Coabana — Restaurant in Phoenix

We went because of the good reviews. The drink menu was very elaborate, so I’d expected the drinks to be good and they were. The glasses were chilled and rum drinks were generously poured. The garnishes made the drinks even more special. Looking then to the food menu you can tell this restaurant caters to customers having drinks and sharing “tapas”, even though this concept is Spanish not Cuban. The appetizer menu is fairly elaborate and has a strange feature where many of the dishes come with 3 pieces and they advise that you can add a 4th for $3-$4 more. We tried the croquetas and again I associate this with a dish I was frequently given while living in Spain. These croquetas lacked potato and seemed to just have a crust with a ham and cheese cream sauce inside. They weren’t great, but better than the rest of the food. The entree menu was bare bones with several sandwiches (the cubano no doubt) and then there was ropa vieja and arroz con pollo, which I tried and it was horrible. It was like actual “old clothing” shredded chicken similar to what one would get at Filibertos. The rice and beans were completely unseasoned just drained black beans and instant rice it seemed. My wife ordered the Cuban sandwich and this should be hard to mess up, but again there was something like shredded pork on the sandwich and it was so salty that I could not distinguish the pickle or the ham or the cheese, the only other thing I could taste was mustard and a lot of it. As all the food was brought very quickly and at the same time as the appetizer I then noticed the croqueta had similarly been flavored with a generous helping of something like Gulden’s mustard. Everything else had no salt and no flavor so I asked for salt and hot sauce expecting a habanero sauce or something perhaps authentic to mask the blandness and the otherwise overarching mustard flavor. I was shocked that they graciously proceeded to bring two bottles of different varieties of Cholula Mexican hot sauce written right on the bottle that it wasn’t Cuban. It almost felt as if this was purposely meant to suggest I as the customer was treating all Hispanic restaurants as if they were Mexican. Later I had trouble getting a box from the waiter who had disappeared and when I found him looking at his mobile at the bar he stated “you’re going to have to give me a minute”. I had already paid and tipped 20%, but felt as if I was being treated as a bad tipper. In any case, I did not eat the leftovers and gave...

I just flew in for a business event and I love eating out when I am traveling and when I tell you that I spent over 30 minutes finding a great place to eat as a foodie that I am , I finally decided on this place because it looked awesome and I was craving Cuban food being from NJ good Cuban food is a staple. I am so sorry to report but that has got to be the worst cuban food I have ever tried in my life. To the point that my food came out in under 4 minutes of me ordering it, for them to bring me arroz, abichuelas negras and ropa vieja in under 4 minutes that just proves that it was made early in the morning and it’s just sitting there and it had zero flavor. I understand many not to many South American foreigners in the area that aren’t Mexican but any Cuban, Colombian, Dominican or Puerto Rican like myself will tell you this had No sazon what so ever!!! Now your drinks , your atmosphere and the vybes in there were super great 1000% but you guys need to fix that food quality , take a trip to Cuba or a trip to west New York NJ or a trip to Miami and go taste that same dish over there and you will see what I mean. Your staff was great and I appreciate the hospitality but I had to keep it real. I wish you all nothing but success ,...

Great bar in downtown Phoenix, that's about it. It was voted Best New Bar of 2023 and that's it, really. Not a Cuban Restaurant by any stretch, it can say what it wants and sell Cuban inspired food which doesn't make it authentic or original. My first clash was with our server, we asked for some limes to go with our water, she acknowledged it and disappeared. It was not super busy but we noticed that they were chatting with a patron or coworker and completely left us to fend for ourselves, I got up and asked the bartender for some limes, he immediately cut us some. Waitress finally came around asked if we were ready and we place our orders, 3 Ropa Viejas, 2 fried Yuccas with rice and black beans. The order came fairly quickly. The Ropa Vieja was soft but had a super kick to it, spicy, anyone from the Island knows that Cubans don't cook or eat spicy food, bell peppers at the most and lots of sazón. The black beans had no flavor, it tasted like canned beans but even when I tried those before they were soft, this was like not cooked at all, super hard. Overall I left disappointed and hungry, beware it is not authentic Cuban food and the service lacks. The bar looked very animated and I am pretty sure I would have gotten better...