Chan Chan

Received an email from Groupon today, they have closed… Too bad!

It is romantic in a Third World sort of way. It appeared to me that the owners tried to replicate the «residential» restaurants found all over Cuba, which typically is the ground floor front room, usually facing the street, of someone’s home. This is not only true for Cuba but for many small towns and villages throughout Mexico and Latin America. It has a certain romantic charm and familial warmth.
It is a very small space with odd-​size tables and mismatched chairs, laundry hanging from the rafters … we found ourselves in the company of some couples and four families (including two couples with babies, with whom the 11-​year-​old girls we brought enjoyed playing peek-​a-​boo and waving games) – all sitting at different tables and all of us engaged in conversations with each other. Three of the families, ours included, had at least one member that was fluent in both English and Spanish, and at one of the tables there were grandmothers on either side, with their respective adult child and shared granddaughter – both native Spanish speakers from Cuba. The cultural mix could not have been more diverse. There was an Argentinian married to a Chinese, a Panamanian married to Caucasian American, and an East Indian married to another Caucasian American.
The food is excellent and authentically Cuban. The pace is leisurely – so make sure you have the time to enjoy the experience, as the tiny kitchen and one-​person wait staff are not conducive to quick in/​quick out «drive through» dining.

Absolutely one of my favorite places in SF.
As a Miami transplant, discovering Cuban food is a passion. But finding such a lovely restaurant with this meticulously created ambiance is thrilling. Décor is Havana ‘solar,’ with Cuban son from the 50’s, that frankly, with a drink and tapas is quite enough to enter another world.
However, the food is wonderful — ropa vieja, arroz con frijoles, platanos. What more can a Miami girl want?

@JaRue2011 & I out on another SF Dinning Adventure & this time for some Cuban eats in Twin Peaks at Chan Chan
Saturday, 8÷18÷12
6pm-​ish
L*S: Cashed in our $ 15 for $ 30 Deal ^_​^
LOCATION: Residential area; any street parking likely will be front of a complex/​home. Hilly steep area, so heels not recommended. Parking is very possible. We lucked out & found parking just 3 hilly blocks away. Good work out after eats! If dinning in the evening, BRING A JACKET!
CUST SVC: Friendly, polite, & patient. No complaints on their service at all. They had our table RSVP ready, waitress checked in with us throughout our meal, & smiles for the most part.
RESTAURANT: Small, charming, & quaint restaurant. I would not recommend for parties larger than 6, & 6 might be pushing it; max recommendation is party of 4. Kids seem likely welcomed, but unsure how «baby friendly» they are. Adult scene for the most part. Large windows for natural light (when the clouds are gone), else dimly lit. Various table shapes with armless chairs.
EATS: Eats were A-​OK. My only withdrawal is I typically don’t have potatoes & rice on the same plate; felt like a «double starch» kind of deal… I would’ve preferred a double scoop of their tasty rice or rice & plantains. BF-​J had a slight view to the kitchen & it seemed the food was possibly already prepped & kept in warmers; not our preferred dinning adventure but still good.
$ 6/​ea Sangrias
The sangrias had everything in the glass but the trunk of the fruit tree! They were tasty, & the fruits definitely brimmed in the alcohol while we ate.
$ 8 Antojo
We shared this small plate of plantains on garlicky spicy corn sauce; pretty tasty.
$ 19 Camarones Criollos (not de-​shelled)
BF-​J opted for this dish. The sauce was deelish, but it was a disappointment the prawns were NOT de-​shelled =(The prawns would’ve tasted much better with the sauce directly on it vs sucking it off, de-​shelling ourselves, then left with a not-​so-​sauced up prawn.
$ 17 Chanchullo
The citrus marinade in this pork chop was so prominent in every bite! Got exactly as described on menu & also tasty.
FINAL TAB: Came out $ 28.47 extra
Prepared to pay in cash (after reading most review), BF was able to pay with his credit card & «sign/​acknowledge» payment on some app on our hostess phone (almost like being at the Apple Store). Overall it was a nice dinning experience.

This one star is for our waitress who worked hard to do her job well.
Bellow there are reviews describing the owner calling patrons «faggots». I wish I had read this before stepping foot in here and giving them any of my money.
During my visit (I could identify at least 3 other gay couples dining) the owner of the restaurant walked around slamming things into tables, ignoring customers and yelling at his staff.
The food took over one hour. At the 45 minute mark we finally got our salad.
The food is overpriced– it’s tasty but very overpriced.
There are better value, better taste, better service places 5 minutes away– I will never return.

