Habana Village Cafe

Last Saturday we found ourselves in St. Augustine around dinner time and had a solutions to our hunger problem in mind. However, add the post-graduation activities of Flagler College students and their family members to the typical Saturday evening chaos of downtown St. Augustine and you get outrageous wait times at all of the local restaurants. By chance we happened upon the Habana Village Cafe and noticed it was rather large on the inside and yet only a few tables were occupied. Not knowing what to expect yet suffering from intense starvation dementia, we wandered inside towards our unexpected culinary fate.

We ordered one glass of white sangria and one glass of red to pass the time until our grilled chicken arrived (which came out surprisingly fast). The sangrias, while not the best I've had (Sangrias in downtown St. Augustine makes some great varieties) were pleasantly balanced, the white being the superior of the two.

Neither of us had any prior experience with Cuban food so we didn't know what to expect beyond knowing what kinds of items would be included. Much to our delight, the food was amazing. Everything from the rice and beans to the fried plantain and the grilled chicken itself was bursting with flavor and lacked the unpleasant greasiness of some similar cuisines. A band started playing some good Cuban music in another room towards the end of our meal which rounded out the experience quite well. Overall a great experience and definitely a place we'll have to visit again.

Whilst performing a quick search to see if they had a website, I found a review of sorts where someone was complaining that the service was horrid and the staff rude. Our experience couldn't have been further from that of this individual as I found all of the staff we dealt with to be courteous, patient, and well mannered despite our unsophisticated attire and my penchant for photographing the sangria.

Habana Village Cafe
1 King Street #103
St. Augustine, FL 32084
904-827-1700