Monday, August 8, 2016

Havana Tropical Grill Restaurant

This place is located in Rogers, kind of on the NE corner of Walnut and 13th.  There's a Waffle Hut on the corner, and some kind of Rent-A-Center place, and then a little strip mall next door.  Havana is in that strip mall.

The place is nicely decorated with wood and kind of an Afro-Caribbean theme.  When you walk in, there's a bunch of tables.  The restaurant wraps around the side where there's a bar, and I didn't really see past that.   There were several TVs around the bar.

I was getting a little hungry when we arrived, about 4:30 pm on a Saturday.  And that means my blood sugar was dropping.  So I was a little annoyed by how loud the music was.  That's mostly just me - I carry earplugs for just that reason.  After a bit they turned it down.  Frank said it was probably loud because we got there during the lull time.

A young guy showed us to a table and gave us menus.  Then a woman came around to get our drink orders.  Guy delivered the drinks, and woman took our food order, and guy delivered the food.

The ice tea was okay, but not great.  Frank couldn't tell the difference, but he's not a connoisseur.  We ordered the Cuban Sampler and the Cilantro-Lime Shrimp.

Oh my god!  I've never had Cuban food before, but it was amazing!  The smells passing by our table were driving us nuts before we even got our food.

Here's the sampler:
Picadillo
Lechon Asado
Ropa Vieja
Black beans
Maduros (sweet plantains)


Here's my shrimp:



 Shrimp with lots of garlic
Black beans
Tostones (green plantains)


The food was incredible!  The spices were wonderfully done and melded well together.  The maduros plantains went perfect with Frank's dish, while the tostones were just right with mine.

We were supposed to meet up with friends, who ended up having to cancel.  So we'll probably be back with them really soon!  Overall, I'm going 4-1/2 stars.  The food was that good.  The pork in the sampler was outstanding.  I'm not sure what all of the spices are in Cuban food, but now I really want to find out!