Havana 59 — Restaurant in Richmond

5 of my friends from work wanted to go here because they had advertised "free" salsa lessons. The restaurant was practically empty when we arrived despite a fairly constant flow of people going up stairs for the dance lessons.

Several of us got fish which was dry and hard. It was very overcooked. I asked for a side of plantains of which they gave me four slices. When I hear Cuban food I think plantains so I was hoping for more.

We all had tres leches cake. We decided our local supermarket made much better. It was good but not as good as it could have been.

When we walked in the guy who showed us to our table noticed I had a bottle of water. I take this water everywhere as I am a firm believer in drinking lots of water to stay healthy. He told me that it was illegal to bring my water into the restaurant. I'm an older guy and have never, in my life, been asked to not bring my bottle of water into a restaurant. I was astonished. In fact, I usually ask restaurants to refill my bottle of water and have never had a problem. Then he surprised me further by saying, just keep it out of sight and you should be fine. OK…so you annoy us by saying we are breaking the law and then tell us the proper way to break the law?

So I put it aside for our mean and just before we leave to go upstairs to dance, another lady comes over and asks if we were the same people that were at that table (some of us had left) and then told us the same thing the first guy told us about. At this point I’m ready to walk out and never come back. She was fairly rude about it. However, at the end of her rant about the “law” she too tells me to just keep it out of site.

Finally we go upstairs for the “free” salsa lessons. This turned out to be false advertising as they were charging $3 to get in. The $3 is NOT a problem but it was false advertising which just left me with a final blow to my sense of what is legal and what is not.

Bottom line, I felt that this place seemed to have a deep distrust for their customers and did not know how to cook fish.

I am soooo done...

Grab a little taste of Cuban flair at this place. The restaurant sits at the corner of 17th street marketplace. There is no direct street parking so my best advice is when coming off I-95 to park by the train station.

I used an OpenTable reservation which was nice as this was the first time trying out this spot. The interior was very rustic that had a cocktail bar with bar seating and booths on one side and small 2 top and 4 top tables and booths on the other. There was a stairway leading to an upstairs eating event area, but did not get to check that out.

The menu is one page apps and soup/salad choices on the left and entrees with classic Cuban and MP options due to the seafood faire. I opted for an original mojito and lechon asado. Skipped the dessert and app so not stance on that.

The service was nice altho our server didn't check back in on us after we got food but would have been nice to get a drink refill or hot sauce if there were any choices. It did state on the menu due to a small staff team and kitchen the food will take a while. Which wasn't too bad of a wait. The drink was good and quite minty.

The food was aplenty but would have like a wee bit more rice as there was more beans than rice. The maduros were good and tostones were crispy and delicious. I've had lechon before but didn't know it had a green spice mix. It was good and the darker pieces of meat were more flavorful.

The bathroom reminded me of one that you would find at a seedy dive bar. The graffiti on the walls threw me off, but I did like the Spanish newspaper ads.

They did have a Valentine's menu but right seem that put together for a couples meal. It was $55 that came with an appetizer, entré, and dessert choice I suppose. It wasn't too clear what it was so I skipped on it.

All in all a fair shot, but not the most exciting in my array of Cuban food. At least go for the music and grab a drink...

I dined at Havana 59 Downtown a couple of weeks ago, and it was a horrible experience, overall. My guest and I got seated pretty quickly. However, the service went downhill from there. It took the waitress forever to take our order. No apology for the long wait. Drinks (lemonade and a glass of champagne) took about 15 minutes to arrive to the table. Appetizers started arriving before the drinks made it to the table. I ordered three appetizers (Caesar salad, empanadas and wings), and my guest ordered a meal. My empanadas and wings came, but it was about 20-30 mins later when my guest’s meal arrived. We explained to the waitress that the appetizers were my meal, and that the meals should have come out at the same time. Each time we asked for my guest’s meal, there was an excuse each time. The restaurant was unstaffed, the kitchen was backed up, etc. By the time my guest’s meal arrived, I still hadn’t gotten my Caesar salad. At this point, the waitress said she would speak with the manager about comping our bill due to how long it took for my guest’s meal and Caesar salad to come. So guy, comes over and says the salad will be out shortly. I say, simply cancel the salad. He said, ok. The waitress comes back to the table, and says the manager told her, “he talked to us”. The manager finally comes back to the table with the salad and says “no point in throwing it away now and that he will comp the Caesar salad”. After being disgusted with the poor service, we paid the bill and left. I don’t understand how the one food item that doesn’t require any prep work or cooking would come last. I don’t understand how the manager could be so dismissive. My one advice for new customers - go somewhere else. The piss poor service isn’t worth the...