Alma de Cuba

2009-07-26T21:11:00.020-04:00

Sitting outside was a treat, although it feels like we missed a lot of the attitude and ambiance of the setting; dark and moody. However, as ‘people watching’ is a wonderful pastime, the outside sidewalk was a wonderful place to enjoy our meal and feel the city. The menu was clean: easy to figure out, simple, attractive. Our waiter was, as a waiter should be, very knowledgeable and friendly. In fact, she surprised us with her refilling acumen, as she stealthily poured us new drinks when we weren’t looking! We were very impressed.

Our first dish was the Royal Palm Dates. These are Almond-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon with cabrales bleu cheese. Now, we don’t floss with bleu cheese, but this lovely addition added so much to the dish. It melted in your mouth, and overall complemented what can be a very overpowering ingredient, bacon.

The toasted almond was almost invisible, until it came out nicely at the end of a bite with a solid crunch. The greens that it sat atop were crisp and lovely. The almond also added a nice, solid juxtaposition to the generally soft and bendy greens, date, and bacon like a hard treasure in a soft treasure chest. Need I talk about the dates? Lovely, lovely texture addition and a beautiful sweet center. Divine.

The Pulpo con Causa was a grilled Spanish octopus with warm potato puree, aji Amarillo, Peruvian olive sauce and sliced avocado. To start, the dish is all about tasting the octopus by itself, and is plated with everything on the side. They are right enough; the octopus did not need anything to be delicious.

But the mashed potatoes and avocado complemented the soft texture of the grilled octopus wonderfully, and the grill marks on the outside of the octopus add a nice little bitterness. And that sauce, oh lord that sauce. Black olive and mayo sauce was truly fantastic and tasted heavenly, much more fruity than one would expect. Our waiter knew exactly what was in it, displaying her expertise.

Who the hell doesn’t love shoestring fries? Nice and salty. Sliders (chorizo with mustard) however, were a different story. We were pretty disappointed they had not much taste. It was almost all mustard and French fry. Still, the bun was great and the meat was cooked well. This was not enough to save the dish…tasted like a sloppy joe.

The Oysters Rodriguez were totally fantastic.

We saved the best of the four main dishes for last. The presentation was fantastic, crispy fried oysters over fufu (mashed sweet plantains with bacon), sautéed spinach with horseradish and huacatay sauce. They looked very..natural.

The fufu totally killed it. The sauce was creamy but not slimy, with wonderful spinach mixed in. the oyster itself was breaded and fried with very little oil, sitting atop a shell stuffed with delicious. There was a wasabi dollop on top of the oyster that we very much so appreciated. They had a subtle smoky flavor; we think the fufu brought it out.

The cigar! You can’t beat the presentation of this favorite dessert. Totally ridiculous.

What’s better than chocolate wrapped almond cake? Edible matches that they light on fire for you, delicious caramel ice cream, wonderful. All the caramel additions were awesome together, they brought the plate together nicely. How can you beat homemade cigar wrappers? The little details here really make the dish.

And this isn’t even to talk about the almond cake itself. I could write pages about dish without mentioning the actual taste. The mix of consistency (soft, hard, soft) was amazing. The chocolate outer shell was creamy, soft, rich, wonderfully surrounding the the almond cake center. The dark chocolate on the outside flaking off was a total treat. Overall. A fantastic end to our meal.

We ended up spending 70.34 without tip, not terribly expensive for two.

Our ratings:

Decor: well, we didn't see much of the inside but due to the menus design and the cuban atmosphere that we did get, 5 out of 5

Plating: 5

Taste: 4 Unfortunately, the sliders dragged this down.

Creativity: 4.5

Price: 3.5 it's important to note that we only ordered appetizers. If we had gotten entrees, this would have easily doubled.

Alma de Cuba is open to all types of crowds. Great for dates and a special occasion, wonderful for lunch.

-Foosh

FOOSH

Alma de Cuba