5225 N Lombard St Portland, OR 97203 (503) 286-2929

Bwa-ha-ha! The joy of visiting Cuba is not the food. We're still laughing about the "breakfast spagetti" served at our hotel. How does one make a Cuban resteraunt? I couldn't say - the best Cuban food is in the cheap diners in Miami. It's an impossible puzzle. Authentic modern Cuban cuisine would be best in a "green" resteraunt serving nothing that couldn't be had after peak oil. But, with *fantastic* live music and plentiful mojitos.

I've been to Cafe Cubano twice; once for happy hour and once for dinner. Both times the service was friendly but a little uneven. i.e. sometimes took a little longer than I would've liked for someone to come around. That said, the food is EXCELLENT! And a good variety. The atmosphere is casual, with an open seating arrangement. The woman who served us for Happy Hour was very helpful with information and suggestions. (I like it when the people that work at a restaurant actually know what they're serving and can even offer opinions.) The drinks were good an roughly average-priced - not a steal but less than many places. When I went for dinner I went with my wife and 2 other couples. We ordered a few starters to share and most of us tasted all the entrees when they came. They were out of pork, which is not good considering its one of their most popular dishes (a cuban place out of pork!?), but the items we did order were quite good. In fact, the beef that I ordered is probably one of the best beef dishes I've had (and I've had alot)! Again, the service was uneven - starters came out right away but it took quite a while for us to get our entrees - but since we were socializing and had starters and a couple of bottles of wine it didn't really negatively impact our experience. And they apologized for the delay when they brought our entrees. There was also live music during dinner which I usually find distracting and/or too loud, but the guitarist they had was actually quite good and we all enjoyed the music. (It helped that it was not blasted at deafening levels as it is at some places.) Overall, an enjoyable experience both times I've been there. In fact we talked about making it a weekly thing. AND since we went on a Saturday (for dinner) we were able to walk across the street to the Twilight Room for karaoke after dinner; but that's another review.