Me and my husband went to The Cuban last nite for Valentine's day and we had a surprisingly good experience. After reading so many bad reviews I was a bit apprehensive about the place. We had a Groupon voucher for 9 tapas plus a 'carafe' of sangria- the food was very good, the staff friendly and the service fairly quick. It was a set menu for this particular offer but we were told if we didn't like some of the tapas on offer they could swap for something else. We decided to go for the menu as it was - in fairness, it was a pretty good selection with seafood, chicken, meat and vegetarian tapas. The sangria as good too..and we ordered a second one later. We'd def would go back there.

This place is a huge scam. Beware.

Bought a Groupon voucher - a meal for two - at the The Cuban, Camden. The food and drink were nothing like that described in the offer. They were not worth more than £10. Staff totally disinterested.

Having seen the poor reviews I was dreading going. I purchased Groupon Vouchers for 4 and went along there with my friend, my daughter and her friend last Tuesday. My first surprise was that the booking system was very efficient with an e mail confirmation. There is a good atmosphere in the place even though it was a quiet night. The Sangria was pretty bad ( tasted like Ribena and think the red wine bottle may have been waved in its direction), but the Tapas were quite good - plentiful and certainly not dripping in oil/fat. The toilets did leave a lot to be desired - not clean and smelly.
We had a good night overall and with the Groupon deal it is good value for money. I would chose the beer option rather than sangria and keep clear of the toilets though!

I honestly never leave bad reviews on restaurants
and have gloated several times to friends that
I rarely have bad meal in London ... that was until
we went to The Cuban. Had a good atmosphere
on arrival, then had to use the toilets (looked
like something from Beirut). Drinks orders
we an issue as no card machines worked.. totally
fine though as these things happen. Ordered food,
bill was incorrect (you receive this before you even eat).
This was rectified, after 45 minute wait and no food
I enquired about the wait. Only to find no message
was sent to the kitchen and no food was coming.
It was late so cancelled everything (in fact no offer of
making it a priority to deliver this food was even mentioned)
and a bar tender with an ounce of customer
service announced the cocktail my partner and I had
each was on the house as a way of apology. This was then astoundingly
argued by the Bar Manager and countered his staff by claiming we HAD to pay.
No apology, very smug and actually suggested
stepping outside to discuss this in a disgusting display of
arrogance.
We left and I am now making it my mission to let
any unsuspecting people know what they might be in for.
It's astonishing how many people have had a bad
experience here. Reviews on other forums are equally as damning. I have emailed the restaurant themselves
and for over a week am yet to have a response.
How is possible that these people have a business? Really
not sure.


Don't wast your hard earned cash on this place
and avoid at all costs.!!

I visit the Cuban in Camden every few weeks to drink and dance and love the place, so I decided to book a table in the restaurant as it was my birthday. Big mistake! We were shown to our table and it took a member of our group to ask three times before we were offered a menu or even a drinks list. We ordered our drinks, and these took 20 minutes to come. One member of the group received her drink about 30 minutes after ordering. The staff appeared overworked and stressed, we had three different members of staff taking our orders and none seemed aware of what was going on. We ordered our food, and this came almost an hour after we ordered; none of the dishes came together; there was a half an hour difference between some people's dishes arriving. When the food did finally come, it was a disappointment. Some had the tapas were extremely expensive and oily for the price paid. I had the duck breast, the portion was tiny and they probably should have given me a chainsaw to cut it as it was so dry and overcooked. My friend however ordered the burger and it was very tasty. So to conclude, if you want a good night out dancing to good live Latin American music, head there, however, avoid eating, as you will be very disappointed!

The restaurant was seriously disappointing, from the food portions to the service to the attitude from staff! We were a large table and generally thought they would take good care of us, wrong :-1:we ordered at 7.30 but didn't get our dishes till 9! 2:when we were eventually given our orders over 50% of the dishes not even close to what was actually ordered, even still the potion sizes of the tapas were tiny. We were recommended 6 tapas for £23 between two is sufficient however we all felt you need at least 9 but didn't even bother trying to order more. 3:many "6 tapas" orders came as 5 to which we informed our waitress about whom casually strolled over half hour later decided to tell us the kitchen was closed and they couldn't give us our 6th dish. A discount was offered in their defence but doesn't in any way contribute to the "great dining experience". F4:urther still I was publically accused of not paying for cocktails even thought I had a receipt with the date, time and "the Cuban" written on the top as did they have their own copy! After realising their stupid mistake, no appology was given, if anything, staff seemed to have more of an attitude! It's such a shame because when you are kicked off your table with no notice for them to turn the restaurant into a bar/club the music and vibe was good! We only stayed because it was for a friends birthday! Will never go again!

