We dined at this restaurant a few weeks ago on a nice early Saturday evening. Â I called ahead to make reservations and was told that they are all booked for reservations but to come in and if something is available they will seat us. Â
We walked in and the place was empty .. more like DEAD... with "reserved signs" (see my photo) on all the waterfront seats. The server sat us very far inside.. as far away from the water as possible and said that she was unable to move the tables to accommodate all 6 of us. Keep in mind, the restaurant only had 1 other table occupied in the entire place. Kind of tough to "sell " us that you are busy.
We eventually moved ourselves and moved our own tables to an area a little closer to get fresh air, which they were not happy about. The entire time we dined 1.5 hrs, the reserved seats sat empty (see photo).
The food was pretty good, but obviously management has no idea how to maximize revenue when deadline with a waterfront restaurant. Definitely a lost opportunity there. Most likely will not return.
We happened upon this place after going to an open house in Fishkill. The realtor suggested we visit the waterfront area in Newburgh. It was a steamy hot day and we cooled down nicely on the open air patio. The waitress was very pleasant and attentive and the prices were great! I ordered a monitor which wasn't too sweet. The shrimp & crab cocktail was delicious and a perfect choice for such a hot day. It also was very filling served with crostini. My son had the nachos and asked for pulled pork instead of the meats offered. They had no problem accommodating. We also ordered beef impends which we were too full to finish. They were excellent and reheated well for a late night snack. Â Watching the, boats on the Hudson during our meal was soooo relaxing. Â We will definitely return even though it is 1 hour drive.
Review Source:We've had 2 experiences at Havana 59, one for dinner and one for lunch. The dinner experience was quite good, as they have a nice size selection of Cuban-American themed dishes that proved to be quite tasty. The tequila shrimp, and the mussels appetizers are delicious and a great start. and had for dinner the chipotle shrimp & crab over raviolis, the mango & sweet chili mahi mahi, and the shrimp & lobster raviolis. All were quite tasty and plentiful. There's a nice selection of beers, and the mojitos were done just right.
Lunch was ok, but nothing spectacular.The mojo steak sandwich Dad said was flavorful, but the steak was on the chewy side, Their cuban sandwich was decent, but should have been excpetional, and I've had better. My wife had the chili lime tilapia sandwich and liked it, and my Mom sampled the pulled pork and said it was good, but she had better at Billy Joes Ribworks. We all shared some sweet potato fries that were quite yummy. Maybe becuase we went during the winter when things are slow was the reason for a lackluster meal, so I'd be willing to try them again for lunch.
Don't expect a ton of ambience here, and it can get kind of noisy, but the views of the river are great. Fun place overall. I'm ready to go for dinner again soon.
What's a Cuba Libre?
I should have known that was a bad sign, it's not the most common of drinks, but if your restaurant is called Havana 59... You'd think the waitress would either know of the drink or at least play it off, she could have easily said ' let me see if we have everything to make one of those.....' Â
I visited Havana 59 on Sunday November 6th on the recommendation of a friend who had a very good experience just a few days earlier.  I was with a group of 8 others; we are a small part of a much larger group that visits the region a few times a year and enjoy eating at various local restaurants.  I understand that it was a Sunday evening, after the tourist season, so it might not be the "A Team" working, but we were the only group in the restaurant for at least an hour, but the waitress was more concerned with chatting with the bartender and playing with her ipad than with serving our table.  I guess the automatic gratuity added to the bill due to the size of the group blunted her motivation.  The service was slow, food was mediocre and overpriced, although all those in our group enjoyed their drinks  I was prepared to simply write this place off as a disappointment and a place that would never be revisited; then things turned ugly.
One of our group had tried an appetizer order of  Empanadas, I think it was, had one bite and was disgusted by the food, she informed the waitress, who asked "Was there anything physically wrong with the order?" but made no effort to replace the order with anything else.  When it came time to leave, she offered to wrap up the offending food, in case 'Anyone else wanted it '.  Interestingly the server put the bills in the hands of everyone in the group, but her.  She brought the bill but sat in on the table, off to her side, out of her sight at the moment.  When see discovered the bill, she paid for the drink and even left a tip, but declined to pay for the uneaten food.  After taking the folders to the back to process the payments, the server came stomping back into the room, slamming open a door that divided off the room and began yelling at our friends, scolding her and berating her in front of the entire party and threatening to call the police.  We asked for the manager, and she again stomped off to the back area, and got on the phone, supposedly calling for a manager, although none ever answered her call.  She also held up processing the last 3 tickets for our party.  Our friend very calmly went back to the where she was calling and calmly explained why she was not going to pay, eventually the bar tender got involved and defused the situation.  Apparently no Manger was going to be available until November 10th, so my friend got their name and number and will address the matter with her directly.