Walking into this place this Saturday night was like walking into the middle of a war zone.
I have to say the woman who was running around waiting tables and getting abused by this guy in a black shirt with a HUGE attitude was doing her very best to try and wait table and get food moving out of the kitchen (after 45 minutes we hadn’t received our appetizer salad). It took forever to get out food. While we waited and waited we watched the show of the guy in the black t shirt run around intimidating everyone, slamming water down on tables, and then sit down with his girlfriend and eat while people waited for food. The woman ran herself ragged. I have to say it was one of the most uncomfortable restaurant experiences I have had. They guy clearly didn’t care his attitude was contaminating the entire restaurant.
And we aren’t even talking about the food… lets move on to the food!!!
HOLY over promise and under deliver! The menu sounded good, the prices were HIGH. 12 for beet salad 9 for plantains 19 for a (5)shrimp dish is really expensive for what they were and how they were delivered. I do NOT have a problem paying premium pricing for great food and good service. BUT the service was horrible, even though the woman was trying the rageaholic dude was making every ones life hard. And the food fell way short, it wasn’t great and for the prices it needed to be.(hasn’t this guy seen «tortilla soup»? , your attitude transfers into your food).
Having people come into your restaurant is a privilege especially in SF. I can name 10 places within blocks of this place that DO deliver in food quality and exceed expectations as far was food and service. Unfortunately the young guy in the black shirt didn’t get any of the concepts. Maybe he’s in training for a job at the DMV.
1) Welcoming people into your restaurant — fail
2) Good service — fail
3) Food quality in line with high pricing — fail
We won’t be back. The energy was horrible with a douche bag rageaholic in charge. Thank god we had a groupon because I seriously would have had a problem paying for the meal in a war zone.

3-​August, Friday:
Do not expect an ounce of urgency while dining here, this restaurant is VERY poorly run. It took nearly half an hour of sitting for anyone to even come by and take our orders, let alone come by with water.
And while the food and flavors were descent (especially for a place that does not cook with any open flames –only burners), it really was another test of patience just to get the damn check. The owner was the one serving our table, and it felt like our table was held hostage up towards closing. He was busy mingling with some Latino girls at another table, while acting obnoxious. Really? by this point we were all seething with frustration. especially after our repeated inquiries to pay appeared to be briefly captured with some false hope, and false acknowledgement, that he was actually coming by again, but then would get distracted somewhere else.
So, as the service was already bad. I was not expecting it to get any worse. But when he came by to finally charge us on his little iphone swipe. He had already cleared the plates and couldn’t remember what we had, so we had to repeat our entire order to him. So ridiculous.
The was the WORST experience, I’ve ever had at ANY restaurant EVER.
I would give this place ½ a star for service if Unilocal allowed me to, no matter which facet of the service industry and especially when it comes to food in particular. Service should be the primary language, and this place just does not deliver it.

Still on the hunt for amazing Cuban food in San Francisco… Damn!
The favors we had here were definitely good, albeit a little lackluster. I’m not sure who the guy was who served us, but he started out great and got progressively a bit more strange as the night went on. The service was slow and a bit, well, incomplete. We polished off our carafe of water in the first few minutes and were never brought any more. Even after asking a couple times… Boo. To top it off, I have a bit of a love affair with Cuban coffee. Specifically cortaditos. I ordered one at the end of the meal, was met with a puzzled facial expression, and was brought a café con leche… Major disappointment.
Would I go back? Sure, next time I have a craving for Ropa Vieja and some plantains, but I’ll bring my own water.

