Critic's Review
I'd heard that this was "authentic" cuban food, but don't all cuban places say that? I didn't feel like dealing with the crowds on Atlantic, so I headed out west.
There's really nothing going on out here, but i wondered why I was the only person in the restaurant at 1:50pm. They had a sign out on the sidewalk claiming to have lowered their lunch prices, but this center doesn't get a lot of foot traffic so I don't know who is going to see it.
Inside, the place is pretty nice; nicer than their other location. They have a bar, some tables and some booths; I opted for a booth.
It's a pleasant place, with latin music playing but nothing as offensive as they have at some other places. I ordered the Ropa Vieja as it's one of my favorite cuban dishes; it was $6.95. The brought out some bread; toasted cuban bread without anything on it. I'm not much of a bread-eater and there wasn't anything compelling about plain toast to get me to do more than just try it.
The food came out in about 10 minutes.
The camera makes the bowl look bigger than it was; it was a pretty meager portion. They gave a lot of rice but that's not what I was here for; and a smallish cup of beans as well.
Everything was just bland. There just wasn't enough spice in the Ropa Vieja; it has almost no taste. In fact, I ended up salting it. I couldn't taste any garlic at all in the dish. There were hardly any onions, no peppers. A very bad version of Ropa Vieja if you ask me.
Now I've never been to Cuba, but this was about half the portion I got at Las Colinas (the best Cuban place in Fort Lauderdale). And it wasn't nearly as good.
I left this place hungry, which is never a good thing.