The Cuban (Camden)

Went on a Groupon voucher on the recommendation that the food was good but service was poor. I got the opposite!

We did go on Wednesday evening so it was not too busy, and were seated immediately and attended to quickly. Drink arrived in timely fashion though the sangria was rather watered down.

Food was awful; real let down to Cuban cuisine. All 9 of the Tapas selection was squahed onto a large plate. Food seemed like it had been sitting there a while. We didn't receive the potatoe bravas but after sampling the food, I didn't really want to stay and wait for it as it was so poor already.

Calamari was in old, cold batter. Quesdillas seemed they had been sat in the kitchen for a while as the cheese had set. It was oily, cold, and most definitely shafted on the portions. We made no Groupon savings at all and it was completely misleading to suggest there was any bargain price or saving on the menu because we got what we paid for. I won't be using Groupon for any of their restaurant deals again.
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JayLa - View all reviews by this user
4 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 1
Friday, April 22, 2011

We bought a Groupon voucher for this restaurant - the lager was ok that's about it. The food was very small (eggcup full of humus) two fingers each of pita bread. Rock hard battered squid, tiny meatballs, certainly wouldn't go again. The staff were friendly and efficient but we still waited for a long time. I saw a dish ordered from the usual menu which appeared bigger than all of ours put together.
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5 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Tuesday, April 19, 2011

haha - seems i am going to write what everyone else has - really shocking service, 2.5 hours for 3 courses, didnt get any food for an hour and a half, didnt even get drinks for the first hour, even tho we kept asking (and there was only 2 of us!) there seemed to be enough staff, and even a (pretty useless) maitre de, and it wasnt packed with people, but they just couldnt organise themselves...and not one apology, even tho we had to interupt them about 8 times for various missing drinks, food courses and the bill.

bad bad bad service, food was OK, but not worth the heart-ache and long waiting times.

Avoid.
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paul
3 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Tuesday, April 19, 2011

I had bought a Groupon voucher for 9 tapas and a pitcher of Sangria at the Cuban. My boyfriend and I went for dinner on a Tuesday night. Once the order was taken, it took an hour for us to get our food! My boyfriend had to keep asking the waitress where our food was, and she kept promising it would be served in "2 minutes" --over a period of half an hour! It was frankly very annoying. When it arrived (finally !! we were starving), the food was ok. More Spanish than Cuban really.

Maybe they need to hire more kitchen staff. If they can't even deal with orders on a Tuesday night, I feel sorry for the people who order on a Friday/Saturday night. They probably have to wait even longer than we did. The waiting staff could do with a refresher on customer service.
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Very Annoyed
3 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Absolutely appalling place.

Ater being seated we waited for more than 30 minutes for someone to take our drinks order. In the end my boyfriend had to go to the bar himself.

When the food arrived, after a very long wait, it could not have fed a family of mice. It was the stingiest portions ever and a majority of it was cold.

Bad service, bad food, bad value. Avoid!
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Lolly sunshine
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Saturday, April 02, 2011

I have never written a review before but feel so incensed by our treatment at The Cuban that I feel I should warn others. At a 9pm reservation, we waited over 1 hour to receive our starters. We were apologised to by the manager with a free drink. At this point we were calm and felt sorry for the staff as they were obviously struggling. This mellowness then disappeared as we were left waiting another hour for our mains, which when arrived were so revolting that we couldn’t even eat them. My fish looked like it was a special treat for your pet cat and my boyfriend’s dinner looked like something you’d find at the Knutsford service station. When I asked the waiter if there was at least a sauce for my fish, I was rewarded by rolled eyes! This attitude seemed fairly standard by the waiting staff, however most of whom were so embarrassed by the delays of our food that they couldn’t even look us in the eye. By this time it was 11pm, we called over the manager, Otis, who promised us that it was a one-off and that we could come back and he would provide us with another meal and drinks on the house, evidently in an effort to prevent us bad-mouthing his restaurant on forums like these. He gave me his business card and I emailed him about his offer, he didn’t reply. I followed this up. No reply. Unbelievable!

DO NOT waste your time or money by dining in this horrible restaurant that has as much Cuban authenticity as sunburnt Brit wearing a sombrero.
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0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, March 21, 2011

I had to send back my burger twice - I got it cold and it was spreadable the first time, the second time it was still cold and spreadable - I could not eat it. Staff was not even apologetic or offered me a drink.
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Marjolijn Roepers
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, March 16, 2011

So wish I had read the reviews on here before dining! Food & service appalling and very overpriced for the quality of food. Attracting the attention of a server was extremely difficult and at that point we debated walking out, wish we had followed our instincts at that point!

The food when it arrived was very cold to the point of being inedible and interestingly there was an large piece of very sharp shell in one of the dishes which strangely did not contain any seafood?! Food bland and uninspiring, a butternut squash dish (was just slices of butternut squash) was raw in the middle. Cocktail was lovely but very expensive considering it only contained one shot of alcohol.

There are so many great places to eat in London, this unfortunately is not one of them.
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Helen
1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Hugely disappointing. My “slow roasted spicy chicken” had no flavour bar the slight dressing of something suspiciously like Heinz bbq sauce, and the skin was all flabby. The Albondigas didn’t come in a tomato sauce, but just a bowl of oil.

The waitress was very nice and didn’t charge us for the meatballs when we complained, but overall it was the worst meal I have had in London for years and it wasn’t exactly cheap! Do not go here to eat!
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3 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Went this Friday nite and had the worst dinner ever !! Food was disgusting, I can bet it wal all microwaved and reheated million time. My mushrooms looked like someone had been sitting on them for the whole day, awful and no taste at all. Main - fish, raw and not spiced. Dessert, just had one spoon of what pretended to be a chocolate cake - did not even stood next to chocolate. Plus the stuff did not care a bit, need to actually shout at them to get any attention. Oh, and drinks - ice and water, no rum, or anything that even remotely reminded a good Mojito. Horrendous !!!
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joanna
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, February 21, 2011