Havana Grill

It's finally Fall Break (yeehaw!)...

TC's school had their homecoming game that evening so we had date night...

Over in this stripmall is a plethora of diverse eats (Aladdin, Okan, and not shown on the sign, and the former Beauty Hunan, which took over a former Indian market but is now another Chinese spot).  We were here for Cuban food by way of Havana Grill.

Using my best friend of course...

Hellz yeah.

Let's go in shall we...

It wasn't crowded when we arrived but was getting filled up when we left. You pay at the front and grab a table. We used the coupon for our entrees only.  I did a separate check for drinks and an appetizer. We've found that if you try to order a bunch of stuff using the coupon, some places will take off the LOWEST priced item even if it's not an entree. Believe me, we've experienced that and don't want to look like nitpicking cheapskates, but we just want to get the correct discount and not be shafted.  So yeah, separate order for the lower priced items.


The view from our table by the window...Lovely traffic and the stripmall across the street.

It is spacious in here. They have a lot of desserts in their display case as well as the variety of their appetizers to gaze upon while making your selection.




Bert's Cuba Libra (rum and soda water with lime; the rum was kind of weak though; it could've used more!). Still refreshing!

Tostones with mojo (olive oil and garlic sauce). These were smashed and fried plantains sprinkled with salt. These were quite dense and kind of stiff.  Denser than what we've had in the past.

Bert's Vaca Frita (natural hormone free flank steak seared crispy) with sauteed onions and served a side salad, sweet plantains and congris (a mixture of rice with black beans). This was $17. My Cubano ($13) was the free entree. I could have "maximized" the coupon by ordering something was was up to $13 but I wasn't interested in having chicken or beef.

Instead, I got the Cubano sandwich which was served with fried plantain chips (which didn't seem freshly fried).  The sandwich was packed with ham, sliced roasted pork, cheese, pickles and mustard. The flavors melded quite well in this pressed masterpiece. As you can see, they even included thin slices of garlic in there!


One half for now and the other half for breakfast! As for Bert's entree, he liked it but thought that the amount of food was a bit on the skimpy side. The meat portion was tiny and so were the onions.  The meat tasted like beef jerky since it was fried to a crisp; I did not prefer it but Bert liked it.

Who else went to Havana Grill:
Check out Kirk's post from 2016 - January and September (he does a Cubano sandwich rundown in this post) as well as the more recent update from earlier this year

Havana Grill
5450 Clairmont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117
(858) 430-6878
www.havangrillrestaurants.com/fb page + reviews from you know where and tripadvisor

We recently visited another Cuban restaurant (it had been awhile!) so that post is forthcoming...