Where: 707 US-46, Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey

What: Cuban

Rating: 3/5

After a lengthy break, I return to you with another Cuban restaurant review. This time I went to Cuba Mia with my father; it’s a restaurant he has wanted to try ever since we first passed by it, so we took the chance to go when looking for somewhere to eat out one evening.

The restaurant is connected to a Hilton hotel off of Route 46, we went around 7pm and were able to easily get a table. It was fairly nicely decorated, with a sangria bar to the side we were informed was not actually a specialty sangria bar. I found that a bit strange. There was also live music, though it was loud enough to the point conversation was a bit difficult.

This time I only got water to drink, I’m not big on drinking alcohol myself, but they did have a part of the menu specifically for those sorts of beverages if that is your cup of tea.

For the appetizer, my father ordered the Guacamole Caribeño, consisting of half of a skin of avocado filled with guacamole, sweet potato, malanga, plantain, and plain potato chips. As someone who is not a fan of avocado, I ended up eating the various chips my father wasn’t interested in. None in particular stuck out, tasting as one might expect from dried and salted chips of the sort.

While none were overly salty, I found the sweet potato chips surprisingly greasy and ended up leaving most of them over.

This was $8, which I found a bit high considering other nearby restaurants give double the amount of guacamole and endless chips for only three or so dollars more. Maybe the unique chips fed into the price? Though I would have preferred regular chips in that case.

For the main course I ordered the Churrasco a la campesina. The dish consists of an Argentinian skirt steak wrapped around a pile of sauteed and sliced peppers, onions, carrots, and zucchini. A handful of steak-cut style fries were thrown atop, with two sauces on the side.

Mine was done medium-rare, although I’m sure it was more medium than medium-rare, and the taste was commendable. I’m not too found of beef usually unless it is spiced or sauteed in certain sauces, so I was surprised to find I did like the taste. The vegetables inside were as one would expect, on the softer side for those who prefer that sort of texture. Unfortunately the potatoes, listed as roasted red potatoes on the menu, were fairly lackluster. This dish would have been better without them, they added nothing beneficial to it.

I did not end up using either sauce as the steak was well enough on its own. I also may have forgotten about them until the steak was mostly finished.

While I understand steak is usually on the pricier side of things, $29 dollars for what amounted to a wrapping of steak hidden beneath fries and a pile of vegetables in the middle seems a bit over the top. Then again, this is a restaurant attached to a hotel, so I guess I should have expected the prices to be on the higher side.

My father ordered the salmon varadero, coming with a side of sauteed garlic spinach, pineapple-mango salsa, and a sweet potato puree.

I did not eat any of the fish, as I am not a fan of seafood in the least, but I didn’t hear any complaints from him so it must have been alright. I did however take a small bite of the sweet potato puree, which truthfully did not taste much different from the sort of sweet potato puree Americans sometimes eat on Thanksgiving.

For those curious, it was $26.

Finally, there was the dessert. I had initially attempted to order a dessert of fruit with a sweet coconut sauce on top, though they were out. Unfortunately I cannot remember the exact names nor is the dessert menu online where I have looked, please try not to be too disappointed.

The churros were certainly fine. I don’t have anything to complain about, I’m sad to say. There was not too much sugar, the dulce de leche cream inside tasted well enough, and I say this as someone who generally does not like dulce de leche. The vanilla ice cream helped to balance out the textures, temperatures, and flavors of the dish quite well, and one can never go wrong with whipped cream on a dessert. Did I eat the entire thing myself? Of course. And I would do it again.

All in all, Cuba Mia is an okay restaurant. It’s not terrible, and it’s not amazing. It’s a bit pricey. The decor is not bad. My father seemed to find the live music a plus. The staff seemed fine enough, I would give them a nice middle score just as the restaurant itself. It’s the exact sort of place you would expect to find attached to a Hilton Inn on the side of a major highway in New Jersey.

Would I recommend going there? Well, if you’re staying at the hotel and want to try it out, go ahead. Otherwise, there are many other better restaurants with similar food in the surrounding area.