Two years of high-school Spanish taught me all I need to describe this Fidler Lane restaurant: Cubano’s es muy bueno. Gracias.
First, a word on Cuban food: It’s big on meat and garlic. Probably not the best grub for a first date with that vegetarian. But if tearing at animal flesh and getting laid aren’t issues, then Cubano’s (1201 Fidler Ln) is the place to be.
Dinner at Cubano’s is like a vacation in Havana, minus the ailing dictator. The food is very good. The laid-back atmosphere seals the deal.
The restaurant’s “Mi Tierra” platter ($17.95) offers samples of three Cuban classics. Ropa vieja (”old clothes”) is shredded flank steak stewed in sweet and savory tomato sauce. The chicken stew (fricase de pollo) is also sweetened with tomato sauce and arrives with a hulking stewed potato. The roasted pork (lechon asado) is bold with garlic and balanced by tart citrus.
All three are seasoned beautifully but share one minor flaw: The meats are a little dry. In the case of the fricase de pollo, the chicken is overcooked. With pork and beef, it’s a matter of not cooking them long enough.
A seafood dish–camarones al ajillo ($17.95, left)–delivers shrimp sauteed in a garlic-infused white wine sauce. However, the buttery sauce tends to overpower the delicate shrimp.
All entrees are served with rice (either seasoned with saffron or mixed with black beans) and soft, sweet fried plantains.
But don’t sweat the small stuff. The dining room is cozy and intimate. The service is quick and courteous. Live music swirls through the air like a flamenco dancer. Feel free to sing along if you know the words. And for the amount and quality of food, the prices aren’t bad, either.
Yo me gusta Cubano’s. Es muy bueno!
Cubano’s, 1201 Fidler Ln, Silver Spring, (301) 563-4020
Originally posted Jan 31, 2007.
Read 
What the hell are they building now? Learn more from 
Boxed wines and rosés are back in vogue. Just ask The Penguin's sommeliers.
Cubano’s is one of the best Cuban restauarants I’ve tried, and that includes many restaurants in Puerto Rico!
Cubano’s is too variable. Sometimes, they’re magificent and other times they’re terrible.
I was there for lunch once and we waited and waited. The person I was with noticed that the chef was at another table eating his own lunch! I asked about it and they said that they’d forgotten about us. No apology, no offer of a free meal, nothing. Just a shrug and they said they’d see about getting the meal started.
LOL, I know that by this point I am a broken record, but here goes: this restaurant is not good for vegetarians and vegans!
There, I said it.
The wife and I would love to give our business to this local independent restaurant, but we’re both vegan, and try as we might, we cannot cobble together a meal from the menu, even including appetizers and salads.
If only they had one sop to vegetarians/vegans, like a vegan cuban black bean dish.
Ah well…there’s always Abol Ethiopian and Asian Bistro.
The food at Cubanos is fine. It has a relatively nice environment which makes it a good choice for latin food in MoCo. But Cuban Food it is not. If you spend any time in Miami or Union City, NJ, two areas with high concentration of Cubans, you will notice that there are few similarities in the food you get there and this restaurant. For instance, the Lechon (roasted pork) tastes nothing like what you would get at La Carreta or Versailles in Miami. Additionally, they don’t use Cuban bread for their sandwiches and instead use French bread. French Bread?@??!?!?!? I find that almost of their food is all slightly different from genuine Cuban food. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the family-run restaurant is run by Venezuelans of Cuban descent and not Cubans from the island or Miami. Finally, it is way to pricey for “comida criolla” (Latin Carribean food). A order of croquettes is expensive at this place when you can get it in Miami for 80 cents to a dollar each and then they don’t taste like the geniune product.
I would be much less critical if they called the food “Latin fusion” because then they would be marketing the food properly. No tiene mucho de Cubano, Cubanos. Cubanos doesn’t have much Cubano in it.
Any thoughts on their Cuban sandwich? We were warned off Cubanos when we moved here five years ago, and have never been. We’d love to find Cubans like we used to get when we lived in Florida. (Granted, it was Tallahassee, not Miami, so we’re not quite as picky as some!)
(An on a completely-unrelated-yet-tangential issue, am I the only one who misses the French Cuban at Mayorga? Mmmm. . . pressed ham and brie. . .)
I haven’t found any place that makes Cuban sandwiches like you get in South Florida.
#1 – No one makes Cuban bread here. Cuban bread is the much unhealthier version of French bread (contains lard).
#2 – No one roasts pork similarly to how it is done in South Florida. One key ingredient missing is sour orange (from Seville oranges).
#3 – Most places in DC don’t employ cuban chefs nor do they have clientele that demands high quality cuban food. Cubanos would get put out of business in a week in South Florida because the public there would snicker and be disdainful of the food being passed off as cuban food.
Editor’s note: Thanks for your comments, Piero. I can’t say whether area residents know high-quality Cuban food from anything. However, speaking for myself, I seek high-quality food in any culinary tradition — balanced seasoning, tender meat, interesting textures. I found the food at Cubanos to be good and the atmosphere great (see article above). Whether it chalks up to what Miami Beach has to offer, I can’t say. (I focused on the key lime pie last time I was there.) I don’t doubt that south Florida’s Cuban eats are better, just as Beijing has better Chinese food, Addis Ababa has better doro wot, Tokyo has better sushi, etc. But until Castro kicks the bucket, or until I make enough to vacation in Florida, Cubanos will do. — JD (Jan 14, 2008)
Cubanos is a slightly better than mediocre restaurant in a market where people don’t demand much of their latin food. IAgreed, the edge that Cubanos has over others is the environment. My problem is with them marketing it as Cuban food when it is not. It is latin fusion. However, because of the name and the marketing, people will be misled to believe it is cuban food. Imagine if you went to an Spanish restaurant and you received food from Southern France. Not the end of the world we can agree, but not what you are expecting. Discerning patrons would likely be disappointed in any similar bait and switch.
For a much better taste of latin caribbean food, Manna (8640 Flower Ave.; 301-589-9390), a Dominican restaurant is authentic restaurant and the food is unequivocally bolder and tastier than what you will get at Cubanos. The environment leaves much to be desired though, I’ll grant you that.
Mi Rancho across the street is also a place that has overhyped food but the environment is nice like Cubanos. But at least there, they market their food for what it is, TEX-MEX food and not Mexican food.
Please excuse my diatribe. My disappointment with latin food, how it tastes and how it is marketed in the DC area is spilling over into this conversation. However, the bar for latin food won’t be raised higher if those of us who know better don’t demand the bar be raised. Until it reaches a higher level, it won’t do for many of us.
A trip to North Jersey is a shorter and affordable trip to confirm what I am saying.
Editor’s note: I can appreciate what you’re saying, Piero. If raising our expectations means that restaurateurs step up their games, we’d all be better for it. — JD (Jan 16, 2008)