Caribbean Breeze

Another one bites the dust. Sadly though, this was not a surprise to most people who have been here. This restaurant bills itself as serving upscale caribbean dishes while providing a fun atmosphere. Problem is it has a bit of an identity crisis as it tries to be a restaurant, club and lounge simultaneously. It is funny to come in during dinner service on a week day and see the dance floor (yes, dance floor) in use just steps from where I’m sitting. Btw, happy hour lushes are hilarious dancers!!! I will say that the DJ plays decent music.
Unfortunately, Caribbean Breeze failed on two basic fronts: food and service. The wait staff can be hit or miss and when they’re a miss, it’s by A LOT. Aloof, slow, absent, etc. are all words I would use to describe how the wait staff behaves. Additionally, they don’t understand that just because someone has a voucher, coupon, certificate, etc. that doesn’t mean they’ll get stiffed on their tip. I had a
certificate and when presented to the waitress it was as if she received an eviction notice! Perhaps restaurants should explain to their staff that they’re advertising deals on sites like groupon, living social
etc. for whatever reason such as trying to drum up service because the place sucks a$$, etc. MAJOR pet peeve of mine.
The food is mediocre and that may be generous. Generally speaking it’s not authentic but more importantly than that, often tastes off for one reason or another. I’ve tried several dishes including the cabo fish tacos, patacon cali, cuban style ropa vieja, island shrimp rolls and the steak, chicken and seafood medley empanadas.
The Patacon Cali featured thin green plantains w/​shredded beef, bell peppers, onions, jalapeño and tomato vinaigrette. While the plantains were actually pretty decent, the rest of the meal was muddled. The beef wasn’t seasoned properly and in general the dish was flat.
The Cuban Style Ropa Vieja featured shredded steak w/​roasted tri-​color peppers, roma tomatoes & onions. w/​rice, black beans and maduros. Colorful dish but that’s about where things end. The steak wasn’t seasoned and the rest of the dish was an afterthought.
The Fish Tacos were tasty although the fish had a weird texture.
Empanadas had a hard shell and the inside fillings were tasteless.
Spring rolls were a little over done but tasted ok.
I brought a Haitian friend to check this place out and she found this place to be so offensive that she didn’t talk to me for two weeks afterwards because she said I «set her up»!! Note to self: food can cause conflicts!
Unlike with other restaurants I’m familiar with that are closed, closing or on life support, I have no eulogy to offer this place. I just hope that the space can be given to a restaurant with a clear vision on how to effectively run a business.

Please do not think there is real Caribbean food here. It is definitely a commercialized American version of Caribbean/​Mexican food. The drinks are amazing, GREAT MOJITOS. Great happy hour…5 dollar drinks/​plates. But the name by itself is deceiving. I have come here a couple of time for happy hours and I had a blast. I wouldn’t not order any of the food though if you are looking for the real deal.
On Saturday nights they may host more of a club scene and charge a cover. I would suggest going elsewhere unless you are too lazy to go in the city.

Came on a Saturday night for dinner for the first time and wow the food is terrible. We had a party of 6 and no one seemed to enjoy their food especially when everyone had so much food left on their plate and didn’t want to box it up.
Starters:
Ceviche Classico — $ 9.95
Shrimp, fish and scallops all had the same texture. CHEWY. If you blind folded me I would have no clue which was which. It lacked acidity and depth. On top of that it was served in a martini glass which was difficult to eat out of when you are trying to stab at the chunky rubbery pieces of seafood.
Empanadas — one steak, chicken and shrimp & scallop. They were all mediocre nothing interesting.
Entrée:
House Specialty Crispy Puerto Rican Style Suckling Pork with Arroz E Gandules
SALTY and DRY. That is all I tasted. Dry chewy salty pork that should just transition to a pork jerky. I just got a flashback from the show Kitchen Nightmares and seeing a big container of pork that’s been sitting around for a week. That’s what I felt like I just ate.
Dessert:
Tres Leches cake was the best thing we ate the whole night and I’d come back just for that.
The only reason this place has 2 stars is because the service by our server was very attentive and we didn’t have to ask for anything, he just brought us everything before we ever needed to ask. As for the food, go somewhere else, anywhere else.

