After waiting 2 months for my last London lunchtime
adventure, to Momo Canteen in Barbican, I found myself back in London exactly a
week later with a free lunchtime and foodie Phil to accompany me on another
escapade. Phil has Cuban heritage and had found a Cuban place near our office
that did street food, so we headed there along with 3 of our colleagues from
our Kiev office who were over for the week on business. The journey from the
office took us through the famous Smithfield meat market, which I’ve passed
through many times on my walks from the office to Kings Cross station and has the
unmistakable smell of chilled meat mixed with bleach as the market is thoroughly
cleaned every day.
Image: Foodie Phil walking Into Cubana, Smithfield
After we made it through the meat market we crossed the road and turned left and past the bars and pubs that make up the other type of meat markets in Smithfield. Just past Smiths Of Smithfield (SOS) is Cubana, an inviting and hard to miss Cuban restaurant, bar and café. You won’t miss it with its bold blue painted exterior, red star and bright chairs. Inside to my left I was greeted by a colourful mural of an idyllic scene of Cuban farmers smoking cigars and chilling out in the Caribbean sunshine. To my right was a separate café with some inviting Cuban pastries and of course the coffee which Phil later told us was very strong and very good.
In front of us was a busy looking restaurant that turns into a bar in the evening. I know as I’d been here before – for drinks at some point Christmas 2016. I remember it well as one of the guys from work had booked a table for some festive team drinks but there was some confusion when we arrived – he’d booked the right date but not the right year! They let us stay though and found a space for us in their corridor where we tucked into Mojitos and Cuba Libres.
Image: Idyllic Cuban life mural in Cubana, Smithfield
In front of us was a busy looking restaurant that turns into a bar in the evening. I know as I’d been here before – for drinks at some point Christmas 2016. I remember it well as one of the guys from work had booked a table for some festive team drinks but there was some confusion when we arrived – he’d booked the right date but not the right year! They let us stay though and found a space for us in their corridor where we tucked into Mojitos and Cuba Libres.
But we weren’t there for drinks today: we were there for lunch and
in the corridor instead of a group of festive work colleagues huddled around
small tables was an inviting street food stand. Phil had decided in advance
what he wanted – a Cuban sandwich. Tucked into home-made Cuban bread (a bit
like a Panini apparently) is shredded pork, ham, Emmental cheese, mustard and
pickle. I was feeling tired and hungry and wanted something more substantial than
that so went for the slow-roasted free-range Cuban shredded pork with Cuban
black beans, chill rice and the bonus addition of plantains. Service was very
quick by the efficient 2 girls on the stand – one taking orders and serving and
the other taking the payments. The servings were pretty generous and I liked the
fact that you could help yourself to limes and slices of bread to accompany your
meal, which of course I took both.
Image: the very efficient staff on the Street Food stall in Cubana, Smithfield
It would have been nice to have eaten in but this was a
strictly takeaway street food venture and a rain shower had started so we headed
back to our office to eat in our small staff kitchen. The reassuringly warm
bundle in my hand made the walk back in the rain worthwhile as I looked forward
to tucking into my lunch. We sat down together and eagerly opened our lunch
bundles. I quickly tucked in and oh my, it was delicious! The pork was really
good quality, very succulent and very tasty. The rice and beans were full of
flavour and the sweet addition of fried plantain topped off a uniquely
flavoursome combination. I soon felt full and very satisfied but there was no
way I was going to leave any of my lip-smacking lunch.
Image: My delicious lunch
Phil demolished his Cuban sandwich with equal speed and
declared it to be excellent. He said the only bad thing was that he wanted
another one and said it was dangerous that he now knows there’s somewhere near
the office that does very good Cuban sandwiches. Yuriy had also gone for the pork
whilst Dima and Nikolay had chosen Picadillo – Cuban minced beef casserole,
also accompanied by chili rice, black beans and plantain. Our Ukrainian colleagues
were very happy with Phil’s choice of place for lunch; although even though it was
reasonably priced for London they said it would be about a quarter of the price
in Kiev!
Image: Street Food menu, Cubana, Smithfield
After lunch I slumped at my desk, very full and satisfied
but with the overwhelming tiredness that comes from eating a delicious but high
calorie meal, much like a Christmas Dinner. It was certainly worth it though –
a very enjoyable lunchtime adventure and definitely the tastiest one so far.
The only downside was we had to ferry our lunches back to the office in the
rain; it would have been nice to have eaten outside on a sunny day, although
there’s not really anywhere in Smithfield for that and whilst Cubanna can bring
Cuban food to London they sadly can’t bring the Cuban weather!
Taste: 9/10
Service: 10/10
Value: 8/10
Total: 27/30
One word review:
Jeremy: Succulent
Phil: More!
Nikolay: Cool
Dima: Tasty
Yuriy: Super
