Last night I had dinner at Restaurant Habana, a Cuban restaurant in Costa Mesa. The restaurant is located in a counter-culture "mall" called The Lab. Locals, however, call it the Anti-Mall because it is a collection of eclectic shops and galleries and is not your usual Orange County, California strip mall. It draws the funky "art-crowd" usually expected in Venice Beach or found in the San Francisco area, around Berkeley or the Marin County town of Bolinas.
Take for example the mall's public art, like this smashed car on the side of a Sushi restaurant:
Or, this fountain, which is made of 55 gallon oil drums.
The mall hosts outdoor open mic poetry slams. And it's important not to overlook the location. The Anti-Mall is on the north side of John Wayne Airport and near Orange County's largest shopping mall, South Coast Plaza, which I've heard referred to as Sodom and Gomorrah Plaza because of its opulence.
Regardless of your take on eclecticism, Restaurant Habana is a wonderful find. Inside is a bar with seating for about a dozen and the main restaurants seats maybe 40 to 50 people. And there is an outside area that held a private event last evening.
Habana's staff is attentive, friendly, informed and unobtrusive. The decor is rich and lit with "trees" of votive candles, not unlike what you would expect in a village church in Cuba, if it were on a movie set.
The main event at Habana is the food.
Each of the 14 or so menu items grabs your attention; and, since you can only have one, calls you back to Habana for a revisit to try something new.
Article comments
1 - Aaman
Cool - nice pics, ty. You didn't tell us much about the food, though.
2 - Aaman
Of course, a semiotician might argue this is titled a review of the restaurant, not the food :)
3 - roland
True - I could have said more definitive things about the food, but I only tried one (very good) dish, which was a sliced pork dish. My friend who went with me last night had a pork shank - that looked amazing - and got a nice review.
Another friend who has been there a lot says that the salmon is excellent.
The wine pours are generous and nice.
The restaurant and mall is worthy of a visit.
4 - Marius
The website for Habana is not up anymore, my guess is that it is no longer in existence, much like Aire which is just accross the street. =(
5 - the nocturnalkid
Habanas was actually referred to me by my boyfriend's brother--who happens to be a culinary chef. Very good food, very nice atmosphere. I had the salmon and it was delectable. Highly recommended.