Asia de Cuba

I have to say, I am so confused by the negative review below! I visited Asia de Cuba with a party last weekend and loved it!

We chose the group menu 2 before coming and the food was an amazing feast to share in the center of the table. There was so much food!

And it was to die for. Such unusual combinations like the seared Ahi Tuna with green wasabi mash and the Wagyu beef short ribs are melt-in-your-mouth good!

As it happens I also ordered the Bay of Pigs dessert and thought it whimsical. It really made me feel like an excited child (it is a giant sundae shaped like a pig's head. Brilliant)!

Our server was lovely and really funny. Now, this would have been annoying if the service was sub-par, but as it is, it was just endearing. We really felt taken care of all night.

Asia de Cuba is not your traditional 5* experience. It's not stuffy! It's fun and lighthearted, lively and vibrant and, as long as you know how to have a good time, the perfect place for a delicious meal, with personality, in central London.
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JayMae
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Wife and I had dinner with a couple of friends here recently. I was appalled by the standard of the food for the price. Starters were in the £15-£25 price range. On recommendation of the waiter I opted for the deep fried calamari, 'one of the most popular dishes', at about £18 I was expecting something pretty good. What arrived was nothing more than a few fried squid on a very large bed of salad leaves...and they were cold. The other starters we all uninspiring, with the exception of the pork.

For main course - we had Steak (£31) which as someone else commented on here was fatty and unbelieveably had a piece of gristle running through it. The Black Cod - their apparent signature dish - was 1/10 when compare to similar I've had at Nobu and even in relatively modest priced restaurants... I've actually made better myself from Black Cod bought from the Japan Centre. Its not hard to get wrong and Asia de Cuba got it wrong!

The waiter was haughty and arrogant. I don't understand why waiters can be like this and why they consider themselves sufficiently accomplished to behave like this.

For dessert I order the Bay of Pigs. As soon as I laid eyes on it I said to my wife it is just like something you would expect from Wetherspoons. It was a massive mound of stuff of very average quality. A Brownlie, surrounded by a mass of average tasting ice cream, marshmallows, cheap spray cream from a can, and sickly sweet wafers. At £15 I was very surprised indeed.

Re my comment about the waiter - given it was 50th anniversary of Cuban missile crisis - I quiped something about it when ordering a dessert named 'Bay of Pigs', totally went over his head. Clearly more interested in his hair and fingernails than history books!

All in all a big bill £350, once the 15%(!!!) service charge was added. A big disappointment and all I will say for absolute certain is that we won't be returning - and I would caution others from doing the same!!
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RogerH
2 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 0
Monday, October 22, 2012

Some girlfriends and I thought we'd hit the jackpot when we saw the 2 courses and a cocktail for £19 deal here so we booked dinner on a Thursday night to catch up.

I'm quite a forgiving diner and not a fussy eater, but the food we were presented with last night was appalling in taste, quantity and quality. 2 of the starters (scallops and tuna) were tiny (although apparently tasted ok) while my calamari was a massive mound of chopped lettuce with 4 small pieces of cold and stale fried calamari. Not to mention these arrived less than 4 minutes after ordering - suspicious.

2 of us had the steak for a main - inedible. There was a long strip of gristle and fat along one side that was like chewing rubber and the meat itself was tough and bland. The 2 fried chips and shredded slaw served with it were uninspired, cold and tiny.

Dessert was ok, but I mean, doughnuts at that price?!

Service was attentive throughout, until the end. As they took a long time to take our order in the beginning and because we were having 3 courses, we were paying the bill right on the 2 hour time limit. As soon as the waiter left we were collecting our bags and belongings when another staff member came over and said it was time for us to leave. Clearly that's what we were in the process of doing!

All the rest has been said before - music too loud, pushy table turning, 15% service charge (!!!), expensive (although on the deal it was ok however would not contemplate paying more for what we ate)... it is a very pretty venue filled with the 'in' crowd so if that's your thing you'll love it, but if you're looking for a good meal, go elsewhere.
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Bexxta
4 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 2
Friday, October 28, 2011

6 of us went to Asia de cuba and our experience didn't really match the relatively poor reviews here.

The service was very good and attentive attentive but not over the top - this worked well in the relaxed atmosphere. (although the music was a bit dubious with cuban/latin music suddenly interupted by the theme song for Morph!)

The sharing concept worked well, since we found all of the dishes interesting and everyone wanted to taste. The ingredients were very fresh and well balanced and each dish was well explained. None were cold (except the salad, of course) and they all were interesting and very well cooked.