Great atmosphere! and loved the scenery... Even though we hadnt booked it took 15mins to get a table meanwhile we enjoyed sitting around the bar for delicious drinks. Made fresh with great service was def a plus! I usually don't do reviews but must say this pleasant experience was worth noting! Location in the market was great as well. Fun place, I recommend spending a day in the Camden market and a night of food and drinks here.

We had a groupon voucher and enjoyed a great 3 course meal plus two cocktails each. The service was fine and the food was good- so not sure why so many complaints. We were in upstairs restaurant and maybe the bad food /service is in downstairs part.
Would recommened the upstairs restaurant- nice atmosphere too!

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.

This place is awful. The worst dining experience I have had in London.
* Seated right next to a salsa class, complete with bright lighting, music and dancers less than a metre away.
* 40 minutes to even be able to order drinks (the first time)
* An hour before our meal order was taken. Then we had to re-order our drinks.
* A further 30 minutes for the entrees to arrive. Then we re-ordered our drinks, again. Frozen food style quality, very disappointing (chicken tenders)
* Mains arrived in reasonable time (as we were finishing the entrees) but was lukewarm, but edible).
* Had to order desert twice, then in took 45 minutes for a piece of cake and pudding to come out.
*When desert arrived, they had ran out of cutlery.
*Had to wait a further 10 minutes for cutlery, which turned out to be a knife and fork.
Admittedly this was a Groupon voucher so you win some, you lose some, but this felt like such a rip off - from what was advertised as a 'three course Cuban meal' a set menu appears from which you could chose bog standard bulk catering style British fare like tomato soup, crumbed chicken pieces, grilled pork chop, cheesecake etc. Although the staff kept excusing the wait due to a very busy kitchen the staff seemed poorly organised and very top heavy - many people walking around with headsets and shuffling tables around, and a few half dedicated floor staff, that fluctuated between staring into thin air, hanging around at the bar and being run off their feet busy.
Don't waste your time. Please - market fare would have been much more tasty, quick and atmospheric!

very disappointing I had been there once before , But to my disappointment the menu had changed to a bland offering that was also overpriced with small portions & so was not worth the extended wait, the staff seemed to be rushed even though the place was only about half full!
The music also was very odd "rock?" at a Cuban place not what you would expect either,
Not all the cocktails were available either & was given no explanation as to why? & even I who is not a great drinker (hardly touch it actually) thugh did not want to be the only teetotaler there, but that was hardly an issue because I`m not even sure there was any alcohol in them!
In conclusion I would not recommend this venue until at least there is a new management to give it an overhaul all round. such a shame, for us the Cuban & Camden's reputation,,STAY AWAY

I go to The Cuban quite regularly. If you like a quieter night out, descent cocktails and nice food, definitely go during the week. Want a banging night out, crowds, live music till late with no entry fee. Friday & Saturday nights is where it's happening! Keep up the good fight Cuban. I still can't Salsa but I'm still enjoying it!

I have never left a review about a place before but I felt I had to this time. I went on Friday night for a friends 21st, we had a table booked for 9pm and when we arrived (half an hour late) we were shown straight to our table by a very friendly host. We went to the bar to order food and drinks for the 6 of us which took about 20 minutes (quite a while, hence the 4 not 5 stars) but once we had all finished ordering, the food started to arrive as we sat down! The food was delicious, the cocktails were yummy (£7.50 for a cocktail? It's in London, appreciate that it's not double that!). The Latin American music was playing from the moment we got there and when the tables had been removed from the dance floor everyone was up dancing. There were people who had probably salsa'd all their life and people who had quite clearly not. But that was what was great, no one cared! Everyone was dancing with everyone. It wasn't pretentious in the slightest. No, there wasn't much room to walk about but when we were walking to the smoking garden (which had A lot of seating) people moved aside and didn't have attitude because it was quite clear the barging wasn't intentional! It was a good crowd of people too. Everyone was friendly, every time one of us went for a cigarette we would make new friends outside and end up dancing with them at some point! It's my birthday in a couple of weeks and I think I'm going to go to The Cuban. Best night out I've had in London in a long time. Highly recommend to anyone who hates the pretentiousness of London clubs!

