Cuban Kitchen — Restaurant in San Mateo

Do your self a favor, if you haven't been here - TRY IT at least once. We found one of our new favorite restaurants today.

[Summary] Casual restaurant serving authentic Latin American Cuisine that places emphasis on authenticity, quality of ingredients, and impresses you with actual taste of the food. Has an abundant menu, great customer service, and the price is impressive for what you receive.

[The Food] Offers a ton of Latin American styled offerings including Yuca Fries, Tostones, Arroz con Pollo, and many others. We ordered many of these sides and were impressed with everything. The chicken was fresh and char broiled, giving off a perfect balance of tenderness and char-flavor. The Yuca Fries were crispy, and the condiments they offer are fresh. If I could rate this restaurant higher only for the quality of the food, I would. Among the top 5 restaurants in the bay for authentic Latin American Cuisine. Only recommendation I have for the tostones is possibly using the less ripe green plantains instead of yellow, as they absorb less the oil a little less when frying (and have a more crispy less sweet taste). Otherwise, the food here is TOP NOTCH.

[The Service] We got our food less than 10 minutes after ordering. Super fast. Also, you can order from the convenience of your parking space via a QR code, or you can order from your table with a QR code. The staff continually checked on us, kept the place clean, were super friendly and appreciative that we were here.

[The Location] Located directly on El Camino Real near the Hillsdale mall. Super convenient location with a surprising amount of parking. The area is safe and has things to do nearby. This is located near San Mateo downtown with shopping, bars, and parks nearby. Light traffic in the area normally.

Conclusion, a great restaurant that will impress you with the emphasis that they...

We enjoyed this place a lot last year but our most recent visit in April this year will be our last. They have drastically changed the menu, it is not easy to understand and does not offer a lot of variety. The place has become extremely pricey for what they give you and the last time we were there we had a very rude encounter with the owner's daughter. She clearly does not know how to speak to customers and we could tell that the waitress didn't agree with her approach. I gave her some feedback about their steak plate which is just chopped up meat versus an entire steak and her rude response was "this is how we do it here". I proceeded to tell her that we lived in Miami several years and are used to the Cuban restaurants over there and her only response was a rude "Well we're not in Miami and we like the way we serve it here". She was extremely confrontational, not solution oriented and offered no apologies. We brought family here from New Jersey raving about the place from our previous experiences so we were quite embarrassed to have brought them. We asked for the owner and the daughter said "she's in the back but I'm her daughter" as if that really made any difference, the owner never came out. We have spoken to the owner before and she was very nice. We have owned restaurants ourselves; our suggestion to the owner is if you want your place to succeed long term, ensure that your daughter is not running the business. We looked forward to coming here even driving 1.5 hours every time I had medical appointments in the area but unfortunately , after this experience with the owner's daughter, we will not be returning. We could tell that the hostess/waitress felt bad because she knew us as regular customers prior to this encounter in April. Best of the luck...

Absolutely baffling food. The Cubano had so much cumin in it that it was overpowering. Cumin is a background spice in Cuban cuisine so it was offputting considering I was in Miami and Tampa for the real thing just a few weeks prior. The Cubano had no where near enough mustard or pickles, and without the cheese the flavors were lost. The overpowering cumin completely clashed with the other flavors. The ham was lost in the spice. I've had hundreds of Cubanos in my life from Key West to Seattle, and I've never been bombarded with a metric ton of cumin. I love cumin, but not as much as whoever made the pork today.

The Maduros were barely cooked and sitting in a puddle of oil. They also seemed like they were still a little under-ripe. Not nearly as sweet as the ones mom made growing up. The Vaca Frita was also baffling. It was under seared, and had the texture of day old pulled pork. OH and what is with the obsession of putting pickled onions on everything? They were absolutely lost in the cubano, they covered up the flavor of the Maduros... They are very good pickled onions, so I understand being proud of them, but they don't belong in everything do they?

What's so frustrating about this restaurant, was that the food was mostly cooked properly and executed well... but the flavors were all wrong. I can only guess that they have slowly over time, compromised on authentic Cuban flavors to cater to a west coast palate that recognizes Mexican flavors as "hispanic." It's possible this is what the owners have had to do to exist in this market, but it hurts my Cuban heart. I genuinely hope this was just an off day for them, but I don't think...