I was already not inclined to ever return to this restaurant; based on the bill for my wife and I, our group of 9 spent several hundred dollars there, and we were literally the only people in the restaurant for more than an hour.  Yet this waitress decided to create an ugly incident over an item that could not have cost more than $8, much less than the automatic gratuity on our order alone.  This shows a real lack of training on her part, because the bad will she generated will cost this restaurant far more in negative word of mouth among the several hundred people that we know and that visit the area each year, as well as motivating me to write a  review I am posting here and several other places online.
In contrast....
My wife and I had visited Captain Jake's just down the street on Friday night and had an excellent experience there. Good fresh seafood, attentive service and good drinks, despite the crowd.
Extremely slow service, mediocre food. I was very disappointed. Â I thought this was Cuban food but was corrected when I asked the waitress that this is Cuban-American food. Â Oops, excuse me. Just because you serve a Cuban sandwich and call the place by capital of Cuba does not make you Cuban. Â I don't know how these people stay in business, not worth the price.
Review Source:I came here just last week and had a great expierience. It was pretty dead since it was cold but the food was phenomenal. For a drink i had their delicious mint mojito which was recommended by my friend when she told me about this place.
Its cuban american menu has a lot of great meals and the ambiance here is really nice. They have gorgeous paintings on the ceiling and great view of the river.
For an app, we had the shrimp trio which was unreal! It cane with the best coconut shrimp ive ever had and delicious fried shrimp and i think the third type was a sweet chili glaze which tasted really yummy.
For our dinner, my friend just had a cuban sandwich which she really enjoyed. She kept raving about how juicy and flavorful the pork was. She had the homemade potato salad on the side which was so good! It had peas which was a little different but actually went really well together. I had the cajun mac and cheese which was perfect! It was pretty spicy which i loved! I will definitely be back here! Everyone was so sweet who worked here! The bartender jess is really cute and definitely knew how to make a tasty mojito!
This place has a great view of the Hudson River. Â The food is Cuban-American food. Â I've been there once for lunch & got a sandwich which was tasty. Â Just went there for dinner recently w/ a cousin & the food was outstanding. Â They had karaoke that night (Wednesday) which was fun also. Â Good service. Â They have a bar as well.
We ordered (and LOVED): Â Mesquite BBQ Quesadilla Rolls as an appetizer & the Shrimp & Lobster Raviolis as our meals. Â SO wonderful.
Like every place on the waterfront, depending on the night you go, it may be a task to find parking, but it's there...somewhere.
My husband and I went out to dinner and sat outside which was beautiful! Â We both ordered a mojito which was horrible! Â We ordered an app. which was shrimp and chorizo. Â The shrimp was tuff and the chorizo was gritty and dry. My husband ordered a hamburger which tasted like a pre-made "Bubba Burger". Â I ordered the Mahi Mahi with mango and pineapple. Â The fish was not fresh rather; it tasted like it was pre packaged frozen fish.
Review Source:id go 3 and a half here. Â been here twice, once for drinks and other for eats. Â had the mac and cheese chicken dish and was very good, spicy wings which were also very good and crispy, Â and friend had a chicken dish which was not what ordered, gladly took back and brought out another dish. Â very good service, friendly and willing to do the right thing. would definitely go back again, but still not the biggest fan of this waterfront place, not the restaraunt, but the area in general. but who am i to judge???
Review Source:The wait was at least 30 minutes just to get a table and my food took another 45 minutes to an hour for a chicken avacado wrap and sweet potatoe fries which by the way were the frozen kind that you can get in the supermarket. Once I got my order the wrap was soggy and the fries were cold so it had to be sitting there for a while or they over did it with the sauce. I wish that I would have had a better wrap that was actually what they described in the menu because the avacado was close to non-existant. For what I paid, I should have be given a decent amount of chicken and avacado,it's not like there is a shortage. The place had lots of people dining so they should have had more people in  the kitchen so the turnover would be faster.
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