Havana Central
“Ambiance is always very lively with the beats of the band, where you can work off a meal with some salsa dancing….”
“I had another fantastic night at Havana Central in the Roosevelt Field Mall.”
“Thereafter, I tried the coconut mojito and the red sangria…both awesome, but the ultimate mojito is still my favorite.”
Havana Central
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Accepts Apple Pay: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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TLDR: Convenient location but this is a chain Cubanesque restaurant, don't expect much.
At the behest of other Yelpers and after seeing this venue at Sugar, a Yelp charity event, I decided to make a res for 10pm on a Saturday. We arrived at the mall, this restaurant is tucked away in a corner and isn't very visible from the round about road. You'll find it if you turn in at the parking lot by Seasons 52 and hug the side walk going towards Bobbys Burgers.
We enter and 4 young ladies are behind the counter. I tell them we have a 10pm reservation and give my name. We are seated at the room all the way on the right on a two top middle table. Our waitress comes over and happily takes our drink order. A mojito for me and a Diet Coke for my friend. We ordered the plantain chips for the app. Takes awhile but the drinks arrived and soon the plantain chips. They were good but under salted. We sat there waiting for our server. It was awhile so we flagged her down and asked for salt and a round of drinks, rum punch and another Diet Coke. I agree with other Yelpers, the drinks felt very light on booze. We sit for awhile, and I notice the room has recorded music playing and there is live music playing in the other room. It felt chaotic as I couldn't enjoy either.
Soon our drinks and salt show up. We ordered our main entrees, vegetable paella and seafood paella. As I salted the plantains I realized, once my hand was full of salt that we never received napkins or cutlery. A runner comes and serves our food, and we asked him for more cutlery. He gets us forks. I assumed he would bring us a set that came with a cloth napkin maybe included a knife, that I saw others using, but he didn't so we asked for napkins and got some paper ones. Onto the food.
It was awful. A bowl of mostly rice with a couple cold clams, mussels and salty shrimp. The vegetable paella was the same rice base with some string beans and a few pieces of broccoli. I tried some and then looked up at my friend, "forget it, it's awful," I proclaimed and he agreed. Then I saw a familiar face.
Nicole from the Sugar Yelp event was there. I spoke with her at the event when my friend recognized her from a bar in wantagh we went to years ago. She was friendly and asked us about the food. I truthfully told her it was horrible. She told us that it's not one of the dishes she would recommend and next time to order X,Y,Z and to ask for her. We made some small talk and paid the bill.
As we walked out people were dancing in the small dance area which made it hard to navigate out without interrupting the dancing. We went elsewhere for dessert.
If Nicole bartended, I might visit for a drink or two (at 12 bucks a drink, I wouldn't have too many and I'd assume the booze would be a bit stiffer at the bar) but I wouldn't be back for the food alone. The cute cabana seats may be nice for birthday parties.
Havana Central is such an amazing place! I'm in love with it.
If you're looking for great Hispanic food then this is your place to dine.
Inside they have beautiful seating and there's also a nice spot for a party of 6 or more.
I came here on two occasions. One with my husband for brunch. The weather was in the high 80's and we sat outside under the umbrellas and it was a great feeling.
The second time was recently last weekend with my friend. We came around 7pm on a Saturday evening. It was so beautiful. The food was perfect (pictures attached) and the service both times I was here was awesome.
Saturday night they had a live band which played great music while we ate. People were also dancing and it was entertaining to watch.
I highly recommend their Pina colada drink and their green Plantain.
Wait and how could I forget: ORDER THE AVOCADO SALAD!!!!! it's the best omg. You won't be disappointed!
I shall never eat out anywhere else…
This is the place to go, for my wife and me. As soon as we got our table, we were greeted by the nicest and coolest server I can ever remember, Nancy. She was also training a new server. Nancy let us settle down, got our water quickly, made us feel very comfortable with the tempo of the service. She helped us thoroughly with the specials.
We first ordered the empanada sampler, beef, chicken, broccoli and cheese. The broccoli and cheese empanada was soft and creamy on the inside, crunchy on the outside. The chicken was sliced small, was very saucy, and also crunchy on the outside. The beef was probably the best empanada I ever had in my life. With the standard ground beef flavor, mixed in with the perfectly crunchy shell I could've just ordered the beef empanada as my main course and I would've been ok. Actually luckily there's more we ordered. We also had the Mazorca Estilo Havana and that tasted just like one of my favorite dishes, Elotes. It comes cut for sharing, and I am glad we could share because there would be so much more to eat.
I ordered the Arroz con Pollo, and my wife had the Vaca Frita. The Arroz con Pollo was a great simple dish, generous serving with a choice of black or kidney beans, I had the black beans. It tasted fresh, chicken was just the right amount of flavor, and with the beans, was perfect. The Vaca Frita is an amazing experience altogether. The rice and egg are a terrific combination with the thinly shredded fried beef and beans. Even now my mouth is watering thinking about it, I would reward myself with this meal whenever there is a great thing to celebrate. The salad is also a great add on to even out the fried shredded beef, rice, and egg. The serving was also generous and am so happy we had to take it home. We also ordered a side of plantains, expertly prepared, perfectly sweet.
