Cabana's Restaurant
Categories: Latin American, Cuban, Mexican [Edit]
Neighborhood: NoMa3000 K Street NW
Washington, DC 20002 (202) 944-4242
- Nearest Transit:
Union Station (Red)
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: No
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Dinner
- Alcohol: Full Bar
18 Reviews for Cabana's Restaurant
If Mexican food made with sloppy joe's and canned vegetables strikes your fancy, then Cabanas is the place for you! If, however, you like more
authentic, good tasting, appetizing Mexican food, then take a huge pass on this place. Terrible, terrible, terrible! Our server was nice enough, but
was in no rush to bring our drinks or our food. I almost wished he hadn't when he placed our entrees in front of us. I sent back my taco salad and the rest of my party struggled to bring fork to mouth. If you find yourself forced to go to this restaurant (mother-in-law picks the place, boss has a going away party for a co-worker, etc.) order the roasted chicken or better yet, eat before you go...
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Great location but lacks the uniqueness to stand-out of the crowd. The night of the Sex and the City opening a group of us girls headed to the waterfront for some pre-movie drinking and ended up at Cabana's. We were seated on the patio at a very nice table and the waiter came over immediately to take our drink orders. He was very friendly and attentive.
The rest of our party joined us and we ordered more drinks and I ordered the Mango Ceviche and a bowl of Guacamole. The Ceviche was mostly mango salsa and I didn't even taste the seafood at all. It was really just lacking in "meat" but as far as mango salsa it was not bad. The Guac was a bit salty and the chips made it even more noticeably salty.
I didn't order an entree because they are lacking in vegetarian options. Not a favorite of mine...but worth a try.
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Dorky confession of the day : Eating at the GTown waterfront has been one of my goals since moving to DC and finally today I got to do it. My friends and I wanted to go out for lunch and since we randomly ended up in GTown after returning from bumfuck, VA populated with the cast of Deliverance, so I decided we should eat on the waterfront because I haven't been to too many restaurants on M St.
We looked at the menus of three of the places and Cabanas seemed to have the most reasonable prices (on their brunch menu), so we went there. I wanted to sit outside because their patio area directly faces the fountains but it was too hot so we sat inside.
The inside is pretty nice, definitely trying to imitate Miami style but it did it fairly well and that's RARE in DC. My friends ordered the Spanish omelette, the chilaqueles and I ordered the bistec.
My steak was good and the yucca fries it came with were OKay but my friend's chilaqueles was amazing, it tasted like daal. The service was good, the waiter wasn't constantly bugging us but he also wasn't rude either - he came by just enough to make sure we were OKay but not so often that he was fishing for tips.
Overall I would say come here for the brunch and sit outside if its not too opprsessively hot. If you do have to sit inside though, make sure its one of those little draped booths because they seemed so cool.
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Stumbled upon cabana while looking for a place to eat near the waterfront, we thought it was a tapas place but it is mainly mexican food with flamenco dancers stomping away in the restaurant. Friend ordered cerviche and guacamole and she commented there was hardly any fish in it and the guacamole was very salty even the second order was the same. I ordered the mole chicken, sauce lacks flavor and chicken is very dry. The waiter howevergave us a good service.
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We needed sangria in Georgetown and they had it. The nice part was that we got to sit outside and enjoy the ambiance. The bad part was the sangria was less than mediocre. The really bad part is that the pitcher was $35. The even worse part is that we ordered 4 pitchers without even asking price! (DUH on us!)
Yes, we spent $170 on so-so sangria (with tip) when you can usually get a pitcher for $22-26.
I can't review the food--this is all we ordered.
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Paid $9.00 for a salad consisting of four slices of tomato, a thimble full of cubed onions, two tiny wedges of gritty cheese, and five thin slices of avocado. The components were fresh, but their parsimonious distribution was saddening.
Paid $10.00 for a caipirhina served in a small plastic cup. It was horrible...I can, and have made better versions of this drink in a matter of under a minute. I've been to Brazil, and I've had these drinks, and this one tasted nothing like what was served to me in Brazil.
The service was slow.
Overall, a very young feeling...a feeling of stupidity, and getting ripped off at daddy's expense. Seems like a decent place if you are a sloshed sorority girl wanting to prance around the water front in hopes of snagging an idiot wearing one of his father's dress shirts tucked into a pair of crappy khaki shorts...and some cheap dock shoes. So yeah, if you'd like to snag a shameless, cheap date, go ahead waste your money at Cabanas...good riddance.
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Delicious Mexican food, great atmosphere.