The lovely Mrs. Firefly and I have visited a handful of times and have never left disappointed.
With the disclaimer that neither of us have tried one of Caribbean Breeze’s dizzying array of multi-​hued potables*, we have mowed through a handful of dishes and settled on our go-​tos: the Cliff Salad for the lovely Mrs. Firefly, and the suckling pig for me.
The Cliff Salad is a Caribbean seafood salad. A vegetable assortment topped with shrimp and scallops. Not my first choice, the lovely Mrs. Firefly has never once complained.
The suckling pig, on the other hand, is worth the postage for the letter home. While the restaurant does label this dish as «crispy,» it’s more like a not-​crispy-​but-​who-​cares tropical pulled pork accompanied by rice and peas. It’s tender and flavorful and other positive words I can’t think of right now.
The wait staff has talked up the Tres Leches like it’s the dessert equivalent of free Amazon Prime for life, but, meh, when the lovely Mrs. Firely and I want to up the caloric intake we want it to be worth it. The dessert special tends to be better.
All in all, four stars, and a raised glass to those who can chime in about the mojitos.
*Unlike our collective fear of elevators, this preference is not based on entirely irrational factors

I’ve only been here for lunch and brunch, but really brunch is always the best meal of the week. Brunch at Caribbean Breeze is buffet style. There’s the usual hot stuff like bacon, sausage, made-​to-​order omelets and waffles. But there’s more. They have empanadas, a roast beef carving station and their plantains are awesome. If you love desserts like my friend, they have a chocolate fountain to dip fruit and marshmallows along with a bunch of other bite-​sized desserts. When she got her second round of food from the buffet, she came back with six desserts and two empanadas. Hey, if you want to eat all of the desserts at brunch, I will not judge. Oh, and the $ 5 bottomless mimosas? Yes, yes and yes. When I’m presented with an all-​you-​can-​eat buffet, I will seriously eat a lot which is why I was comfortable with the $ 25 price tag for brunch, because the food was good but not fantastic.
Another time I came here with family for lunch. We each got a mojito and those are really delicious. We did have to wait a while for those since there was one bartender, and they muddle them to order. You can just munch on their chips and salsa while you wait. I had the Cuban Style Bistec De Palomilla Nuevo Latino, but don’t even ask me how to pronounce it. It was good and I really like the rice and beans that came with it.
The servers I’ve had here are nice, and I like the openness of the restaurant. Parking sucks, but that’s kind of a given in Arlington. Definitely a solid place.

I visited here in the summer time, just before school went back into session. The place was interesting… I recalled having a sample of something yummy at the Taste of Arlington festival thing and enjoyed it. Ok, so having grown up in NYC, I had friends of all ethnic backgrounds, and I remember having the best type of soup thing one cold snowy day years ago. On a visit to a Caribbean island, I had that dish again… and this place had it on the menu! Wow it was good! As a matter of fact all the food we ordered was good. A few months had past and the name of this menu came up again, but not for food, but for the bar nightlife scene. I did not go as I do not go out often, and if I do… its has to be for some special event.
Being right up the road from GMU Arlington campus, I am sure to revisit this place.

Caribbean Breeze won’t exactly mentally transport you to a tropical locale, but it does a decent job dishing up a wide range of Caribbean (and Caribbean inspired) dishes. And all to a fresh R&B soundtrack (really, I expected some reggae instead of Chris Brown, but that’s just me).
There is a great selection of salads, fish and meat entrees, sandwiches, and even a few ceviches (all are appetizer sized except for the sampler). The chicken fajitas are excellent — served with pico de gallo, rice and beans. The vegetarian portobello sandwich, on pressed Cuban bread, failed to impress me. It came across as more of a grilled-​cheese-​with-​veggies than a portobello focused dish, which was a bit disappointing. The steak fries that came with it, however, were very, very tasty. A must-​not-​miss: the sweet plantains. YUM.
Most dishes are about $ 10 – 20, ceviches about $ 13, and sides are $ 5. Make sure you check out the happy hour specials — they change up depending on the day.

Fast and friendly service at the bar, if a bit slower to start at the tables. Once things get started it’s an over all good experience. Not the place to go if you want a quiet time after work. If you are out with co-​workers or friends after 5p, it is definitely worth a try or three.

Wasn’t a huge fan of the coconut shrimp appetizer, but I absolutely fell in love with the 48-​hour roast pig and saffron rice entrée! I’d go back just for that. Dessert was pretty good, too — can’t remember exactly what I ordered, a variation of chocolate cake, I think.
I’m pretty good about avoiding lunch and dinner rush at whatever restaurant I go to, so I was pleased with the service I got here. Would definitely come back to partake of more roast pig, and try the Tartufo Bomba.