We became so full, and was so happy Nancy reminded me of desert. We ordered a pair of cappuccinos, a Tres Leches flan, and a coconut flan. The Tres Leches was incredibly soft and milky. Very sweet and worked great with the cappuccino. The coconut flan stole the show though. With crunchy strands of coconut, this desert was something to remember. It was a perfect flan, and perfectly sized. My wife and I almost had a fight on who got to finish it.
As good as the food was, I want to say that Nancy played a big role in how great of an experience we had. She was always there, available to check if we needed anything, was so friendly, made me feel like she was family, which really makes eating out so much more fun. As a result, Havana Central at Roosevelt Field mall will be my number one choice to eat out. Great food, great location, great service.
Friend suggested Havana Central over drinks and appetizers. He had visited the one in Manhattan.
Let me tell you- finding Havana Central if you are not familiar with Roosevelt Field it's like finding a needle in the haystack and driving around in circles. One cannot cut across to get around from one end to the other end. I was in front of Dick's Sporting Goods then Neiman Marcus. My friend literally had to walk over get in car and give me directions. LOL…
We decided to sit at the patio and hostess walks out and ask "Two for lunch?". We said yes, she said what is your name? She hands us the menu and goes back into the restaurant.
Nice waiter come out and chats with us and ready to take order. He was the only waiter in the patio area and this was like 4:20 PM. I ask him what are the drink specials for we were there for Happy Hour. The waiter said there were drink specials. I said were they 2 for 1 or half price, etc…?
We ordered drinks- Classic Mojito (like the coconut) and Margarita (It was okay)- very light on alcohol which was good for I do not want to be liquored up. Then we ordered a second round of drinks. On the bill the drinks were listed as 6 dollars which is a good deal.
Havana Central has an extensive menu, but since I was there for first time and no idea what to order. I asked the waiter and he gave his recommendations.
Had the Coconut Mussels and my friend had the Mango Salmon.
The place is simply beautiful on the inside as I headed in to use the bathroom. It was early and not a lot of patrons yet. Couple of people at the bar.
I found out about their $1 Empanada Special for Tuesday flyer posted on the back of the toilet door. OMG! Way too funny.
Make sure you check your bill before charging your credit card or paying cash. They added on a dessert trio which we did not order. The bill from $90+(without tip) went down to $78+(without).
Will be back to try their empanadas, if I am ever in the neighborhood again.
After a long day of shopping at Roosevelt Field, nice to kick off heels and have a Classic Mojito out in the patio for you will feel that you are out of NY.
The first time I came here was for a baptism in their party room. The room was very spacious and had ample space for the amount of people there. The party was open bar and the wait staff kept up with our party of heavy drinkers. The mojitos and sangria were delicious. The party was cocktail style, so the waiters came around with finger food. The corn and mini Cuban sandwiches were memorable. They were tasty but nothing out of this world. The main entrée was a whole roast pork (pernil) with rice and beans. The pork was moist and flavorful and went well with the rice and beans. I'm not a fan of onions, but the pickled onions that came with it was excellent. The party was well organized and we left super full.
The second time I came here was on an impromptu date night with my husband. It was a weekday and the place was surprisingly busy. We were seated immediately. The waitress came and took our orders right away. I ended up getting the pernil again and my husband got the ribs. We also got an order of maduros to share. I felt like our waitress was disappointed that we didn't order alcoholic drinks. Our food also took forever to come out, plus our maduros never made it to our table. Our waitress only checked on us once while we ate. She was apologetic about the maduros, but it didn't seem genuine. The ribs were so tasty, but the pernil wasn't as good as the first time I had it. It seemed like it was reheated. The flavor was good, but the meat itself was dry. I'm not sure if I would come back after this last experience.
Havana Central was a let down for us. Cuban food is so full of flavors and we didn't get that experience here.
We started with empanadas and although they were good they were not that big. That last thing we ate that had any taste.
– Garlic Chicken was really a let down. It was basically a flavorless Italian dish.
– Pernil Asada was ok but really could have been much better.
– Chocolate Empanada's for dessert were really bad. A complete let down.
The service was slow too!
Mojitos!! I've been here numerous times and everything is soooooo good. From their signature mojito drinks to the empanadas, corn etc everything is yummy. Customer service is always on point. I love the vibe you get when you walk in. The décor and live band definitely makes a statement. Sidebar: I was lucky enough to meet the owner at a yelp event! Nice guy! He mentioned that there was a new location in Jersey which is perfect for me because I'm in Jersey every weekend. I definitely will be checking out the other location.
Their mofongo alone is deserving of the five stars, you can seat me out back in the parking lot and forget to bring me a delicious passionfruit mojito, and I'd be content chowing down on their heavenly roasted pork mofongo con pernil!
The stuff is just that good… Then again, so is their deliciously fresh and natural tasting passionfruit mojito. If you've ever been lucky enough to have passionfruit straight off the islands, you'll respect this mojitos flavor for real!
The service was okay to be honest but the food spoke to us like a long lost Latin lover.
The Picadillo was spot on Cuban and a lot like my own (no I'm not Cuban) the issue here was he asked me what kid of beans I wanted with my rice and I got absolutely none… I moved on as it was a small disruption to the huge flavors in that dish, my girlfriends dish, and the melt in your mouth [Mexican] Street Corn; please do yourself a favor and order this, but save some for me!! They call this Havana street corn with Cuban spices… "Mazorca Estilo Havana". I don't know where it originated but my oh my does this white boy enjoy all things Hispanic!
I can't wait to go back.