Cuban Pete's — Restaurant in Montclair

I've been to Cuban Pete's once before a few years ago with my girlfriends since it seemed to be a popular spot in Montclair. We were not impressed then and found the food to be lackluster. My cousin celebrated her birthday here this past weekend and apparently nothing has changed since my last visit. Let's start with the food.

Owning a Latin restaurant in NYC I opted to go with some apps vs an entree since the cuisine is very similar. I ordered the bacon wrapped dates (delicious), the shrimp ajillo (also yummy), and the ham croquettes. What I got as croquettes was insulting to Latin cuisine. Tiny FROZEN tater-tot like potatoes with no flavor and so dry I asked for a dipping sauce. I offered my table to try but a couple took bites and agreed they were not good. My sister ordered the Cuban sandwich and took one bite and left the rest. It was not AT ALL your typical Cubano. The bread did not come pressed or toasted and the ham and cheese was cold like a deli sandwich. The fries that came with it also tasted old. My cousin's roasted pork was overcooked and tough to eat and her tostones were so gross and greasy she was only able to eat the one that didn't seem to have been old and refried. Another guest in our party ordered the "mango chicken" and commented how underwhelming her dish was. That the chicken itself had no flavor. I ordered a sangria and it was not good at all. It had a very unusual taste to it - almost like it has ginger in it.

The services was decent. I asked for ketchup twice but never got it. One of the guests asked for a piña colada and had to ask midway into dinner realizing it never came. We never got refills of water. It was my sister's birthday so we told our server in the beginning and midway thru dinner to bring her a dessert. We waited and waited and had to ruin the surprise because since it never came a few guests started getting ready to leave so we had to run up to him and remind him again. They eventually came with a flan and sang happy bday. They never lit the candle so my sister couldn't make a wish which was a bummer. That's the whole point of a birthday dessert.And to top it off the flan was not good at all. It was super dense and not the usual creamy texture one expects from a Latin restaurant. We waited forever for the bill, only to discover we were charged for an extra dessert we didn't order. They happily removed the extra charge.

Overall, my experience was less than sub par. The space itself does somewhat transport you to Cuba, down to the wobbly tables and creeky floors. The salsa playlist is great but I will not be...

Haven’t been to this restaurant in years and it will be many years before we go back…if ever!!!! We went for dinner last night…and the experience was TERRIBLE!!! The restaurant as a whole feels dirty in every corner…We sat inside at table in the back that was next to a shelf with a little statue on it…I could not stop focusing on the cob webs stringing from the statue to the wall…GROSS!!! The table itself was so bowed and uneven that everything put in front me as well as the condensation from our drinking glasses ended up in my lap!!! We were a party of three…we ordered three appetizers and three entree’s and somehow got talked into a $15 dollar pitcher of some type of non-alcoholic sangria…$15 down the drain…Literally!!!! Despite informing me that he did in fact put the entire order in at the same time, my entree (flounder bathed in garlic…Which was actually very good) was 20 minutes behind the other two entrees!!! Needless to say I ate pretty much alone as I insisted my wife and son eat their meals while they were still hot!!! On top of my meal already being super delayed in the kitchen, because of the condition of our table (mentioned previously), when our waiter hastily put my dish in front of me the garlic oil sauce on my plate quickly spilled out the side of the plate down the bowed table and onto my leg!!! Additionally, my son loves Cuban sandwiches and was so excited to order one last night…Unfortunately when it came out there were no pickles on it (how do you make a Cuban sandwich without pickles???) and when we informed the waiter he took the sandwich back to the kitchen for pickles and came back a few minutes later with the same sandwich and said “Sorry we are out of pickles”…Out of pickles…You are literally across the street from Whole Foods…send someone over to buy a jar of pickles!!!! Other than a few apologies in passing there was no gesture of any kind In acknowledgment of our overall experience…They should have at least offered to comp my entree since it literally came out after everyone else finished theirs!!!! There are so many great restaurants in down town Montclair…CUBAN PETE’S IS NOT ONE OF THEM!!! In these times of crazy inflation, super high interest rates and an overall volatile economy take your hard earned dollars to an establishment that takes pride in their appearance, the quality of the food they serve and the overall experience...

Before writing this review it’s important to know that I stood outside while it was slightly raining, after my dine in experience to speak with the manager about my experience. The host went to look for him and he was no wear to be found, unfortunately.

The overall service experience was kind of bad. The server seemed disinterested from the moment we started. Our food came out and was cold, we got the churrasco. We spoke with the server and mentioned it and he kind of look at it and said that’s interesting, and followed up with something along the lines of what would you like me to do?! lol. I look at him and said well, I don’t want to eat cold food. He waited there for a few more moments as my wife and I looked at each other confused. She said well you’re not going to microwave it right? He responded well, I’ll just have them put it back on the grill.

During our overall experience, he didn’t really check on our table. Which I would have been fine with if they were busy, but the restaurant wasn’t at all. Toward the end of our dinner we asked for a take out container for the remainder of our food along with our sangria pitcher (almost half left) and he brought out super small rice containers for the pitcher. Dropped it on the table and walked away after grabbing our check. When he came back around the area I called him over and said, sir do you guys have to go cups or something we have a lot of the pitcher left and he responded nope, we don’t have any. So I responded, well can we have additional containers. He kind of looked away grabbed the containers and dropped them off on the table.

No: have a good night, thank you dining with us. My apologies for the food coming out cold. How was your experience, nada. I work in the service industry and can say with 100% certainty that he just didn’t want to service our table, I have no idea why, could be his personality, maybe? But the truth here is this, I would NEVER want a person like that to be an extension of me in my restaurant.

I’m not looking for anything free, and honestly I went out of my way to try and communicate with management about my experience, but no one was around. My wife and I agreed, we won’t return because of the service experience.

Food was decent, but service was definitely not good. If someone in management wants me to explain further about my experience,...