*1.5 stars*
Not good. Definitely not worth the price.
Service: Very polite, but a little too relaxed. Also, there were only about four to five tables of diners during my early evening visit, and they spread us out over this large restaurant. It likely had an impact on the speed of our service– there was only one guy waiting tables.
Food: The app of three small arepitas was okay, but they didn’t have the slightly brown crust that I like on my arepas. At $ 5, they were also a little too expensive – I’m sure South Americans would find that price laughable.
My entrée’ was the crispy roasted pork, which the menu stated had been roasted for two days. It was basically false advertising. The dish arrived to the table lukewarm and in more of a pulled pork form, no crispiness to be seen. Had the meat been lying out for a while?
The rice underneath was hot, and had a lot of flavor. I politely sent it all back for a new plate of crisp pork.
The second, crispier version wasn’t much better – it was basically an over-​fried, greasy mass of stir-​fried pork. When bringing the new plate to the table, the server said that he had checked with the kitchen, and they said that they actually don’t serve the pork crispy any more. Then why is it billed that way on the menu?!
I hate to go on and on about the pork, but it was just really bad. It was too expensive to be so crappy. I kept digging around the plate, hoping that I would fork a spicy, well-​cooked piece, but no luck.
The Arlington douche factor at the bar was off the charts, with a group of dudes randomly breaking into the chorus of Rihanna’s S&M every 5 – 10 minutes. Really.
This visit just put me over the edge – I’m so tired of barely mediocre mid-​range restaurants in the DC area that don’t care about kitchen management (does anybody taste their dishes anymore?) and charge too much for food.

I have seen mixed reviews but we had an exciting meal here. The service was seemingly slow. Their Cuban sandwich is the best in this region. I also enjoyed the seafood and meat variety empanadas for an appetizer. I would also suggest the honey-​rum chicken for an entrée and the Kahlua cake for dessert.

Caribbean Breeze has been great both for multiple happy hours and for brunch and dinner. Happy hour has decent drink specials (Thursdays they go ’til 9), and their food is really tasty for bar food. Bartenders are friendly, though sometimes very busy.
As for the restaurant food, I’ve eaten there multiple times, and I’ve enjoyed it every time. Lunch and dinner have been good, as was brunch. At the time, bottomless mimosas were only $ 5 more. Brunch was a little pricey, but on par for the area.
Overall I’ve had good experiences at Caribbean Breeze, and will definitely be going back.

I have been to Caribbean Breeze several times for happy hour, brunch, and dinner. The food is always awesome.
However, the last time I was there the service was AWFUL. I hope they fix this.
I had to wait 10 minutes for the waiter to bring us water. When we asked about wines, he knew nothing and didn’t offer to bring a wine menu. We ordered a bottle blindly. He brought out the wine and two dirty glasses. We asked for new glasses. After waiting another 10 minutes for wine glasses, we just left.
I am bummed I didn’t get my steak and plantains but I don’t think you should wait that long.

Fried empanada was delicious. Hamburger /​chicken burger sliders were good, but the bread was overly dry and toasty.
Drinks are decently priced, but the 7n7 I had was light on both the 7 and the 7, and heavy on the soda water and ice. Service can be a bit spotty. Layout is nice, with a large outdoor seating area.
Overall, average place.

Pretty cool place. I remember when I was back in NC and when this first came into town this was the place to go. Also cool b/​c they have
certificates (with coupons u can buy one for up to 80% off)
They do have nice happy hour specials ($ 2.5 for beer and a dollar or two more for pub grub) at the bar area in the middle of the restaurant (jammed packed and nice crowd).
For dinner i had the Cuban Ropa Vieja and Sangria for drinks. Honestly it just tasted like Ropa Vieja to me… don’t know exactly what the cuban influence is there. In sum, I’m not sure this is a place special enough to warrant a trip out to Arlington for food as many places in DC match up to this restaurant but it’s definitely a good value if you live around the area and can use the
coupon.

I went for happy hour to get the $ 5 mojitos and $ 4 appetizers. The coconut mojito is to die for! The mango mojito has fresh mango purée in it. They put a sugar cane stick into every drink. Then I asked the bartender to recommend another flavor and she said the new dragonberry so I said ok. Come to find out it was full price! Damn she should have disclosed that! The food is really good, I got the yucca, plantains, and quesadilla. As I was trying to decide what to order I asked the bartender to tell me about the dishes and he said «you ask a lot of questions». WTF What kind of stupid comment is that? I’m asking him to describe the dishes so I can get a better feel of what I might like.
As I was trying to decide what to order I asked the bartender to tell me about the dishes and he said «you ask a lot of questions». WTF What kind of stupid comment is that? I’m asking him to describe the dishes so I can get a better feel of what I might like. I asked for a cheese quesadilla because I’m a vegetarian, the bartender brings me a chicken quesadilla that is very thick because it’s overstuffed so it’s quite obvious it’s chicken. I said that’s not mine, he argues with me and said it’s cheese. I said no look at it
3 stars for poor service.

