Copacabana Restaurant & Bar

We love this place, we have been there about four times, the food is so good and authentic, only complain I may have is that they never have the «Cherna Frita» which is my husbands favorite dish, when we go to Florida we have to go to a Cuban Restaurant so he can have it.

Houston, TX: A Cuban gem!
What a surprise! The hand painted sign in front belies the very pretty and inviting interior.
During our initial visit, Chef Gabriel O’ Farrel personally came out to our table to answer hubby’s gluten free accommodations questions. We had a superb meal. Alex was so attentive in attending to our dining needs that we felt very pampered.
We had such a good experience that we brought four friends with us when we returned the following night. Two were natives of Cuba while two were well versed in international cuisines, having traveled the globe.
FOOD
Robo Encendido (oxtail soup)
Caldo Gallego (sausage and white bean soup)
Lechon Asado (Cuban Roast Pork)
Vera Frita (Fried Fkank Steak) x 2
Pechuga de Pollo Copacabana (Chicken Breast)
Our Cuban friends felt right at home. Not only was the food authentic, but the décor was typical of a restaurant found in their homeland. Our world traveling couple, hubby, and I simply enjoyed food well-​prepared and attractively presented.
Service was welcoming, friendly, and efficiently served. We oggled the house baked bakery case but refrained from indulging.
Would definitely return if ever in the area.

I went there with six people. The food wasn’t fast but oh my it was worth the wait. The portions were gigantic. It was seasoned wonderfully. It was fresh and hot. I had the tongue in tomato sauce. Fabulous. All six of us raved about our food. I will go again but later on a Saturday night because they have a band then. The presentation was appealing. Service was awesome. Bathrooms were clean. Great place.

I enjoyed my garlic shrimp w/​black beans and rice. My mother ordered the fish… She didn’t like it… Neither did I for $ 38.. Besides that I enjoyed the waiter who was very nice and the live music and salsa dancing.

DRINKS: Just the mojito. Wow! I’m definitely a mojito and Long Island ice tea type of woman and I must say I tried both drinks; blew me away… The only con is that the Long Island ice tea lacked the tea flavor mainly liqueur. But, if that’s what you like hey well there you go.
Last visit: last week, just posting now. FYI (;

Upon entering, we saw an employee lounging on the sofa near the entry. He was on his phone and must have been off work or on break. This place had a meat market display in the front and a stage with a dance floor in the back. AnywaYs.. a young man gave us a warm welcome and promptly seated us. Most of the tables had beautiful fresh floral arrangementsplaced on them.
The menu was a little confusing and our waitress spoke very little English. I thought I was ordering an avocado salad from the salad side of the menu. However, it turned out to be just sliced avacado served with thinly sliced onions. She waitress was able to understand my request to send it back due to a picture on the menu. The returned salad came back filled with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions. Yum! There was no salad dressing offered other than a bottle of oil. So, I just let it go because I wasn’t sure if it was a cuban thing to not use dressing. Several people came to check on us. We were also served a complimentary basket of miniture slices of what I’d call smashed buttery toast with a hint of cinnamon.
As for our main meal, I ordered a strip steak with white rice and black beans. It was a bountiful plate with a very mild thin steak and a touch of flavor. My husband ordered yellow rice, fabada beans, and sweet plantain. The serving of the fabada beans had a mild flavor also and was humongous portion. It appeared to be more like a soup of beans with potatoes, greens, and sausage. The sweet plantain was super good, but could have been a larger portion for the price of $ 2. I’m guessing it was ½ of a plantain.
I was able to practice my spanish and let the waitress know it was my husband’s birthday. She ended our meal by bringing him a complimentary sliced piece of their Napoleon colored type tres leches cake with a lit candle on it. Boy was it tasty!
Their accountant, Christina Aguilar (Yes, that’s her name.)came by our table and pointed out the owner and his history as a chef in Cuba. She told us all about their $ 6.99 daily lunch buffet, office business card drawings, and plans to start doing brunch. She invited us back on a Friday or Saturday to hear the live band and do a little dancing.
Overall, we enjoyed our experience and will certainly try them again.

Ok so my review is based on service at this place. I’m sad bcuz it’s a Cuban restaurant and it makes us look bad. The service started since the day I called to reserve a table for 9. I was told they don’t take reservations on weekends. I decide that we are going to get there at 7pm before the crowd arrives. We get there and it’s pretty slow so here I am thinking service will be great. Well that was wishful thinking. We order our drinks but they didn’t offer to bring us water as backup. We order our food which was actually really tasty. The table I was at was unbalanced so my daiquiri spills. I made them change table cloth due to being wet & put something under table to stabilize it. The kiddos start to order food so we expected them to receive it first. Not the case the adults got the food first while the kids were hungry. By the time the kids got the food the adults were just about done eating. A incident that really push our buttons was that a 2yr old requested Chocolate milk which they said they have. They bring it after being reminded 3 times. The poor baby took a sip of his milk and it was boiling chocolate milk. It wasn’t lukewarm or cold like it was requested. So he burned his mouth and was afraid to eat or drink anything else. They never even apologize to my sister or the baby’s dad. That was the last straw & by this time we just wanted our bill to leave and never come back.
I chose this place because we are cuban and wanted to take our father to celebrate his birthday and Father’s Day.

