanola Way — Restaurant in Miami Beach

The food was good not great. The service was terrible. The atmosphere was crowded but it’s to be expected. But I’ll explain that in a bit.

First the food is okay. It’s a good amount of food for what you are paying but I wouldn’t go home raving about the food. It’s tasty but a bit too salty. I had the pollo Havana and my wife for the Cuban sandwich.

Let me tell you about the service though. The service was terrible. Look, I know it’s a busy place. I mean it’s at the entrance of Eapañola Way. It’s in a prime location where it is going to pull in a lot of people and it will get busy. But shouldn’t a restaurant who is putting themselves in this location be prepared for this amount of people? Shouldn’t they adapt? It made me question if they were understaffed. I have been to restaurants that have been in a hot spot for tourist but they were very attentive.

I do want to add that my experience might have been unique. Which makes this experience worse in my opinion. Let me explain. We were sat inside and it was really crowded in there. Not that it was a lot of people. But we’re packed in there like sardines. We were in front of the bar in a 2 person table. The waiters and guests kept bumping into us.

While waiting for our food which took forever (about 35-40 mins) I noticed a few things that made us feel forgotten even though we were in the middle of the restaurant. One, we weren’t served by an actual waiter/waitress. It was the Maitre D. Were they understaffed? I kept asked myself that. The table next to us that sat 4 was also taken care of by her. But why? Why didn’t we get a waiter? You’d think the Maitre D would give us good service. I wasn’t asking for stellar service either. But wait on us. My water was empty and I finished my main drink. Both my wife and I did. Again, I understand they were busy but she didn’t at least ask us if we wanted anything more to drink. Didn’t come to refill our waters. Didn’t at least tell us that the food is on its way or that it might be a few more minutes. She never checked up on us or the table next to us. Just took our orders and she went back to her actual job as the Maitre D. Meanwhile the other tables inside the bar which were literally right next to us had waiters. They were being attended to.

What I noticed too is that the people who were sitting outside were being taken care of so much better. I saw the waiters interacting with the guest more. Being friendly and just - you know doing there job. I mean from a marketing stand point that makes sense. You are advertising to potential customers that the waiters are attentive to you if you eat there. That is not the experience we got when we went inside.

Here is the other thing- this person didn’t wait on us. And she was frustrated when we didn’t tip. But hey, they do the 20% service charge that is automatically added to your bill. I’m okay with that because it goes to employee benefits and it goes to the employees that made our food and drinks. That Maitre D was terrible.

Thank you for making us and the table next to feel forgotten. We won’t be...

4 stars for experience, 3 for food, but the experience wins out

So here's the situation...we're in Miami for less than a day and wanted to get Cuban food. We had just finished exploring Wynwood and wanted to make our way to South Beach but Little Havana was in the other direction. We had gone fishing the prior day and our captain recommended Havana 1957 as having good Cuban food. "It's kind of cheesy but it's actually good", he said. Since we wanted to head over to South Beach and this location was right nearby, we decided to head over.

He was right...it's kind of cheesy. First of all, it's a chain (there's several locations) and 2. There was a woman wearing traditional Cuban garb trying to get people to come in. I usually steer clear of these "tourist traps" but we had been warned about its cheesiness and it seemed like that's just how things were done at Espanola street. We acknowledged we weren't going to have the best Cuban meal of our lives but we also expected a good one and that's what we got. It was busy when we got there for lunch but we got seated right away.

VIBE: Lively with great Cuban music playing. All the windows and doorways were open so even though we were sitting inside, we could feel the breeze from outside

SERVICE: I usually don't comment on service in these reviews because it's so variable and I try not to hold it against restaurants if it's not great but DAMN this was great service! Our waiter was SO enthusiastic about everything on the menu and made many recommendations which we took and were pleased with (both when it came to food and drinks). He was enthusiastic without being too pushy.

DRINKS: They have so many drink options, especially when it came to mojitos. I had both a raspberry mojito and a kiwi mojito, both of which were made from juice freshly-squeezed or blended which made them delicious. A little pricy ($13ish) but that's South Beach.

FOOD:

Cuban Sandwich: My friend really wanted a Cuban sandwich even though the waiter warned us that it wasn't their specialty and that they could find something similar elsewhere. We got it as an appetizer and shared it (they even cut it into smaller pieces for us) and it was good, not amazing.

Havan 1957 Signature: This is their specialty dish that the waiter recommended. It's a half chicken with Cuban gravy plus rice and black beans (of course), plantains (of course), and potatoes. It also came with a side salad which I didn't touch because I was so full from the Cuban Sandwich and everything else. I thought it was good, though the chicken was little dry (the gravy definitely helped). My friend got a sampler with the chicken plus ropa vieja and some other pork and I liked that he got more of a variety. I would have gotten that next time.

COST: Definitely on the pricy side (we spent over $50 for lunch and drinks each because of all the resort taxes) but that's to be expected in South Beach. Also be aware that the tip is already included on your bill.

Great experience and good food but I probably would check out one of the other Cuban places in Miami...

This location is as busy as it gets, we appeared to be lucky to get a table at all. First, they refused to give us a bigger table other than the narrowest one, but later on I realized why. It was packed. I bet there is no chance to get in on Friday night or so.

Our server was Amalia and service has been great. The food was served quite fast and it was presented in unique authentic style. However, they include service charge into the check regardless of your will; it's about 18%. In this case, I was planning to tip little more (the check wasn't too big), but I hate when establishments do that (I can't say if this was mentioned in the menu, didn't expect that coming). I think the reason behind it, is that Miami Beach - a destination for international tourists, a lot of which are not used to tip at all, but the servers still want to make some; still, there have to be a better way to do that.

The food was really good, without any "but"; and it was absolutely worth the price. I got the Cuban sandwich and it was like 4 inch thick, a ton of fresh and delicious ingredients inside golden-brown toasted bread. Avocado toasts look like the food I'd like to eat every day, whoever came up with the idea of this combo is a genius. They are not only delicious, their colors also looked fantastic, check out he pic! I got the Kiwi juice, that I never tasted before and it was just amazing, although a little too sweet; so if you're not into sugar thing, probably pick something else. Mojito was quite strong, very good for a beach town, but not for a lunchbreak lol.

We took the table outside, so there is not much I share tell about the interior; however, I found 2 little easter eggs there too. There is a funny picture that reads MACHO on men's bathroom door, and there was a useful info poster inside the bathroom that told me Mojito comes free with Cuban sandwich, even before I ordered.

Now, as to the pricing, even at Miami Beach $15+ for Mojito is a little too much, however, when we got it for free with a sandwich, check total was absolutely normal. The rest of the food was about average, Cuban sandwich $15, Avocado toasts with salmon $16, Kiwi Juice $6......