My husband bought not one but TWO Bloomspot* deals to this place, and since my parents and brother were in town I figured we could use the higher-​value one for a nice family lunch ($ 30 for $ 60). Called ahead and made sure it was OK to use the voucher, then we rolled on in.
The same guy who picked up the phone when I called was our server, the cook, bus boy, and dishwasher, so I knew things would be slow. I figured, never mind, it’s part of the atmosphere, just like the leopard print underwear hanging off the clothesline above our heads… (What?)
We ordered the spinach salad, the mushrooms (which had the same balsamic-​esque dressing as the spinach salad), and the plantains with corn purée, plus two sandwiches and a veggie plate. I liked the presentation: everything tastefully arranged, with little garnishes etc. But the food came out one dish at a time, and our veggie sandwich order was mixed up for another chicken sandwich. No biggie, since we caught the mistake pre-​bite. I might’ve ordered dessert except we were never offered the option.
Everything was tasty, but nothing (except perhaps the plantains?) really blew my mind; by this point I was at about 3.5 stars and quite OK with coming back another time with just my husband to use the other voucher ($ 15 for $ 30).
By this point it was 4:30 — so it seems our wait wasn’t as long as others have reported. (Of course, the place was empty, so we didn’t have to compete for attention…)
But when I went up to the counter to pay, and showed my phone to our cook/​server, he had no freaking idea what to do with my Bloomspot. When he read «$ 60 worth of food and drink» he thought he had to give us a 60% discount (!?) and immediately called the owner, Michel, to clarify. Thankfully I’m fluent so when I heard him say «sesenta por ciento» I tried to correct his misunderstanding… Whereupon he handed me the phone to talk directly with the owner… WHO GAVE ME A SERIOUS EARFUL, AND REPEATEDLY DENIED EVER HAVING AUTHORIZED BLOOMSPOT TO OFFER SUCH A DEAL. There was clearly no chance he’d allow his employee to process that voucher.
Now, I completely understood his «we’re a small business, we wouldn’t make any money off such a good deal» logic, but wasn’t it a bit inappropriate for him to be having financial epiphanies at this point?! I mean, at that point I’d already paid Bloomspot; I had no power over said owner, nor the ability to, say, connect him with Bloomspot customer service to help him resolve whatever seller’s remorse issues he was having and just let me pay my damn bill; and I was in the shitty position of just trying to take my parents out to a nice lunch and FAILING to have it be a nice experience (they’d even offered to pay, and I told them Nah, I have a Bloomspot, we’re all good!)
In the end he acknowledged having offered a $ 15 for $ 30 deal, so I just used that to pay. The server/​cashier dude managed to total up our tab and subtract the $ 30, but I had to tell him to write down the voucher number (and then he wrote it down incorrectly so I had to correct him…)**
Anyway, I’m FINALLY able to pay my balance… And I’m told it’s CASH ONLY***. This, despite the fact that they have a cash register that’s flaunting logos for Square AND all four major credit card companies. WTF. Of course this would be the day I had no money on me… FAIL. Out comes the little brother’s wallet — so not what I had planned for their last meal in town.
I left the place with a bitter taste in my mouth, and called Bloomspot immediately upon leaving to get a refund. What a disappointing customer service experience. Thank goodness the food was decent, otherwise the afternoon would’ve been a complete wash.
* So far in skimming through just one page of Unilocal reviews it seems this place has sold vouchers through Groupon, LivingSocial, HomeRun, and Bloomspot… Dude, business lesson: «free» publicity earned by giving deep discounts does NOT earn you repeat customers; it only cheapens your perceived value.
** If places like this are bleeding red due to Groupon and its ilk, maybe that’s because of poor employee training? We’ve been to other places before just wanting to use our coupons honestly and the employees have no idea how to process them… Such places could so easily get repeatedly ripped off. Sad.
*** I’ve since surmised from fellow Unilocal reviewers that credit cards probably only work when the owner is in the house and can process payments on his phone.

80 MINUTES OF HELL AND DISCRIMINATION.
Having NEVER RECEIVED our FOOD OR DRINKS, the last thing I expected from a restaurant in the Castro was «DON’T COME BACK HERE YOU FUCKING FAG!»
—
Waiter was extremely rude and unattentative.
After ONE HOUR of waiting for our food and drinks, the waiter finally comes to our table and asks «WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR.» We re-​tell him our food and drink orders.
After waiting ANOTHER 20 MINUTES we decide to leave. We had sat down at the same time as the table next to ours — they ordered after us, received and ate their appetizers and entrees, paid the bill, and were about to leave.
As we were leaving with empty stomachs and huge disappointment, we tell the waiter that he wasted our time. He SHRUGGED and said THANKS.
Overhearing, a close friend of the restaurant or a restaurant staff off duty gets up and yells «DON’T COME BACK HERE YOU FUCKING FAGS!»
This was one of the worst decisions and worst experiences of my life.

