Salmon on a bed of coconut rice

Cuba Libre, which has locations in Philadelphia, Atlantic City and Orlando opened last week at 9th and H.  I bunch of us were there last night eating our way through the menu.  Here is a quick report (since Lisa Shapiro will write a full report):

Drinks: not very good, especially the white sangria and red sangria, which were more like fruit juice than a drink containing actual wine.  I wasn’t crazy about the pineapple mojito either–roasting the pineapple may have been an error (since it mellows out the pineapple)…the drink was one note.  This really does seem like the kind of place who would have these drinks down to a science.

Soup: I didn’t try the seafood soup with coconut milk since it had truffle oil (I am allergic to fungus), but everyone said it was the best thing they had.  I didn’t try the scallop ceviche for the same reason.

The salmon ceviche was very very good, and the tuna ceviche was right behind it.  The former had flavors that popped (like blood orange) and the latter was just really fresh and good.

Mixed grill: terrible.  Cooked to death, especially the sausage. And…why why why would you impale skirt steak on skewers to cook it?  You will lose the juiciness. We ordered medium and everything was well-done (in temperature, not execution) except the extra well-done sausage and one medium-well cut of beef. The onion rings that came with it were the worst thing we ate that evening…undercooked onions with an overspiced (which is different than too spicy) coating that was bready and not at all crispy.

The pictured salmon entree was good but a bit dry.

The best empanadas were the beef and the pork, both of which were very good (and fried) and very Cuban in style.

The pork belly appetizer was good.

The desserts were excellent, including the banana cake, chocolate dessert, and flan. I even snagged a membrillo alfajor (cookie) without having to order rice pudding (which it comes with).  We didn’t try the rum and coke cake. Oh, and they have a special tea blend with tropical flavors and chocolate which was very good.

All in all, the good items were very good and the bad ones were very bad.  Let other people eat here first and tell you what was good…or use this article. 🙂 I expect more from a pricey restaurant, but it also has only been open a week or so.  We’ll give them time to work out the kinks.

Service was good but it took them way too long to bring the check.

-JAY