My friends and I met up at Cuban Pete's in Montclair, NJ for a belated celebration of my birthday. I loved the festive atmosphere, loud Latin music blasting, everyone enjoying the summer heat on a lazy Sunday evening. There were many birthday celebrations! The house band came out about three times to wish patrons Feliz Cumpleaños while beating drums and shaking maracas. 

On to the food. I ordered the Churrasco El Gaucho (it comes with white rice and beans and maduros) and it was delicious. I don't normally like soft, oily plantains but these were pretty well done despite those features. The steak was well-spiced, and perfectly done. As you can tell, I really enjoyed the food. What I did not like was the presentation. It seemed like the food was just stabbed on the plate. I am not sure if that is normal for this establishment - maybe they want to give it an authentic feel (or something) - or if it was because it was especially busy, and so no time for the details. But I like the details, so that was a bit surprising and a turnoff for one of my friends.

it is a BYOB establishment. We didn't know that. They don't have any alcoholic drink on the menu. Well, I guess the sangrias and mojitos count, but they only had .5% (yup, you read that right!) alcohol. So we pretty much drank juice all evening as we didn't have wine to complement the white sangria we got.

Will I go back? Yes. I want to go back (with bottle in hand) to enjoy the full experience. I love Cuban food and I want to try out the pork dishes! If you have been here, what did you think?

Rating: 4/5