Well, I guess there’s first time for everything: before tonight I’d never been called a «fucking fag» when leaving a restaurant.
Backing up a bit, the service at Chan Chan goes beyond brusque — it’s downright rude. The one employee working tonight:
— Never brought us menus. He seemed busy, so I just grabbed a couple off the counter.
— Slammed down water glasses without a word. That was about 10 minutes after we’d sat down.
— Spoke to us again for the first time 10 minutes later: «What do you want?» Literally.
— Returned after about 20 minutes to ask: «What are you waiting on?» At this point we hadn’t received any food or drinks at all, so we repeated our order to him. Not a good sign…
— After another 20 minutes had passed, the table next to us (who sat down after we did) received their bill, so we walked out, never having seen any food… I did leave $ 5 for the beer he’d brought out — told him that he and the restaurant should both be embarrassed. No sense in mincing words at that point, I suppose.
Of course, the coup de grace was yet to come. One of two women — clearly either friends or off-​duty staff, having gone into the kitchen a couple times to chat — followed us outside after we’d left and shouted, «And don’t bother coming back, you fucking fags.»
Really? That shouldn’t be acceptable anywhere, let alone a restaurant just a stone’s throw from Castro.

OMG CHAN CHAN!!! You have GOT. TO. BE. FREAAAAAAAAKINN. KIDDING ME!!! NO LIE. one of the WORST service experiences I have ever encountered!!!
We walked in on a Friday night and stood around, waiting for someone to come out and seat us, but no one came. Finally, we just sat ourselves. The server aka douchebag finally showed face, but proceeded to talk to and serve his «regulars» and just ignored us. The fact that he was able to smile and even hug his regular/​friends showed he was capable of being nice or putting up a front but he couldn’t even serve us??? I’m sorry, are you mad at us??? What the hell did we do to you!?! Did someone steal your puppy or something? The dishwasher (god bless his heart) provided plates and utensils to us.
We then waited at least 10 minutes to just get some freaking menus as the douche was just sitting behind the register, probably browsing an Ed Hardy catalog. As we were about to just haul ass and leave, (our mistake as we should’ve left the second we got his attitude), he dropped off menus.
The food took quite a while to come out which I can understand and am not mad at. However, douchebag disappeared for a good 15 minutes to his office in the back. When two customers walked through the door, mr. dishwasher came out and proceeded to alert the douche. He finally came out (with food in his mouth as he was munching. REALLY??? You’re the only server on a Friday night and you’re going to disappear in the middle of service and eat???). The COOK and DISHWASHER had to help serve as douche was catching up on service.
*plantains with corn purée was the best thing we got that night, except that I was so pissed I wanted to fling some at our server. Then again, that would be a waste.
*ropa vieja with rice and beans was not as I expected. It was more of a tomatoey stew, but was satisfying still.
*pork chop was not as I expected either. It was cut in strips rather than whole and not very memorable.
Douche treated us as though we were an inconvenience to him the ENTIRE NIGHT. He barely said more than one word at a time to us at any given time and never cracked more than a frown with his too cool for school attitude. I am not one to complain or rant or even give one star but the service here was straight HORRIBLE! Complete waste of money and time.
NEVER AGAIN CHAN CHAN! YOU SUCK. LIKE REALLY, REALLY SUCK.

What a great find!
Very delicious food; very helpful/​attentive servers; great atmosphere.
Unfortunately, their website is useless, so we had to physically go to the restaurant to view the menu. Luckily, the interior & the music were inviting & we ended up having an unexpectedly great meal. One of the waiters was very nice, recommending some great choices… and as an added bonus: he had painted some of the wonderful paintings we had been admiring!
*I also took a few pictures, including the menu… but I am not sure how clear they will be once they are uploaded.

Service: ²⁄₅
Food: 3.5÷5
Ambiance: 2.5÷5
We came here because of
; otherwise, I wouldn’t recommend it. Lately, I feel like groupon, living social, etc are WAY BETTER deals than
.
We ordered:
1) Ropa Vieja ³⁄₅
2) The Picadillo Santiaguero ⁴⁄₅
3) Guava juice: ²⁄₅ (Tasted like Kern-​and it was like $ 3/​glass)
The service was pretty bad. We were the only diners in entire restaurant (capacity is roughly 30ppl), and we waited forever for food, checks, service…
eh, i would not come back. The food was not memorable and the service was horrible.