(Starter: Lemongrass Chicken, Duck, calamari salad with banana and cashews, crab croquettes; Main: Pork Belly, steak, Miso cod and some sides).

For dessert we were treated to some excellent coconut and banana cake as well as amazing donuts with caramel sauce - they were surprisingly not too heavy. The Chocolate desert was average though.

On the whole for 6 of us with cocktails, wine, water, desert rum/cocktails it came to under £500 which we fetl was actually good value.
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Leon
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Saturday, May 14, 2011

Totally agree with worst meal ever in London comments.

Cold, pretty ordinary food at silly money. Don't know what the wine cost, because it was my birthday and someone else was paying, but I did see the menu so I knew the cost of the food.

Loud music, uncomfortable chairs. Good job the company was wonderful, even though it was difficult to conduct conversation.

It is often difficult to complain in this situation when you know and the person paying the bill knows that the restaurant should be taken to task.
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Barry Perkins
2 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, April 12, 2011

it's awful, avoid - went for a friends birthday - so not impressed - please avoid if you can.
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Sean Smith - View all reviews by this user
3 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Saturday, March 26, 2011

Asia de Cuba – 13 July 2010

People – 4. Cost - £300. Drinks – 2 Bottles of Wine, 2 bottles sparkling water, 4 coffees. Food – 4 Starters, 3 Mains, 1 Desert

This review actually needs a slight introduction. We first visited Asia de Cuba last week as a celebration for my brothers birthday. We met in the light bar, and 7 drinks, (80%) crushed ice, cost £114. Now nice as they were, this is pretty extortionate for a glass of ice and a drink which is gone in three sips through a straw. Still, I guess that’s London for you. We went next door to the restaurant, and were seated at the table, when unfortunately one of our party was taken ill. The waiter who had come to the table and served our water was very understanding, and let us leave quickly without paying for said water, there were no problems and it was very gracious of him. You may argue that this is the “done thing” if someone is ill, but they still allowed us to go without paying for the water / cancelled reservation, so top marks for that.

We returned last night for a second try!

Not such a good table this time, at the back in the corner, so those not facing into the restaurant didn’t have the best of views, but that’s not so much of a problem – some tables are much better than others though. Our waiter bought us some water, and gave us menus for us to deliberate over. I asked which starters / mains were suitable for gluten free people (which is an option on the booking form, and we did request). When I asked this, the waiter actually put his head in his hands, as if to say “oh god, I don’t know, don’t ask me that!”. After racking his brains, we were told two starters were gluten free (prawns, and the duck dish, if you didn’t have the sauce), and one main (…duck). I’ve been to many top restaurants and asked about gluten free, and this is the first who have not offered specially made alternatives, or at least had a waiter who was clued up on what the dishes are comprised of. I thought that for somewhere that offers gluten free as a booking request, this was pretty shoddy.

Anyway, we placed our order of duck, lemongrass chicken, calamari salad and spare ribs to start, and went for pork, lamb and seabass as mains. We also ordered a bottle of wine. None of this the waiter wrote down, which we thought was a little odd and commented on, wondering if he would remember. Sure enough, a few minutes later he was back to query which starters we had chosen saying “you’re having prawns…and?”. “No, no prawns…duck, chicken, calamari and ribs”. I joked with him that he should have written it down, which he laughed at, but he actually should have – either write it down, or remember it! He then proceeded to bring us two bottles of wine as he couldn’t remember which we had chosen, which we confirmed at the table, casually saying “I was just testing you”. Not a great start. Now, I don’t like snooty service at all, but this was far too casual – his job is to take an order, write it down, take it to the kitchen, and bring the food when its ready, and he should also know exactly how each dish is made too. He failed.

Anyway, the food arrived, and was really good, very tasty stuff. The chicken and ribs were 6 pieces each I think, both with sauces, and very flavoursome. The duck was good too, though not dissimilar to a Chinese (swap lettuce for pancakes), and the Calamai Salad probably the best of the bunch – quite sweet, but big portion and very tasty with a citrus dressing. I like the idea of sharing, not always, but these portions really are decent sizes, and sometimes it’s nice that everyone gets a bit of everything, chopsticks diving in everywhere.

For mains we ordered pork, lamb and seabass, with sides of blackbeans and coconut rice. Again, big portions! We were very hungry, had planned on not having a dessert, but still had leftovers by the end of the mains, everyone was stuffed! Again food good, the pork was slightly salty, but tasty none the less. The lamb slightly strange, a bit like a pizza base made of pressed lamb with a herb sauce - a little reminiscent of a donner kebab, but still succulent and good. The seabass was very well cooked, with a strange crab souflee, which some loved, some hated, but all round a good feed! If you’ve been to cuba, you’ll like the beans, spot on, but the rice was a bit stodgy / sticky.