I just took my wife as it was her birthday choice, with only 5 cars in the parking lot and having read some of the reviews I was a little concerned.
I had no need, the food was outstanding, the service was excellent and the wait for the food was no different, in fact probably better, than most places we have been. I agree with some of the reviews which said the music was loud but if they had spoken to the waitress about it being turned down like I did, no more problem. I am from England and my wife is from Colombia, it was good having bilingual waitresses, my final comment, the cost was very, very, reasonable and definitely not to much for the amount of food you got, in fact it was cheap… We will be returning without a doubt…

The service at this place is completely horrible. I was here for a friends graduation party and she even had to wait 15 minutes at the bar to get a drink! I waited 20 minutes and still no drink! The food was okay, but the service could be better.

Don’t waste your time. Food isn’t great. SERVICE IS THE WORST! Took forever to get food. The waitress NEVER came to check on us. Had to get up & find our own to go boxes. Never again.

The wife and went there not to long ago to try out a new restaurant. We sat there for a good 10 minutes waiting for someone to greet us. A couple of wait staff walked by us but never stopped. I finally wave someone over and she told us she will be right there. I almost got up to leave when she came by. We order appetizer 2 of the 3 empanadas came out fine the 3^rd came out frozen. Returned it and when they brought it back out it was soft. It was good. Dinner came out and we were very impressed with the food. Just the service need a lot of attentions

I’m not terribly impressed with service. The wait to get our drink order was entirely too long.
We ordered empanadas for our appetizer. Two came out together and the third was delayed. The one that was delayed came later and when I bit into it, the ham was still frozen! Of course we sent that back.
I ordered the smoke pork chop. The portion was really small and the pork chop was extremely salty.
My husband had the top sirloin and it was very very good. If we come back I will order that next time.
Also there seems to be an insect problem. Little gnats flying around — kind of annoying.
Not over the moon about this place. Shame too because Houston needs some food Cuban food to add to our collection of restaurants.

The atmosphere was great. They had a live band playing salsa and merengue (Saturday night). It is pretty loud so having intimate conversation won’t happen.
Our server was not very good. He brought a mug with lipstick on it. and not lipstick didn’t come off in the dishwasher. lipstick like I just reapplied it and took a drink. GROSS.
I got the beef and potatoes. It was ok. It needed more seasoning. Not something I would be in a hurry to have again. My husband had the lechon (pork) which was dry. The skin was good though.
I will try it again simply because I enjoyed the atmosphere but I will probably stick with a good Olé cuban sandwich.

The Ropa Vieja was very good. The atmosphere was too dark for a Sunday. The gentleman singing was a bit too much for me. Staff was very attentive.

Delicious food, first time trying Cuban food. Very good experience. Loved the food and drinks; the ambiance is very cool.

Don’t bother coming here if you don’t know this culture or they language. No recommendations from the staff overpriced. Never again

Great staff! This place is amazingly delicious if you’re looking for authentic Cuban cuisine. Friday and Saturday nights are great because they have Manuel and his live Cuban band performing. There is a small area for dancing but it’s a great floor. They have great entertainers and performances so definitely check them out online to keep up with their upcoming events.

This is a restaurant, bakery, meat market, bar, and club all in one. I went in for lunch. They have the option for a catered style buffet or the menu. I had a Cuban sandwich (large for 8.99) and fries (Not a combination) off the menu. Fries were perfect. Sandwich was huge, it was ok. Menu was a little bit difficult to understand, esp the sandwich section. The items all seemed blended together and i’m still not sure I ordered what I wanted even after asking the waitress. I’ve had better cuban’s elsewhere if so.
They were playing love /​romantic songs over the speaker system which was really weird. I would think perhaps latin music at least, but this was so romantic I felt I was about to fall in love. Strange place. Maybe i’ll go back and try the bar scene. I doubt I will return by myself.

Let me start by saying that I am Cuban, and I was excited to take my Dominican wife and her family to a new Cuban place. At first glance the place is pretty tacky, with a fake bouquet of flowers on every table and extremely loud DJ playing corny 80’s music in a dinner environment. We couldn’t even hear each other speaking. I have to admit the roasted pork was pretty good, even though it arrived an hour and a half later. The appetizers and other entrees were horrible, greasy and bland. The plantain chips were the worst plantain chips i have ever tried, greasy and stale. I felt bad because my sister in law didn’t even eat her food, and she actually ordered 2 entrees to try them out.
Our server was completely careless, often disappearing, causing me to have to get up and try to find people to attend us. I think their staff need a lot training, and the quality of the food needs to improve. For a new restaurant this is a horrible start, especially since many people I know have had a similar experience, and won’t go there again.

Had a party of 8. Service from our waiter was not good. He wasn’t organized in taking orders for a medium size party. We had to continously call to ask for either refills or orders. We had to ask for another waiter and she was much more on top of asking everyone at one time if we were okay with our food and beverages.
Food was unfortunately not up to par. One guest ordered tostones regelleno filled with shrimp pineapple and some other things and the toston was greasy & tasted like it had been sitting out for a while and was possibly refried or microwaved to heat back up. The shrimp smelled funky and was bland. We left all three of them there. $ 10 gone. Another guest ordered pork chops. She said it tasted funny and when She lifted the pork chop from the plate, it was raw. She sent it back and wasn’t charged for it. The only good thing was the chicken empanadas.
Overall great environment for music and a drink but for meals and appetizers, I’ll pass on it.