The worst customer service I have ever experienced! We went on a Saturday night for a friend's party. It was phenomenally expensive for what is not really a fancy night out in London - the cocktails only have one shot of alcohol and yet are £7.50! It's ridiculously busy, to the point where it's actually a bit dangerous, and full of men who think it's ok to feel you up as you are squeezed past them. It takes half an hour to get served, and whatever you do DO NOT use a tab. My boyfrend went to pay for ours only to find 12 (12!!) shots of tequila added to our bill which we hadn't ordered. These came to an incredible £70! He told the barman we hadn't ordered them, and he had to argue for at least half an hour with the manager to have them removed from our bill. The bar manager went so far as to call him a liar - there were only 3 of us using the bar tab and none of us were particularly drunk by the time we wanted to leave so where he though we'd each put 4 shots of overpriced tequila I don't know!
I will never go back there. Simple as that.

I was here for a friends birthday. Found the service terrible and the food took ages to arrive. The food was ridiculously overpriced practically robbery. They gave very little portions and was very poor quality.
We had to demand the desserts otherwise if we hadn't they wouldn't have given them even though we had paid for them. the room was overheated and i was incredibly sweaty.
i really would advise to people NOT TO COME here because you WILL be ripped off.
A real shame I can't give it a zero.

Have been here before, and had a great time, so was highly disappointed by my experience yesterday.

a) the menu had changed, and was now highly unoriginal

b) the service was terrible, including the waitress demand we pay before the food arrived because her shift was over. the attitude was shite as well

c) half the cocktails couldn't be made because they were out of ingredients

d) the food tasted incredibly bland

e) the card machine was broken, but they only told you this *after* you place your order

f) the table was dirty when we arrived, and not cleaned at any point

g) background music: maybe in a Cuban bar, alternative American rock isn't the best idea?

Still, on the upside, can't see how they're going to make money like this, so hopefully new management will bring some quality back?

After booking our table for 8:30pm for Valentines night on the 29th of January, we were very disappointed to have to wait for an hour for our table. At around 9:30pm we were finally shown to our table in the upstairs restaurant which was very cold (my girlfriend had to keep her coat on). Once we ordered our food we decided to put the earlier cock ups to the back of our minds and to enjoy the evening.

However, after receiving our starters at around 10:00pm we then waited until 10:50pm and with still no sign of the main course, we made the decision to leave as we couldn't wait too long and risk missing our train home. When we left the restaurant wasn't even half full, so I fail to see how they were struggling to cope with a fairly simple set menu. It really did make some of the restaurants on Ramsey's kitchen nightmares look like Michelin starred establishments. Finally, after getting our train home, and still hungry, we ended the night with a Kentucky fried chicken. NOT quite the romantic evening I had envisaged!!!!!!

A great place for a drink and live music. I stumbled in here with some mates on a Wednesday going to the Barfly but was impressed with the bands playing and the original decor it has. Yummy cocktails too.

The Cuban-i like this pub, i've been there only one time but for me is very climatic place.. the real latino music, delicious drinks with fresh juice and nice staff... i really recomend this pub to just stop to drink sth during shopping around the Camden Town:)

The food was digusting (and thats being nice), most of the menu was not available (maybe a good thing), the service was slow, the servers had the 'can't be bothered attitiute'. I can't even say the cocktails were good since they couldn't make my twisted mojito as they didn't have any vanilla pods??? Would not reccomend this place to my worst ememy!!!

I've been to The Cuban numerous times.. the music's pretty good and the bar has a good atmosphere with a young crowd. Drinks are good but a little expensive and bar staff can be pretty slow. The bar gets very busy on a saturday night and can have long queues from 11pm on.. However overall a good night out.

Only stopped by for one drink whilst we were doing the rounds of Camden Market, but we will definitely go back, as the place has such a cool vibe, with live latin music, a very extensive Cocktail menu, and even the odd x-lister (we saw 80s throw back Paul Young - is that a plus or a minus ...?)

The Cuban is one of those lovely relaxing places that attract really cool people. The Cuban also serves alcohol which makes it great in my opinion!