Ena — Restaurant in Minneapolis

While the food is tasty, this restaurant certainly has issues with consistency. One thing is sure: either the waitstaff or the kitchen or both don't know what the menu calls for. And to add insult to injury, neither has any difficulty not delivering what the menu calls for or, for that matter, substituting without pre-advising the customer. I also heard the people around me complain to the waitstaff "that what they were served did not compare to what they ate on a previous occasion", and that comment followed their having first received food that belonged to another table.

To go into more detail, I decided to test this restaurant for lunch on 4/20 and asked for a Stella Artois beer. The waitress gave me a puzzled look, told me she had no idea what that was, and suggested I order a Pacifico. I later got hold of their wine list and there it was: Stella Artois (among many other premium and European beers).

Subsequently, I ordered a Boliche: pork loin in a mojo-sofrito sauce, accompanied by fried yuca, moro rice garnish, and pickled red onions. When the food was delivered, the fried yuca and red onion relish were decidedly missing. I asked for the yuca. Again a puzzled look from the waitress. She had no idea what yuca was but offered to ask the kitchen, after which she returned with a dish: "Yuca", she said. "No, not yuca", I responded, after taking one bite, "not fried or otherwise. It's mashed, wet, baked potato." The waitress returns the dish to the kitchen and advises: "We have no yuca today".

Still, the rest of the food was well-prepared. The loin was served in a delicious sofrito full of red peppers, tomatoes, and onions that were still chewy and not overcooked. And the moro rice appeared to have been put together Dominican style with red beans, red peppers, and tomatoes, in a manner that I had never tasted before. I decided that I wanted a chef friend to taste them, so I returned the next day to have him do just that. Same story, however, even though we had asked the waitress to ensure the availability of the fried yuca.

What my friend got served was totally different from what I ate the previous day and again, NO fried yuca. What he ate resembled more what is described as "Bistec Encebollado", and the rice had been prepared with BLACK beans, the Cuban way. We complain. Answer: "The yuca is somewhere cooked in the meat dish, and we are out of red beans." Excuse me, but could we be told BEFORE you serve us, and would you please not substitute things without asking your customers for their O.K.?

No apology either............ Also not for my "Camarones al Ajillo", which were supposed to have come in a garlic-butter sauce, accompanied by fried plantains. The sauce, while tasty, had no garlic or butter to speak of. Instead, it was very lemony and loaded with paprika. Fried plantains? I'm still searching.

All in all, this was a disappointing experience and I would counsel future diners at this establishment to keep a copy of the menu next to their plates to ensure that what is delivered matches what was ordered. Then tell the waitstaff: "No deletions, no substitutions, unless O.K.'d...

They got us in sooner than our reservation which was super appreciated! The food was great for the most part. We really enjoyed our drinks and the avocado tapas and shrimp pasta. However 2 in our group ordered the arroz plate. The menu said it came with pork belly, ham, chicken confit and chorizo. When it arrived, we realized that all it had on it was pork belly and was missing the other three proteins. He didn't mention anything to us about running out of anything, just left it. After we confirmed on the menu that it was indeed supposed to have 4 proteins we waved the waiter back over. We mentioned this to him and he said oh "I'll get you chicken confit. yes, I'm sorry they missed that. It's a new menu item". He left and we thought wait, just chicken? he came back and we said "what about the chorizo and ham?" He said they were out of chorizo and kept pointing at the pork belly saying it is basically ham. We were disappointed... We wish he had told us before ordering that half of the ingredients in this dish would not be in it. It seemed he didn't really care which was disappointing for a more expensive restaurant. At the end of the meal, he didn't offer us discount on the items or free dessert or anything like that... I definitely felt like something should've been offered since there had been no explanation and then no replacement for two of the proteins.

I also really was annoyed by how they use payment terminals that list amount due and amount to tip instead of just giving receipts. We have no idea what we're paying for, he's watching us as we tip and conveniently the machine doesn't remind you that a 12% tip has already been included in the total. If we had a paper receipt, we can confirm were charged accurately, we'd see that reminder that there's already a 12% tip and be reminded to then tip additionally accordingly. I totally forgot about the 12%, and still wanting to give a nice tip despite disappointing service, ended up giving a 18% tip so a 30% total tip that was definitely...

I was so happy to find this spot locally, I had no idea it was there! I had been craving Latin American food and was curious to check this place out. The one negative I will say is that they were severely understaffed. Them being understaffed did not help with the number of tables that were occupied (yes, there was social distancing.) This made them not really pay much attention to detail and messed up our appetizer order (gave us cheese empanadas instead of beef empanadas) and did nothing to correct it. Not the best customer service, in my opinion. Only negative!

On to the food! Appetizers: Guacamole - this was delicious and presented beautifully. All of the ingredients that went into it were fresh as if they were grown in the back. Top tier guacamole. 5/5. Empanadas - We ordered beef empanadas but received cheese empanadas, they were still delicious and the roasted tomato salsa topping was delicious. 5/5

Entrees: Bife De Chorizo - I loved this. However, I would have preferred another starch rather than fries. Maybe chopped potatoes or even mashed potatoes would have been wonderful. This meal was flavorful. I'm a very picky eater and absolutely hate artichokes, asparagus, and red peppers but I ate this meal like no tomorrow. Well done! Carne Bravo - This was so full of flavor! The flat iron steak is pimento crusted, and it has sauteed baby potatoes and veggies. The demi-glaze is... chef's kiss I would highly recommend this dish.

Dessert: Creme Brulee & Churros: Both fantastic dessert options. Delicious, perfectly made, and full of flavor.

I can't wait to go back to Cafe Ena. I'm excited to order from here to-go if we end up in...