CUBAN FOR MY BELLY!!!
(4 stars)
Don’t be fooled by the name, this ain’t no Chinese restaurant. ITS A CUBAN RESTAURANT!!! After eating here… my belly protruded to the point of not being able to roll over in bed. Doesn’t sound to attractive but it means I was fed well.
— Food, tasty and delicious
— Prices, affordable (cash only)
— Service, the guy was eh but the lady was SO sweet
— Ambiance, cute café made me feel like i was eating somewhere outside in cuba. décor was interesting but loved it
Decided to use my
voucher (spent $ 25 for a voucher worth $ 40 of food). Of course, our eats below exceeded and we still dug out money from our wallets. Lovely café/​restaurant in the neighborhood near twin peaks and not too far from castro. I’ve been in the area a gazillion times and have not noticed this place. Glad I did.
HEFFER-​STYLE STATUS.
Pitcher of Sangria ($ 12) — that was about 6 glass servings. Very delicious and fruit (apple) infused. I got a good buzz out of it =)
ANTOJO — Yummy small tapa plate. It was plantains served ontop of a corn, garlic, chile flakes purée. and had fresh chopped cilantro ontop of the plantains. delicious! There was a spoon of sour cream to the side but i opted that as it was perfectly fine without.
FRISCASSEE DE MICHAEL — this was one of the few dishes on the menu that was not red meat (it was a chicken dish). Plate size was very filling and definately can be shared with 2 people. it came with tasty vegtables, rice, and the chicken in flavored tomato sauce. The dish very much reminded me of the Filipino dish (chicken afritada).
PICADILLO — my company ordered the picadillo because they didn’t have the porkchop dish nor some other meat dish and had to settle for this dish, which was still something of the likings. Plate size was very filling for one individual and definately can be shared with 2 people.
Will I be back? Definately.
JABA APPROVED. Until the next review…

There’s no piont really in making a reservation at this place since they don’t honor it anyway. Valentine’s Day night I went and they were understaffed and were out of a couple dishes… Understaffed as in, there was 1 person on the floor and 1 cook.
As I walked in no one greated us or really even acknowledged that we were there except the patrons who just stared at us awkwardly standing there by the door for minutes.
The waitress wasn’t even really trying to seat us so we sat ourselves once a table cleared. We’re off to a great start already don’t you think?
The decorations were interesting and I liked the ambiance. It think they could have done without the thong and bra hanging in the air though. I am out for dinner after all…
They also could have added some music.
The entire meal took a really long time. The waitress was moving in slow motion the whole night and took her sweet time doing everything. However, she did offer us a free small tapa dish to make up for our patience.
The Food — I’d recommend the mushrooms. I hear good things about the plaintains but they ran out that night. The shrimp dish was fine. The lamb was tender but a bit on the bland side. Everything was just decent (not bad but not great); nothing too memorable or oustanding.
Loved the sangria.
We started dinner at 8:15 and left at 10:15.
Take a hint from all these reviews mentioning long wait times, slow service, and mediocre food…

Ummm… WTH?!
Called in to make sure they were open & see what time they closed. The dude said that they’re open til 3:00pm. So my bf & I got there at like 12:30noon & there was a lil paper sign that said «Will be back in 15mins»
We waited for like 25mins & no one show up or inside the place. So we left to go elsewhere. What kind of restaurant does that? RIDICULOUS YO. At least have someone there to watch the restaurant, but absolutely no one there. Not even going to go back to try it.

Tried this place based on the
deal and the Unilocal reviews. Cuban food sounded like a welcome departure from the usual.
My husband and I arrived just before 6pm last night (Tuesday) and parked right across the street. Although the merengue music was playing and the front door was open, we wondered if they were closed because the place was empty (that didn’t last long, but we arrived early). We sat on a bench near the window and ordered sangrias.
I absorbed my surroundings and just smiled at the deliciously tacky décor — the bright colors, the colorful scarf draped over the lamps, the vintage Cuban ads lining the tables, the mismatched chairs and plates. Even the clothesline of laundry hanging over the tables. YES — laundry (photo:
). All of it. It worked. The only thing missing was a statue of the Virgin Mary!
We ordered:
— Camarones (shrimp) tapas ($ 12): Plump, savory and spicy.
— Sangria ($ 6): Strong and crisp! One of the best I’ve had.
— Ropa vieja ($ 18): Slow cooked, marinated, shredded top sirloin. Mixed with sweet onions. Amazing dish! I think the word «delectable» applies here. It came with a side of rice, black beans and plantains (fried banana). MUST TRY.
— Salmon ($ 18): Fresh and tender. Topped with sweet onions, with a side of rice, black beans, wedges of tomato and avocado, and «tostones» which are deep fried plantains. OMG these things were good.
TOTAL: $ 36.95 after using my $ 25
certificate, which I purchased for $ 2 (they were having a promotion). Score!
Here’s how Chan Chan rates in my book…
Food: a SOLID 5 stars
Fresh, simple and flavorful. They didn’t bury the food in sauce, or try to impress me with overly complex recipes. I could taste and enjoy each item on my plate.
Ambiance: 4 stars
I loved the colorful, tacky homage to Cuba.
Location: 5 stars
Easy parking, nestled in a beautiful residential neighborhood, with a direct view of Twin Peaks and the sprawling little houses that line its hills.
Service: 4 stars
Minus 1 star for having to wait so long for our check. I’m being a bit unfair considering they had a 15 person party to tend to after us.
Overall: 4.5 stars
I felt like I took a delicious mini-​vacation to Cuba on a Tuesday evening. The place is growing, so be patient with them as they expand their service.

