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| - A house-turned restaurant, Playa Cabana is tucked away on a quiet part of Dupont. Dim lighting and rustic-y decor make for a a nice ambiance. If you're in this part of town and you like guacamole, definitely check it out. The kitchen staff was 100% Latino. This is always a good sign. My personal experience, however, was just OK (mostly relating to the service provided).
We ordered a pitcher of mojitos for the table which arrived in the form of margaritas. When we politely told the server that he had mixed up our order, he insisted that we had in fact ordered margaritas. Strike one. But ok, he brought us the mojitos at no extra charge.
The food was good, but a few things were missing. The carne asada is a (surprisingly) large slab of meat which should have been the first clue that it was mostly globs of fat and very little actual meat. The sauce was delicious, as were the pureed black beans, but someone should be inspecting the cuts of meat for quality before serving them for $19 a piece. The guacamole was perfect.
Finally, the bill arrived and there were a few curiously inserted charges for things that we had not ordered (including 2 side salads and a portion of rice). This is apparently what happens when your server says: "would you like rice or salad with that?" and you assume that your meal comes with rice or salad when in fact it does not. This is one of my biggest pet peeves at restaurants - why trick the customer into ordering something that she did not ask for? We're going to see it on the bill! I was not impressed with that.
Lastly, I will say that despite my somewhat average experience here, its a great place to get drinks and to munch on some guac on an otherwise uneventful Tuesday night. Playa Cabana seems to always be busy in this very quiet and unassuming part of town.
I should add one more thing: after about an hour of great salsa tunes followed by some reggaeton, someone decided it was a good idea to play "Backstreets Back" and other 90's pop jams. We were all confused by that and it was truly unfortunate.
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