Cabana, revisited

Post-movie date, having secured a great parking spot, BF and I wandered around the Forest Hills area looking to grab some grub.  I really wanted to try this place his good friend had highly recommended, but I guess lots of people know about the place as it was PACKED and the wait was 40-50 minutes.  It was raining pretty hard at this point so we opted to keep walking instead… and finally ended up at Cabana.  I’ve been here so many times in the past 10 years I honestly can’t say if I’d ever been with him, but whatever, I knew the food was solid, so we were good to go. 

BF really wanted empanadas, so we got empanadas.  We both liked these a lot – spiced, very aromatic beef inside deep fried, crispy shells, along with slightly tropical sauces… yum! 

My initial choice, the jerk chicken wings, were unfortunately unavailable, so I opted stupidly (it was a quick moment’s decision!) for the broccoli and carrot fritters.  They were sufficient but not delicious… I don’t know.  Slightly mushy on the inside and without any real flavor to them – subtly broccoli/carrot, but no pop! – I was only alright on these.  We didn’t finish this plate.

We also opted to split an entree, because neither of us were extremely hungry, just in the mood to eat post-two-and-a-half-hour-movie.  (Non-spoiler alert: we saw Funny People on opening day – yes, this meal is from July 31 – because I absolutely love Adam Sandler, and you know we watch a lot of movies because we both really like movies.  Anyway, we both liked it, but it was incredibly long.  Two and a half hours for a comedy is really pushing it.)  Anyway, we split the churrasco, or a skirt steak.  I believe this is half a skirt steak (I base this assumption from my experience with how big a full one is), but butterflied.  It was enough for both of us not being very hungry, and we ordered it medium rare, so it was cooked properly with a lot of pink inside.  Not the most flavorful on its own, but it did come with a cup of chimichurri (parsley, olive oil, garlic), which I loaded my steak with and ate happily.  (Thankfully, BF eats garlic as well, so I rarely ever feel bad about eating as much garlic as I’d like!)

The skirt steak came with rice and beans.  BF commented how much he liked the rice because it was ‘denser than normal but not heavy’ – he tried to describe what he meant but I failed to grasp.  I just thought it was fluffy rice.  I actually liked the rice and beans this way – separate, so I could mix each bite myself. 

Although we were sufficiently full at this point, we opted to look at a dessert menu because, well, why not?  We live large!  😉  Also, while we were eating, I saw a giant interesting looking dessert go by… it was a big mug of something or other!  Well, it was ice cream, we found out, but too late, this dessert already screamed our name: banana fritters with banana ice cream, bananas, whipped cream.  Doesn’t that look good?  (Note: it was only $5.95 which really surprised BF, who thought it was extraordinarily cheap considering the description; when it came, he seemed to understand better, but was still happy with our choice.) 

The banana fritters weren’t quite fried well enough – slightly mushy, and flavorless as BF pointed out “needs more banana flavor, but adding everything else to it makes it taste better” – the banana ice cream with the fudgy sauce squiggle in the middle was my preferred tasting, or taking little bits of the fritters that remained crispy, heh.  It was tasty enough, and BF and I were very happy with the choice and sweet ending to our satisfactory meal. 

Yvo says:  Lively atmosphere and very “cozy” (read: tightly spaced tables), it was a fun and tasty end to our night.  Oh, I almost forgot, while we were eating, people suddenly started clapping, so I thought, “Someone’s birthday” but a guy a few tables down had just proposed (and she said yes)!!!  How cute.  It was definitely a fun night and I recommend it for nibblies.  Oh, and all of the above along with a glass of wine and a glass of sangria came to $60 pre-tip.  Not bad, right?  I’ll definitely go back.
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