Never been to Cuba... probably don't ever wanna go to Cuba... so I don't know why such an intense craving to try Cuban food came over us on a random Friday night; but it did. Enter Havanna Café... the best/most reviewed Cuban place on Yelp in the greater Phoenix area.
We went to the Scottsdale location which is nestled in a random little strip mall... if you didn't know any better you'd probably assume it's some no frills neighborhood diner, but how wrong you'd be... just beyond those stucco walls is a nice quaint Cuban restaurant with dozens upon dozens of dishes most people have never even heard of before.
We were sat down right next to a live Cuban band... bongo drums and all... they were belting out some pretty groovy tunes. The main singer had a deep scratchy voice and a heavy Cuban accent... and he said 'wooooooooooow' a lot... this combined with the décor of the place really did make it feel like you were really in Cuba, very fun! We decided to order a schmorgisborg of stuff... what follows is a list of what we got along with a brief description:
Calypso Chips - Fried Plantains w/ black bean dip... damn good... good chips and salsa alternative.
Frituras de Frijoles Negros - Deep fried balls of black beans w/ avocado dip... heavenly.
Dátiles con Chorizo - Chorizo stuffed dates wrapped in bacon... very unique flavor.
Papa Rellena - Meat stuffed in a ball of fried potatoes in a bed of cream sauce... pretty decent though a bit rich.
Tamal Cubano - A Cuban ground corn tamale with pork and other random goodness, it was alright but not quite good enough to specifically recommend.
Potage de Frijoles Negros - A black bean soup... a little too 'beany' if that makes any sense. Made a good dip for the black bean balls though.
On top of all that we tried a couple of imported Cuban sodas... both were pretty different, but tasted great. The meal was very fun... flavors were all over the place; if you're a fan of trying new things then this should be high on your list. The Tapas section of the appetizer is quite extensive and you can easily make a fun and varied meal by getting nothing but appetizers.
This place is easily recommendable for any of the more adventurous foodies out there; you'll have a lot of fun at this place trying some new things. For us, this place was more of a novelty, to try once just for the experience... but depending on your pallet I could see this place swooping in a stealing a lot of business from other more bland Mexican and ethnic restaurants nearby. 4/5.