In truth, the food had redeemed the poor service to start with. However, by this stage the music (which so many here have commented on) was getting a bit too much, and seemed to have been turned UP during the meal. The older members of our party found this quite difficult. A strange mix of dance music, which whilst it was good and upbeat, was too loud and I didn’t think fitted with the setting – it was not Cuban, nor asian music, and having been to Cuba, would have been perfect.

After the mains we noticed out waiter had also disappeared, and the other table he was attending to had to get up to go and order drinks from a waitress who was dealing with another table. When our waiter reappeared ten minutes later, they said to him “where were you, we waited ages and you disappeared, I had to order drinks from the girl over there”, to which he quite astonishingly said “Guys, what can I say? I’ve been here all day!”. No apology, and an excuse that he was tired / didn’t want to be there, pretty appalling. Around fifteen minutes previous to this we had ordered one dessert, the sorbet, and four coffees from him. The coffees were brought over by other staff, as well as sharing plates for the dessert. So…we drank the coffees but no dessert came, so we waited. Eventually, when our waiter reappeared, we asked why we had had our coffees before our dessert, and where it was given it had been 20 minutes or so, and was a sorbet afterall. He muttered something about not knowing what was going on, and said “don’t worry, it will be free as you have waited too long”. This was something I suppose, and shortly after our dessert arrived, with a birthday message on it / candle, which he must have picked up on from our conversation. Again, this is almost expected from a decent restaurant, and many do such things, but again a nice touch.

The dessert itself was nice enough, but unspectacular - three sorbet balls with a chilli / passionfruit sauce. At a listed cost of £12, I’m glad it was free (probably a 1000% markup).

The food was actually great, very tasty I thought and I certainly didn’t leave hungry as you sometimes do with modern portions in top end restaurants! The price, on reflection, was pretty good value too. Two good bottles of wine, enough good food to feed a small army, water, coffee etc for £75 a head. This included a 15% service charge, which in hindsight we probably shouldn’t have paid. However, compare the meal (£300, with 2 bottles of wine), to the seven drinks in the Light Bar (£114), and you can see the value (or lack of value in the bar!).

As I mentioned before, I’m not one for snooty service. I hate it when my glass is topped up every time I take a sip, or when waiters are generally over attentive, and the atmosphere suffers as a result. However at Asia de Cuba prices, and 15% service charge, it was just too shoddy / casual. They have a lot of staff, and I can imagine each waiter only attends to 2 or 3 tables at a time. Our one, unfortunately, was just far too laid-back, and did not earn his 15% in any way. It’s not hard to note down an order, it’s not hard to learn a menu, so do it. I also thought the comment to the other table was outrageous, and I hope they didn’t pay their service charge. The music also was wrong, and too loud, but that’s a small gripe.

It’s a shame, because the waiter on the first visit had been great, and understanding (he had also asked us who was gluten free and explained a little about which dishes were available, and which could be adapted). Unfortunately we pulled the short straw the second time, and our waiter was simply useless, which let the place down. I’m not overly offended, perhaps he had an off day, but at those prices and 15% service charge, you expect better through principal alone.

How to sum up? Great looking place, great food, but at least one dreadful waiter.
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6 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The setting is lovely, the atmosphere determined by the buzzy staff and "experience" seeking diners. Sadly the experience doesn't merit the cost.

We went for the tasting menu. The appetizers have some originality and interesting in tastes and textures. Staff appeared at intervals determined by their procedures rather than as needed by the diners. So a glass of water was a long time coming. There was an near interminable wait for the inter-mezzo. The maitre de cut a diffident and distant figure as he swooned by, apparently more concerned with his image than with his customers.

The white wine was insufficiently chilled and when pointed out the staff didn't seem to care. Ice cubes rescued this !! The main courses of tuna and chicken were respectively unbalanced, and dull. Both were uninspired, and myself and companion were unable to finish these dishes.

A second glass of wine was also insufficiently chilled (such simple things have to be right in such a pricey "experience" place). The dessert, a medley of various puddings, was left uneaten for the most part, partially through having eaten too much, but mainly because it was no good, exception being the above average chocolate brownie thingies...

Interestingly I ate at Yo Sushi a couple of nights later and the food was considerably better (which surprised me pleasantly), and at one sixth of the cost!

Overall, this place doesn't have enough atmosphere of the right sort, the food is trying much harder than it is succeeding and the attitude to service needs to be re-thought.
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Phil Mochan
4 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 1
Sunday, June 20, 2010