The fiancé and I love Cuban food. We had a couple die hard favorites back in SoCal that we would frequent on a monthly basis. We've been missing our Cuban craving fix since moving here to Phoenix. So last Friday evening as we were deciding where to get our grub on we happened to pass by Havana Cafe. The fiancé had heard good things about this place from coworkers so we decided to bust a U turn and give it a try.
It is located in a small strip mall with a metal gate door. A little sketch looking but we weren't deterred because good food often comes from little dives. The place was pretty busy but we were seated right away. It was a little weird for us to be seated side by side on a bench which the hostess first had to slide the table forward, allowing us access to the bench, and then proceeded to slide the table back in towards us so we were essentially boxed in. But moving on....The place is loud with great live music but you find yourself having to talk really loud to your server to get your order in.
My fiancé ordered his usual favorite: ropa vieja. I couldn't really find anything that looked especially appealing to me...for a reasonable price at least. So I settled on a tamal cubano and the ceviche from the appetizer menu. Overall, the food was good. We enjoyed the ropa vieja and the ceviche. I only wished that the ceviche came with chips instead of crackers. The tamale was good and had bits of pork in it which made it more of a crowd pleaser for the fiancé. However, both of us felt that we didn't enjoy our meals as much as we do at our fave Cuban place back home. Plus, we didn't feel our meals were worth the prices here so we left a little unsatisfied. Don't get me wrong...we are not opposed to spending good money on food that we feel is worth it so please note that our review is not because we're cheapskates or anything. But if you plan on hitting this place up then be prepared to pay $20 and up per entree.
Bottom line is that we may or may not go back. Nothing really wrong with this place but nothing overly exciting either. Maybe a future visit will change my opinion but until then we will be continuing our search for our go to Cuban spot.