Edward K.
Yelp
Just had a couples dinner with friends at the Casual Habana Cafe. We were able to call ahead and put our names on the list, that helped save some waiting on a Saturday night. The place was packed and as soon as we started eating, we knew why. The lighting and ambience were nice. Our waitress was very friendly (recent arrival from Ukraine) and made excellent recommendations.
Their menu is a lot of fun, the appetizers/tapas section is reasonable priced and allows diners to get an array of flavors to start. We shared oxtail empanadas, manchego spinach empanadas, grilled octopus, and guacamole and gluten free chips. Once we got started, I knew that we would want more, so we added sausage and onions and the fried cheese with papaya and bacon. The empanadas were great, the grilled octopus texture was perfect and it had a great sauce, the sausage and onions worked perfectly together. The fried cheese with papaya and bacon gets it's own sentence, that is an appetizer that is hard to beat, the fried cheese is fried cheese, already pretty great but once you add the papaya jelly with bacon, it went to a whole other level. Truly a must have.
The menu continues to impress with approximately 20-25 entrees, each of which sounded like a great choice. My wife enjoyed her ropa vieja, I enjoyed finishing it, what a great flavorful sauce. My friend got one of the bigger seafood paellas I've seen and enjoyed it as well. My friend's wife was happy with her roast pork dish. I really enjoyed the roast pork as well, mine was served with red onions and a savory sauce. The yellow rice and black bean sides were great as well. Really good portions of everything!
The dessert list was too good to pass up. My friend's wife got chocolate ice cream. My wife enjoyed an artfully prepared decaf cappuccino. My friend enjoyed an espresso. My friend and I shared rice pudding, tres leches cake, and flan. The rice pudding was quality, not at all mushy each rice grain was cooked right. The flan and tres leches cake dueled it out for top dessert honors. It's the next day and I still can't decide which was better. What I can decide however is that Casual Habana Cafe will be a place that we return to soon.