Rumba Cubana — Restaurant in Rochelle Park

This was only my second visit, but not surprised by the … again, quality of the restaurant. From the moment I arrived, greeted by smiles at the host station to the short walk to the bar (just me today), got a good feeling immediately. Sat a arm’s length from an couple, the gentleman already sipping his dry vodka martini, with a happy look on his face, and digging into his soup of the day. Settled on my stool I got this young lady (Latina) named Connie ( yes my first thought Connie?? ), who greeted me with a smile and handed me their X-Large menu and their smaller drink menu. I ordered a white sangria and watched Connie mix it. It was very refreshing. I was there to eat something because I had a 2 hour road trip home. But also there to order takeout. I ordered all my takeout first. And ended up adding more selections a bit later. But I ordered the trio of empanadas, picked chicken, meat, and guava and cheese (no potatoes in the dish (didn’t want). A few minutes later the trio came out. Deep fried but the lightest, flaky empanadas I’ve ever had. A trio cut in halves, looking more like six empanadas vs three. A nice, not too spicy dipping sauce (needed a bigger dipping cup) that made the already good tasting empanadas even better tasting. I was very pleased period. I finished had some short conversation with a couple of crew working, including learning why Connie’s father named her Connie. You can ask her if you meet her. For all the food I ordered, and drink, $88 and change! I ordered seafood paella (chicken, shrimp, clams, calamari and other shellfish, and rice, a deep dish), a Cuban sandwich (didn’t get my plantain chips?), shrimp mofongo, tropical salad, plus the trio empanadas and my white sangria. I left with two shopping bags of food. Yes, happy! I spoke to my Brother about this place, and he managed to go to another location with his daughter and son-in-law and they loved it, the quality of food and service and the reasonable prices. Can’t wait to go back. Just...

TLDR: average quality food, sneaky way to upcharge $50 for margaritas, including a round we didn’t ask for…2.5 hour service for 4 people…

My family and I just left, so this is a fresh review. So for 4 people, we were there for 2.5 hours start to finish. We waited quite a while for our entrees. The calamari appetizer was totally bland, so I do not recommend.

Our entrees were fine. Big portions, but the camarones de ajillo was like 8 pieces of shrimp with a ton of rice and beans, so wouldn’t recommend if you want a lot of non-carbs in your dish.

Now, the real problem: the drinks. My mother and I got margaritas and my brother got a piña colada. The prices aren’t listed on the menu, but the piña colada was $9 and the margaritas were $15-16.50 each. So these are regular drinks, much smaller than the piña colada, but they cost much much more. Our waitress brought out a new round of margaritas, and we assumed that they were complimentary b/c we hadn’t asked for them and we waited over an hour for our dinner. We expressed our gratitude and drank the drinks, totally unaware of the fact that we were consuming $50 of margaritas.

Our waitress forgot our request for the birthday wishes for one person in our party, so I had to walk up and remind her while she was printing our check. They charged us $5 for the cake.

We brought up the disparity on the check and the waitress said that we confirmed we wanted a second round. We did not. But since it was almost 10pm, we paid and tipped well and left. However, it is incredibly sneaky to charge over $15 for small and basic margaritas and then shove a second round down our throats.

Quite frankly, the food was OK (again, except for the calamari), but I’ve had better Cuban food in northern NJ. And with the shady drink charges and service, I wouldn’t come back, nor would I...

Came by for dinner on the Sunday night of President's Day Weekend at around 7. The place was pretty packed and there were some groups waiting. Luckily, there was a table for us - I think because we were only two people. We were in the mood for some tapas and shareable plates, so we ordered that instead of each getting an entree to share. We had:

-Ajiaco (meat & vegetable soup, only available on Saturdays and Sundays) - this had some beef, pork, potatoes, and carrots. It was very flavorful and hearty. Perfect for a cold day -Ham croquettes - these were pretty standard, nothing to write home about -Chicharrones de Pescado (crispy bites of battered fish filet, served with tartar sauce) - the fish was good but I wish the batter was crispier. It was a little too oily -El Rumberito (appetizer sampler which included ham croquettes, corn tamale, beef empanada, corn fritters, crispy pork bites, and beef stuffed potato, served with homemade hot sauce) - the only thing I really liked was the beef empanada. The hot sauce is very heavy on the vinegar, which eventually grew on me because it helped cut out some of the greasiness -Pan con Bistec (grilled thin steak, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and potato sticks) - although the steak was thin, it was still chewy and kind of bland. The bread wasn't that great

Based on what we ordered, I would say it's more 3 stars but I think maybe we just picked the wrong items, and we accidentally picked too many (almost all) fried items, so it was really heavy. We saw other patrons getting rice dishes, and those looked really good. Service was also very attentive. As we were waiting to ask for the bill, we consolidated all the leftovers onto one plate, and they brought out a box before we even asked.

I'll be back to try some of the entrees so I shall...