My coworker’s mom, whose Nicuarguan and lived all over the Caribbean and Central America, said this place makes some pretty authentic ropa vieja. So I come here for lunch with some coworkers based on her recommendation. (
)
This place is a hidden gem since it’s away from all the hustle and bustle of Market St. Once inside though, it’s like I’m transported to the hustle and bustle of Havana. The décor is bright and colorful, there’s old clothes hanging from the ceiling (their signature dish — ropa vieja means «old clothes» in Spanish afterall) and you just can’t help but move to the salsa music playing in the background. Could be a cool «date night» spot. (
)
I ordered the ropa vieja sandwich ($ 10). It’s like a knife and fork panini with good flavor on the braised shredded flank steak which is on a white roll. (
) It passed my tender test of not having any beef get caught in between my teeth.
The citrus side salad was refreshing (
) and their mojito cupcake is worth a try. (
)
The food takes awhile to come out but that’s part of the ambiance.
Only thing missing was the sangria!

A tiny hole in the wall restaurant in a quiet neighborhood that serve quality authentic Cuban cuisine. (Wait a second, how would I know if the food is really authentic? I have only dined at Cuban restaurants a handful of times in my entire life. Maybe I should just scratch that. part) Anyway, enough of the pretentious stuff. Let’s just say I enjoyed the food quite a bit.
Our group of 20 people totally packed the restaurant. There were only 2 people working at this restaurant — the owner (friendly lady serving our group) and her son (the chef). They did the best to accommodate our large group but there is really only so much you can do with limited man power. Food took a long time to be prepared but was well worth the wait.
Our dinner menu for the night
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Appetizers
CEVICHE MIXTO (⁵⁄₅ stars)
(seabass, tiger prawns marinated in citrus, aji amarillo, herbs)
ANTOJO (⁵⁄₅ stars)
(ripe plantains over garlic corn purée, crema fresca)
HONGOS (⁴⁄₅ stars)
(balsamic deglazed mushroom caps, olive oil)
CROQUETAS (⁴⁄₅ stars)
(ground beef croquettes, shriracha aioli)
ENSALADITA (³⁄₅ stars)
(spinach salad, sliced apples, red onion julienne, herbs, goat cheese, honey mustard dressing)
The CEVICHE MIXTO tasted sort of like Yam Talay (A thai seafood salad). It was the perfect dish to start dinner. The sauce for ANTOJO was very intriguing. I would have never imagined how well the corn purée complement the flavor of the sweet fried plantains. HONGOS was delicious but you can’t really go wrong with mushrooms cooked in olive oil. CROQUETAS was another of my favorite. Nothing beat some piping hot fried food in a cold winter night. ENSALADITA was not really my thing as I never liked spinach to begin with.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Main Course:
POLLO EN HOYA (³⁄₅ stars)
(cuban style chicken, encebollado, black beans, rice)
ROPA VIEJA (⁴⁄₅ stars)
(tender beef, tomato chunks, herbs, cilantro over rice and beans)
The main courses were a bit plain compared to the colorful appetizers. POLLO EN HOYA was tasty but the chicken meat was too tender and a bit lacking in texture. That was just my personal preference. ROPA VIEJA was great. I enjoyed the subtle sour flavor of the sauce.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
+ Complimentary dessert on the house for our birthday boy.
Dessert (which name I already forgot. If only someone could kindly remind me) was a chocolate layered cake dipped in some sort of liquor. Some people liked it but I am just not a big fan of chocolate based dessert.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
I love how this restaurant was decorated. It was playful and imaginative. Remember to check out their bathroom!
Oh, let’s not forget about the sangria (⁵⁄₅ stars in my opinion)! Keep in mind this place is cash only. Or you might have to leave a piece of your clothing behind.