3.5 Stars
It’s certainly no Bahama Breeze, and the food wasn’t spectacular, but I’ve got to give the extra half star bump for the service I received.
For those that haven’t been to Bahama Breeze, it’s quite an experience. When you enter inside, you are transported to the Caribbean. Not here.
My fiancée REALLY enjoyed her tri-​color pasta, and the girls really enjoyed their sangria. My mini burgers were fine, but I can’t even remember what they taste like. But I do remember the fries that came with them were very crisp and plentiful, and when I asked my server if they had any other sauces besides the usual ketchup, he went away to the kitchen and returned with a special tray of dipping sauces that included a jalapeño sauce, jalapeño mayo, garlic aioli, and something else I can’t recall. I thought that was pretty awesome of him, and hence the 4^th star.

The food is amazing. Solid 5 stars for that alone. Service was also impeccable. Ceviche, tamales, mojo marinated chicken and beef skewers and the best chicken tortilla soup I’ve ever had.
U want dessert? stay till after the sun goes down and enjoy some eye candy. At night you are suddenly transported to the shores of Miami Beach. Theres a DJ and lots of beautiful people dancing their heart out. They played Salsa and threw in a hip hop song every once in a while… but mostly salsa.
Need a bevi? Sadly, I wouldn’t recommend you wet your palate here. After a $ 70 bill for drinks alone, we left with every brain cell still in tact. (–1 star)
Overall, I definitely want to come back and try many other dishes on their menu. Highly recommend it.

After a long night of bottles popping, booties shaking and picture taking, my girls and I woke up a bit late and started to reflect upon the birthday celebration the night before. A little dazed but not nearly hungover, we were starving. Someone suggested Caribbean Breeze. They had me at «all-​you-​can-​eat brunch buffet.»
So I hop in the car, with no idea really where this place is or what the buffet has to offer. All I know is that it’s hard to go wrong on a brunch buffet.
We walk in and maybe the birthday girl was a little buzzed (or just acting up) but she immediately starts opening the top of every single buffet item to do some investigating while we were waiting to be seating. I know, I know… no home training. ;)
The 7 of us were seated quickly. After all, it was about 1pm at this time and we probably missed the crowd. We wasted no time dilly dallying.
We’re going innnnn
We’re going innnnn
(And we went haaard)
(And we went haaard)
The food wasn’t anything spectacular and was a bit on the bland side, but what they lacked in flavor they made up for in variety.
With multiple stations (omelette, waffle, quesadilla, salad), plantains, empanadas, pollo a la brasa, carved pork, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, pastas, pizza, a chocolate fountain with strawberries and marshmallows and a dessert bar.
But what really makes this all-​you-​can-​eat brunch buffet amazing is the all you can drink mimosas until 3pm! The mimosas tasted like they were 80% champagne, 20% fruit juice and you could choose between guava, strawberry, mango and orange.
They also had the miserable Skins game on, so it was great to kick back and watch it. And as the game got worse, the mimosas got better!
Overall, I give the food a rating of 3, but the overall experience a 4. The waitstaff was attentive and patient and the deal can’t be beat!

I get that the food here isn’t that loved. I get that the drinks might be overpriced and/​or watered down. I get that there is a weird Bolivian Rap Scene happening on weekends here. I don’t care. Why? This place might be the most underrated Brunch venue in the Arlington area.
$ 30 all you can drink mimosas/​champagne and buffet. You hear that, Whitlows? All you can eat AND drink for $ 30. No more $ 50 brunch bills after ordering two screwdrivers and a beer.
The brunch selection is pretty good too, you get a carving station and the usual buffet-​style selections. Yeah, I don’t think there are crab legs, but it was still a pretty solid spread. None of the food is knock your socks off, but for a brunch I generally don’t care — it is hard to screw up eggs and bacon.
The atmosphere is perfect for a late morning meal /​Sunday Funday brunch — you can sit outside on their patio and pretend like you’re on a cruise listening to Cool Runnings. You can polish back a few cocktails, talk about whatever crazy shenanigans you got into on Saturday night, and get a good buzz before hitting up a pool or driving a Formula 1 car to Bethesda.