Asia de Cuba

We booked for 2 courses fixed price on a Sunday late afternoon. We enjoyed amazing cocktails and service at The Light Bar, adjacent to the restaurant before dinner. The staff throughout were superb, very welcoming and friendly in the bar and in the restaurant. We adored the St Martin's Lane Hotel. The food was a major disappointment as we were expecting new flavours and much more of a gastronomic experince, based on reading about the cusine of Asia de Cuba. The exact names of the dishes I can't remember but I selected the crab croquette starter and it was indeed a croquette with very little flavour of crab, served with a coleslaw like mini salad which also lacked any great flavour, other than what you'd do yourself at home, the spoon on the side of dish merely contained a drop of soy sauce. My sisters ordered the ribs which were served almost cold, the portion size was far better than the other starters and they were very tasty, but no more so than any decent spare ribs you'd get elsewhere...another guest arrived late and ordered a starter from the a la carte menu which was exceptionally small and pathetic for £17.50 and resembled and tasted like a stack of pompadoms with tiny cubes of tuna on each....again, tasteless experience....for the mains, the jerk chicken dish was a fair portion and the best choice of the night, again bland jerk chicken not Asia de Cuba's take on jerk chicken that we expected, very standard fayre. I opted for the minute steak was very tough and again, very poor flavours. My other guest opted for the vegetarian main which I must say was totally pathetic in terms of portion size, flavour and appearance, it resembled little samosas sitting on a bed of sauce...this portion really was laughable and very bland indeed. Our waiter was very nice and we enjoyed the evening due to the beautiful surroundings and the overall wonderful service and cocktails in The Light Bar and staff on the restaurant floor. The food was a total let down.....