Havana

Recommends

dancewme

Joined 7 years ago

Ok for hangout. Eat before you get there.. Ive tried the place a couple of times. I know cuban food. I have yet to be impressed. I think the food lacks flavor. Seems like the place to go if you want to have a mojito and pick up on a date.

Recommends

gabbymax

Joined 7 years ago

Love the atmosphere and the food!. I have dined at Havana several times over the past year, and the food has always been excellent. I especially recommend their seafood dishes, but friends are taken with the cuban sandwich. I have also had the chicken adobo which is also very tasty - my husband's favorite. Salads are crisp - especially the arugula salad. The black bean soup is also wonderful and a perfect start or a meal in itself if you are not too hungry.

The atmosphere is a bit loud but we just expect this and it is not a problem. The decor appears authentic and is very fun. The wait staff have been consistently friendly and offer great suggestions to help plan the meal.

All in all, a great place to go with friends -not your average, mundane dining establishment!

Doesn't Recommend

littlegordy

Joined 8 years ago

good ambience for a bar. Skip the food. The mojitos are great. You should NOT go here for a meal. The food is marginal at best. If there is one thing I know, it is Cuban food. This is NOT cuban food. It is a bunch of cuban (and non) cuban ingredients thrown together in all the wrong ways. It looked pretty- but there was no flavor.

The drinks are good. They should expand their tapas menu (nothing on there currently impresses), and call it a Tapas bar.

Doesn't Recommend

mk98

Joined 7 years ago

Good from far but far from good. For the money, you can do much better...

First, the seating is miserable. It is cramped, loud, uncomfortable, and decorated from IKEA.

Second, the food is overpriced and very bland. Little flavor, fair presentation, and the kitchen absolutely ignores special requests. This is not Cuban food, but rather a poor attempt at making food that resembles Cuban food...

Third, the service is probably the worst I have had in a long while. Water is not re-filled. We were served appetizers but given no plates! I requested plates three times and the waitress forgot...

Fourth, the drinks are not that good.

Fifth, no reservations which makes planning an evening difficult.

Bottom line, the place looks like it might be fun from the outside. The venue seems good and the menu looks appetizing. When you dine there, however, the flaws of this restaurant surface...

Recommends

alyssa222

Joined 7 years ago

Great afterwork spot!!!. just moved to pleasant hill from SF and have been finding it hard to locate a great afterwork spot. Havana is it! Their mojitos are the perfect way to unwind and they taste even better when you pair them with some of their tapas (i love the scallops and the fried plaintains). friday nights get really busy if you show up around 8pm so i try to get there early and snag a seat on their long bar table. parking is definitely difficult on weekends, so show up early to circle around the block or just pay for parking across the street.

Recommends

kl821

Joined 7 years ago

Anything on the tapas menu is AMAZING!!. AMAZING foods...we couldn't decide what to get, so decided to go with 2 full size salads and a selection of tapas......there was NOTHING on the table that we didnt like, and we had some pretty picky eaters with us!! Street parking is tough, but after business hours, you can park in the wells fargo parking lot across the street for $4 (pay first, and leave the receipt on your dashboard)...i'll definitely go back again and again!

Doesn't Recommend

ebgirl

Joined 11 years ago

Not a good dining experience. We wandered into Havana on a Thursday night because the menu looked decent and the decor was unique. The mojitos were OK, although they are small and cost $7, which is expensive considering they use cheap (Bacardi) rum. We ordered a selection of tapas and all were average or below average. Their "twice-fried" plantains were dried out and tasted like cardboard. The scallops were overcooked, and the crabcakes tasted like they were out of the freezer section of the supermarket. Service consisted of the waiter taking our order and someone else dropping off our food. Other than that, there was no attention whatsoever. I will never go back here. It's worth the extra 10 minute drive to a Berkeley/Oakland restaurant for MUCH better food and ambiance at the same prices.

Recommends

mozzafiato

Joined 10 years ago

Great drinks, not good food. I've been twice now, and enjoy the drinks and ambiance. The food is simply not good. Bland, flavorless and plain are words that describe it. Still, a nice spot to have a drink before or after dinner.

Recommends

mspall

Joined 8 years ago

Tasty and Fun dining experience. We visit Walnut Creek about once a month and were very happy to stumble across this restaurant on a recent stay. Chimichurri Steak, Scallops with a Ginger/Citrus Sauce and their shredded beef dish (Ropa Vieja) were all excellent and very different. In a town that mostly offers Italian and Asian restaurants, this is a very refreshing alternative. Wish there was one in Chicago!

Recommends

zinlover

Joined 10 years ago

I second, go for drinks but not food. I love this place for drinks and the sort of "scene" but not for food. It's just sort of bland and unexciting and I guess I was expecting something a bit more spicy and fun... I wouldn't go back for dinner, put it that way.