I discovered Cabana's by accident a few weeks ago when I was out with some girl friends for Girls' Night Out. We were actually supposed to go to Sequoia's, but there was some sort of wedding party going on there, and the entire restaurant was reserved. Oh well. Cabana's to the rescue!
We liked the restaurant as soon as we stepped inside. It was clean, dimly lit, and had cute little circular booths with curtains that would be drawn for extra privacy. Perfect for a date, but also great for loud, undisturbed, and giggly fun for larger groups.
We got one of the curtained booths, which was roomy enough to seat 8, and very comfortable. We elected to draw the curtains so we didn't have to deal with the other diners. The closed environment was great for gossiping, but the drawback was that it closed us off from our waiter's line of vision and he often forgot about us. Luckily he was really nice and we were too busy chatting and eating the delicious chips and salsa to mind too much.
For dinner I got the chicken chimichangas. Mmmmm, fried burrito. Normally I find chimichangas to be too heavy, and hard to eat because the tortilla gets tough from deep frying, but this one surprisingly light and not at all tough. The guacamole tasted fresh, the rice was fragrant, and the black beans, which I usually hate, were savory.
My friends all either got the quesidillas, enchiladas, or the roast chicken. The sweet potato fries that came with the chicken tasted a little strange, but everything else was spot on. Our waiter tried to tempt us with a list of yummy sounding desserts, but we were way too full for more food.
Cabana's also has good drinks. I didn't get one, but a few of my friends got margaritas and mojitos that looked tasty. The margaritas must have been strong -- Emily quickly became tipsy after one. No one else seemed affected, though...maybe she's just a cheap date.
5 stars for food and ambience, -1 for our waiter forgetting us
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On the search for a graduation dinner location (and finding everything booked), I heard of Cabanas and RSVP'd. We got there super early, but they prompty sat us. Like Tina H's review, it was clean and we also sat in one of the curtained booths, which was perfect for a small group. The waiter came and checked on us multiple times.
I got the mole poblano, which was really good, and the rest of my party got the enchiladas and the mahi mahi salad, which were proclaimed to be really tasty! We also got dessert, and if you do, get the Quatro Leches cake! Especially if you're a fan of dulce de leche. And the mojitos were awesome.
So...great food, good ambience, excellent service. I would def. recommend Cabanas...it would be really nice when it's not pouring and cold!
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If you're looking for a nice atmosphere and people a laid back staff, this is the place to go. Me gusta! They've got an outdoor patio as well as ample seating inside, including booths and little dark corners for a quiet, intimate meal. The food isn't much to write home about but it's a better value than some of the other stuff at the waterfront.
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I stumbled on this place by accident after spending the morning paddling around the Potomac on a rented canoe with my boyfriend and have returned many times since. What a great find. I have only been for the Sunday brunch, which is soo great. They have a latin brunch menu with really amazing chicken taquitos, huevos rancheros and more. What REEAAALLLYY makes this brunch super rad is sitting outside on the patio, by the fountain gawking at all the foolios running around Georgetown while sipping on your bottomless build your own bloody mary for the bargain price of $7.95. I cant say the service is super prompt, but every time I have been, I am there to relax with friends, not crack the whip at servers with a stop watch in hand.
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My friend and I decided to sit outside to enjoy the waterfront. Shortly after the guitarist and flamenco dancers came which was a nice treat although yes, it was quite loud due to their proximity. I heard they serve great margaritas so i ordered the 1/2 strawberry mango and it was about average. For dinner we ordered a tasty mexican salad (avacado, ancho chilli, corn) which was 1 of 2 vegetarian options. I enjoyed the ambiance (white booths with curtains, very intimate), but I felt the food was just mediocre. Oh and free chips and salsa!
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I become more and more LOVE this place!
Friday Night, Me and my best friend Katya went to have dinner and drinks at Cabanas, to celebrate two things : her 'freedom' from her government job, and 'farewell' for the fact that she will leave this country to go back to Paris, after so many years spent her life time here and finally decide to go back to the place where she left her heart long time ago at the age of nine.
We decide to choose this restaurant after walking around in the beautiful Georgetown, seating at the patio to enjoy the lovely weather at that late afternoon.
The very nice gentleman ( the host) has picked us a great seat to view the Flamenco dancer that performed that night.
My favorite is the frozen Mango Margarita that I always have every time I dine here. My choices for primeros (appetizers) is Camarones al Ajillo and for caminos (the entree) the Steak Fajitas.
We have a toast to cherish our long wonderful friendship together and enjoying the passionate flamenco dance by two amazing flamenco dancer.
I have a little chat with the two dancer in the ladies room, sure enough I take that opportunity to chat with them, that I am very interested to learn that dance since I just set my self free from the horrible relationship with 'the control freak psycho boyfriend'.
