last night i went out for dinner with some friends. we were at this new restaurant, havana. i’m not sure i have mentioned but when i worked at the hong kong standard, i reviewed hotel restaurants. i miss that aspect of the job, and since you might be getting tired of reading about the triumverate…here is a review of HAVANA.
it is an internal battle to appreciate good food when it is delivered by appalling waitstaff. possibly it takes a stronger person than i. repetitious questions regarding drinks, or being ignored in other areas. as well, by 10pm, there were people standing right behind us, as the bar crowd kept expanding. i do not appreciate the expanding bar crowd aspect, especially since the restaurant doesn’t convert into a bar as the evening progresses. i mean, how irritating is it, to have a stranger draping their copious hip or poison-scented hand on your chair, about two inches from your nose. eventually i had to move my chair…accidentally on purpose.
the gypsy kings have to be the musical equivalent to meryl streep. they’re every minority. mexican, puerto rican, cuban, spanish, inner city, panamanian, costa rican, nicaraguan, belize-ian, any central or latin american restaurant you walk into, you know the chances are very good you will be listening to the gypsy kings at some point throughout the evening.
i ordered the curried spring rolls to start, and they were very nice. i tend to prefer vegetarian spring rolls, but these were shrimp, and they were fantastic. unfortunately, my second course did not arrive. i had ordered scallops, and i guess because i ordered two appetisers, that got our waitstaff confused, and so they didn’t bring them. finally, i told the server to cancel my order. i am not sure she did, because a fresh plate of scallops appeared, and my neighbour had to eat them.
a couple of other people had bad experiences at our table, so they comped the coffee and dessert. i had some rum and raisin cake for my dessert. except for it didn’t have any raisins. and it was paired with banana ice cream. i thought that was an interesting combination. the other dessert choice was pineapple and apple crumble. i did not know either of these were considered cuban desserts. the crumble was dry and sadly, without oatmeal. quite dry, apparently. the cake was good, lacking an icing of any sort, and leaning toward the dry side.
toward the end of the evening, magnificent marched in. he was double parked so i left a few minutes later. i don’t know if i will go back to that restaurant. it is located in an area of hong kong that is packed wtih great restuarants. we return to a few favourites where we get great food consistently, but in general, if you fail the first try, you’re out. we’ll call this the cuban misinformation crisis. we’ll probably go back, but not on a weekend.
