Alma de Cuba

Center City, Philadelphia -- Tonight, we went to Alma de Cuba for Restaurant Week with a bunch of our friends. Since we went with a large group, our reservation was very late (8:45pm). When you first enter the restaurant, you will notice the trendy, comfortable furniture and there were a lot of pictures of Cubans. The decor was very peaceful looking and full of clean lines. The restaurant's lighting was very dim, which is starting to annoy me a little bit. It makes it somewhat difficult to see the menu and take pictures of the food for the blog. Also, the floor plan was interesting because the restaurant had four levels and you could see the other levels from where you were sitting, creating a very open environment.

While we were waiting and engaging in inappropriate conversation about our friends first date, they continuously serve you these bread balls (about 2-3 per person). The bread balls were soft and very doughy because the inside had cheese mixed in with it (I was not a big fan of this). They also gave you a dipping sawce of olive oil, basil and other spices that was grrrreaaat.

The restaurant week menu was not that extensive, which allowed us to try the entire menu among the six of us. Out of the three choices for appetizer, the best one was definitely the Royal Palm Dates (Almond stuffed dates wrapped in bacon with blue cheese). This dish was served to you on a wooden platter with the six Royal Palm Dates resting on lettuce boats. When I first bit into the jaun, I noticed that I got a boner. I'm not sure if the actual dish tasted delicious because of all the ingredients or if it was just the bacon. But, you can never go wrong with bacon.

For the entree, there was a selection of three different dishes: Vaca Frita “Fried Cow”, Panela Chilean Seabass, and Cuban Shrimp Enchilado.

Personally, I had the Panela Chilean Seabass, which (in my opinion) was the best out of the three choices. The fish was served with creamy quinoa with cubanelle pepper puree and pickled cucumbers. Unfortunately, the portion of food was about 1/4 the size of the huge plate it was served on. I hate when you go to fancy places and you get something and the plate is bigger than the table but the food is smaller than an acorn. Regardless of the size of the meal, the actual fish itself was so tender and juicy and cooked to a perfection (melted in my mouf). The quinoa that it rested on tasted a lot like risotto and the sawce that it was in was delicious. The consistency of the grains were not as soft as risotto, which is an interesting feature of quinoa. Lastly, the crunch of the thinly sliced, pickled cucumber complimented the dish very well.

Next, Steph got the Cuban Shrimp Enchilado. It came with verde clam rice with spicy tomato and pepper stew. The spicyness is a little bit too much so you gots to be ready for that. But, the rice was alien green and tasty. Also, I always thought that Enchilados had tortillas but apparently Cubans have beef with that.

Lastly, there was the Vaca Frita “Fried Cow”. This meal had the twice cooked crispy skirt steak, onions, white rice, avocado and tomato escabeche. Honestly, I think that the steak did not need to be cooked twice. It had a great taste but some of it was burnt. The rest of the meal was pretty standard, nothing special.

I thought the dessert was average at best but Steph thought differently. We tried the tapioca pudding and the caramel flan. The flan was very pretty and topped with HWIPPED cream and a wafer. The thing I enjoyed the most about it was that it was served with blood orange and pomegranate salsa.


Overall Grade:

B/B+ (Louie and Steph) - The food was interesting and very artistically plated, but that didn't make up for the fact that the service was not that great. Our waitress didn't fill our water cups very often and was rarely around. Who knows? It could have been due to the fact that it was so busy for Restaurant Week. The place is definitely a very posh establishment for whippicle activity. Also, the drinks were very expensive (glass of cabernet = $12 WTF?????) Do you know what I could do with $12? So many things. I could buy 11 pieces of fried chicken at Popeye's for $9.99 and still have $2 left over. Then with those last $2, I could buy a Turkey Hill Green Tea with Mango. That would be so much more satisfying than a glass of wine.

Sidenote: Our bill ended up being $381.90 including tax and tips (those grimy ass people added a 20% tip!)