I tell them that this type of dance is very good for me to express my passion and sensation of anger, to turn it to be a beautiful motion art, Flamenco dance.
Which also this type dance require a lot of energy and strength, expressing passion, the beauty and elegance.
Salut!
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For a girl that moved out to S.F. for two years eating burritos and tacos on Mission St., this place is a glorified taquiera. But you can't find that kind of quality out here so I agree with the pricey cost.
Check your bills when it comes- I didn't get an itemized copy when I had a party of 8 and overtipped our waiter $37. It was prolly the sangria that was making decisions at that point!
I love mexican food so I was excited when my co-worker chose to go to this place for her going away meal (er.. excited about trying a new Mexican place, not excited that she was leaving!). We arrived there for lunch and the place was completely dead. Even so, no one came to seat us for a good five minutes. We were finally seated at a table that has a curtain around it (do people actually pull these shut? creepy). The salsa and chips came out, and I really think that the chips were store bought. The salsa was the worst salsa I've ever had. It had onion bits, some cilantro, and then huge chunks of I think were boiled tomatoes. Strangely, the diet Coke machine must have been acting up, because it tasted like there was a ton of syrup and no soda water in it. In fact, you couldn't even see carbonation bubbles in the drink. Our food came out, and my coworker's Mexican flag salads were all right. Other coworkers got a Mexican burger (tasty) and chicken taco poppers (really bad, faux chicken fingers). My steak fajitas were awful. The steak had not been marinated at all and the steak used was fatty and just plain gross. The vegetables tasted like they had been chopped up and thrown on the skillet at the last second; they had no grilled flavor whatsoever. The service wasn't awful, but not great either.
All in all, things were quite expensive and not that great. I would rather wait two hours at Lauriol Plaza than ever come back here again. I'm convinced that the only reason it's open is because it is on the waterfront and therefore can get away with selling lot of overpriced margaritas on hot summer nights. No thanks.
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I attended Cabanas as part of a party of four. We went on a Friday night with a 7:30 reservation, and could hardly wait to get to the waterfront, have a few margaritas and some good latin cuisine, and partly like the Georgetowners we aren't.
The experience started off well. We were seated quickly and with a smile. Good thing, right? We got this nice booth with a nice white curtain you could pull shut if you're embarrassed that your friends chew with their mouths open. Next, I ordered this great steak with an olive sauce that made me very happy...
All-in-all, we're off to a great start.
And then came the stomping. In an attempt to create a latin ambiance, Cabanas management has hired a classical guitar player accompanied by a flamenco dancing dynamic-duo. The guitar player starts off with a few chords of nice, soft Zorro music. That's fine. Then the flam-couple climb on a hollow wooden stage about 6 foot by 4 foot that's intricately placed RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RESTAURANT.
Then they "dance." And when I say "dance," I mean they stomp as hard as they can on the hollow wooden box with shoes I'm certain are made of the granite and steel. It honestly felt like my head was inside one of those plastic buckets the Chinatown Metro drum players beat on when you're walking out of Caps or Zards games. Guess what? The nice white privacy curtain does wonders impeding nosey people's vision, but let me tell you firsthand that it's a miserable flamenco force-field.
We ate our [very tasty] dinners without talking to one another. I can't figure out if it's cause we couldn't hear each other or if we were worried that every time we opened our mouth to speak the shock waves would rattle our teeth out.
Although the food was good, service was fine, and the dancers at least looked friendly....I wouldn't wish the flamenco stomp torture on my worst enemy.
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I LOVE cabanas. It's very affordably priced (most of it), their frozen margaritas are delicious, and the location couldn't be better. It's usually not hard to get a table, because it doesn't get the crowds that tony & joe's or nick's riverside grille get, but the decor is way cooler. Must go back soon...
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The service here is slow and unbelievably irritating. When we walked in for brunch, we had to wait 5 minutes to be seated in the completely empty restaurant. I think they must have been understaffed, but still, no effort was made to even indicate that we would be seated in just a moment, as the hostess refilled every waterglass in the almost empy restaurant before seating us. The food was decently good, and not too expensive. The bottomless bloody mary special was alllmost worth it, but the irritation of bad service is hard to forget.
Not impressed at all. For such a good location, right off the water front, this place was awful. Granted, we had a big party, but we had reservations and the restaurant was empty. My food came out cold, the waitress was not very nice to us, and the service was slow. I don't see this place lasting long considering it was only half full on a saturday night. I guess I am being negative, but I was not a fan of this place. For good mexican food and better service/atmosphere, Lauriol Plaza is a better choice.
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