Havana Grill — Restaurant in San Diego

I looked forward to going since the soft opening since my wife and I love Cuban food, so I'll start with the good.

The atmosphere looks really nice inside, the bar looks great and there are a couple of tables outside. The setup is that you ordered at the counter, pay then they bring the food out to you. I had the skirt steak, a side of garlic mashed potatoes, the Yucca fries and a plain killer which were all great. My wife ordered the chicken soup and unfortunately it came out barely warm so she was disappointed with that. She said that she didn't mention it because we were already told several times that they were about to close in 35 minutes so she didn't feel like it was possible to send it back. Also, no one asks if your food is satisfactory I guess due to the setup being kinda fast food style plus it felt as if we inconvenienced them by arriving at the time we did.

So, prices feel like full service but I guess because we were there late (8:25 according to my Google timeline and they were closing at 9 on a Friday night) some of the things we wanted to order were not available and this is really where the service went downhill for us. The fact that it was close to closing (:35 mins) was mentioned several times during our attempt to order. It also took a little longer to decide on alternatives because the kitchen was in the process of closing and we hit several "ain't no mo's" basically, we had to keep looking for alternatives. Since there was another party behind us, it started to feel even more awkward. Luckily for the other party another employee saw us struggling and holding things up, stepped up to another register and helped them out. That relieved a little pressure from us, but then our order suddenly closed and totaled before we finished ordering. When I said that we hadn't completed our order (I believe it was the manger taking our order) they walked away from the register and said they'd be right back. At that point it was pretty clear they had lost patience with us. When they returned to the register she just made eye contact and said nothing else while she hovered over the register waiting for the rest of the order. My wife changed her mind after seeing that and so did her adult niece who was with us. This left them with just my wife's soup order and the niece's side of veggies order respectively. I hastily threw up a couple of more sides to share with them and decided I would just offer to share my steak entree with them since I was the only one who got to order an entree. I don't know, I wished they would have just said that they were closed instead. But again, with got there before 8:30.

The food came out quickly but I still felt awkward after having hyped up this place to both of them and our conversation had gone silent. Ever sit with two women at dinner who don't feel like saying anything? To top it off, I ended up being the only one who enjoyed the entree because my wife wouldn't even taste anything I ordered at that point. Around 845 she went back to order coffee and was told that there wasn't any because they were closed already. Again, I wished they would have just said that in the beginning. It was just too many no's for us, especially not having been there before. On our ride home I discovered that my niece had never had Cuban food before as she laughed and said, thanks Uncle but I can probably live without Cuban food. Oh well, I felt like I blew it for showing up there. Other places aren't this bad about shutting...

Vaca fritas was amazing. The beef had a crispy outside and still soft and tender texture as you bit in. The flavor of the mean was delicious, both savory and a little citrus maybe. It had an odd sense of being refreshing. Beans were delicious, just black beans but well cooked, food texture, and nice subtle flavor. Fried plantains were a nice touch for the meal and quite yummy. Also, the meal came with melted garlic butter which maybe had some other flavor in it but it tasted great with the beef.

Empanadas, the crust on all of them buttery and flaky and perfectly cooked. The crust is actually a strong flavor so for some of the more miler flavored empanadas, it overpowered.

Reviews of the flavors from favorite to least favorite: Braised beef: This was very flavorful, mine and my partner's favorite of the bunch. I'm not a huge fan of bell peppers (though I'm not offended by them), but it complimented the flavor of the beef so well that I really enjoyed it. Picadillo: 2nd favorite was this seasoned beef. It smells stronger than it tastes but it has a nice flavor. My partner said he wouldn't think he'd be able to eat the whole thing because it would be overpowering over a while, but I think I'd enjoy the whole thing. It was savory and seasoned well.

For the record I don't always prefer beef, but I think the stronger flavor of these had better balance with the strong buttery-flavored crust.

Beans: this surprised me. I didn't have high expectations but it actually was really tasty. I'm not sure what cheese they use but it was stringy and balanced nicely with the beans. Cubano: My partner put this as his third but is my fourth. I actually think maybe even 5th for me. He liked that it had the mix of ham and pickle flavors. It looked and tasted like it had ham and chicken and pickles. I couldn't taste the cheese at all and expected some kind of sauce or mustard with it like the sandwich does, but alas it did not. The meat also was a smidgen dry. Not bad but could have been way better. Lechón: my 4th/5th favorite. The flavor of the pork was quite good and it was tender and juicy enough. However, this is one where it suffered overall because it's a milder flavor and the empanada crust overpowered it. Chicken: I like chicken. It's so versatile. This just tasted like boiled chicken, very flight flavors, overwhelmed by the crust. Also, the chicken was overcooked and dry. It wasn't so bad you wouldn't want to eat it, but it was distinctly not tender and juicy. I wanted a sauce to dip it in to give it flavor.

Oh the dessert.... It was delicious. The balance between the mouse and the cake was great. It wasn't too sweet or rich, but had a decadent chocolate flavor. The crust was nice with a little crunch to it. The cake inside was very moist. Also it looked like there were two different chocolate mousse in the layered cake, but I didn't try them separately to explore further. I ate all layers together and the cohesion was perfectly balanced. My partner took a bite with the rose petal, do...

Only writing this review because the owner sternly told me: "Don't you go write a review about us".

TL;DR;

The good: pleasant live music (at least when we went).

The bad: Food ranges from mediocre to inedible. From a "congratulations" level done steak that was ordered medium rare, to tasteless beans that would make you yearn for canned food, to a passable cubano. Would definitely not recommend the food here.

The ugly: unacceptable water quality and appalling service.

Long version:

Came for a dinner with my wife and two other couples. Live band in the back is very pleasant. We ordered various items off the menu, including a couple of cubano sandwiches. My wife ordered Havana sirloin steak done medium rare.

The food is very mediocre but the biggest disappointment was the beef. In particular, the steak was nuked into oblivion (see attached picture). The waitress agreed to replace the steak. Unfortunately it took another 30 minutes for the replacement to come out.

The tap water we were served had an unacceptable amount of sand and other residue which I suspect came from the ice cubes (see attached picture), which means that the ice cube machine in this establishment does not get cleaned often, if ever.

We mentioned the quality of the food and unacceptable amount of residue and sand in water to the owner who happened to be at the restaurant.

The way she handled the situation is the reason why I am writing this review. She agreed the steak was of unacceptable quality and said she wants to "investigate" the sand we had in our waters. Five minutes later she came back with our water glasses, still full of sand, said she doesn't know what's going on, offered us some 'free' desserts and sternly told me to not write any reviews. We were never offered water, we were never asked what can be made right, we were expected to pay the bill in full (which we did), offered some free desserts (which we politely declined) and sternly told to not write any reviews.

Rude, unacceptable service (especially from the owner). Appalling water quality and pretty bad food. Stay away from this...