Floridita

This place is fun! Some friends and I went for a few drinks and ended up drinking and dancing the night away. The bar downstairs resembles the inside of a cruise ship and is swanky in a chilled laid back way. Drinks are reasonably priced, nibbles are tasty and it feels like you're a world away from Soho!

Simply superb evening of fine food, top notch cocktails and dancing. It was my husband's 32nd birthday (he's much younger than me, I suspect he married me for my money) and as a treat I decided to take him to Floridita. The last time I came was with my previous husband (who incidentally was much older than me) and we'd had a blast, despite the fact that by that time our marriage was dead. My memories were good and I worried that they would be hard to beat.

However, I was not disappointed. My husband (new, younger version) is Cuban and was delighted with the Cuban Band, and we had a super evening. I particularly enjoyed the mojitos. I had five, which on reflection was probably one too many. I heartily recommend Floridita to everyone!

A friend of mine told me that they had been to this amazing restaurant, and they were so excited by it that I felt I had to check it out, and now having see it, I will definately be telling all my other friends about it! It was an absolutely brilliant evening. We were running half an hour late, and I worried that this would cause a problem, but when I phoned ahead, a very nice lady told me that it would be no problem, and when we arrived we were greetd by a lovely girl on the door and taken straight to our table. The food was outstanding. As a vegetarian I often find ordering in restaurants a bit of a bore, but was delighted with the options available. My quesadilla was to die for, as was our hunky waiter! To top it all, a live band played throughout the evening which was a really great addition to an already wonderful evening.

To sum up, great staff, great service and great food. I'll definatly be back!

birthday dinner for a friend, booked a table for 9 – an hour wait, rude seating hostess, incompetent waiting staff (topping up different types of wine and thinking that mistake is funny, not getting order right several times, some side orders not delivered, steak well done instead of medium rare etc, overall very slow and clueless,- , once we sat down at the table it took them another hour to take the food order, finally got my main course at midnight. Music is ok but service appalling. Wont be going back

10 of us went to Floridita on Friday for a friends birthday and I have to say my views of the place are somewhat mixed…

We had a deal from the Daily Mail for 3 courses and a glass of bubbly for £26. From what l have seen this is a very good deal as it is quite pricey there normally.

My first thoughts were lovely setting – the place is large, there are a lot of tables but they are all quite spread out. It's decorated nicely and the tables are spacious with comfy chairs and there is soft lighting [l hate bright lights] but perhaps a bit too dim as it was hard to read the menu at times!

The waiting staff were initially very polite and helpful in answering questions about the menu and attentively pouring drinks and suchlike.

The food was pretty good, l had the ceviche to start which was light with a nice kick and the picanta [rump steak] for the main. It was cooked beautifully but lacked any sauce which it really could have done with. Sides were not included which l always think is damned cheeky but c'est la vie. My other half had the seabass which was nice but again could have done with some sauce. The food itself took absolutely forever to arrive – with no apologies made – by the time we got to pudding no one wanted any so we asked the waiter if we could all have coffee instead of pudding and he said it would not be a problem.

When the bill came of course they had charged us the set price for the 3 courses as well as the coffee and when we questioned it the waiters suddenly got nasty. My friend whose birthday it was got quite upset about this and was left to argue with the waiter over it while everyone sat feeling awkward. The bill came to £44 each in the end which was rather a lot considering we didn't drink that much and the menu was set.They also charged us an obscene amount for bottled water – when we had sat down at the start of the meal the waiters had appeared over each of our shoulders with already opened bottles of still and sparkling and asked what we would like. We were never asked if we would like to buy bottled water as if we were we would have opted for jugs of tap water. More so since they kept filling up your glass when you weren't looking so you could quaff your way through a lot more of it!

We eventually left after a good 15 minutes of arguing and with a sour taste in our mouths that the seemingly nice waiters could turn nasty so quickly.

floridita was great for a night out with friends!! Really enjoyed the music,mojitos and even got to dance salsa!!! Even if you dont know how to do it you will find someone who does!! Great evening, lots of fun,will return for sure!!:-)

First time going to Floridita and I will be back soon! The menu was well priced and presentation of food beautiful!

Had lovely birthday dinner there! The band was great and their new menu is impressive!

I cant get the Mojitos out of my head! SO tasty! The service was quick and the drink amazing!

Floridita is a fab restaurant – great food, great cocktails and attentive service. Definitely recommend a visit here!

A great restaurant! Had an amazing meal accompanied by some of the best cocktails I've had in London! Service was faultess and the live Cuban band – genius!

Do not go to this dreadful place. It should be great in theory, though expensive (£30 for 4 drinks c. £50 meal) but extremely poor management ruins the whole thing. We booked a table for 9.30pm (2nd sitting) 2months previously. We had drinks upstairs first but when we went down to Floridita, there was a terrible crush and we were kept hanging around for over an hour, being shoved about, until eventually we were shown a “waiting area” – under the stairs and next to the kitchen, unable to dance or get sorted or get drinks easily. Management and staff apologised and then got irritated and we got very frustrated. They were unable to provide the basic service of getting us to our table on time or with a reasonable delay. There seemed to be no 1 manager in charge or anyone who knew what was going on. By the time we were seated – at 10.45pm, some of the group had no time to eat and the whole evening was ruined. They advertise dinner and dancing – we weren't able to do either! Try Dover Street Wine Bar instead – much more professional, good food and courteous.

Recently went to Floridita with a large group of friends for dinner on a Friday night.

Fantastic atmosphere and great music, but TERRIBLE service. We were seated right next to the order point/till in the restaurant, and no fewer than four members of staff seemed to be claiming responsibility for our table HOWEVER, there was no co-ordination between them. Drink orders were repeatedly mislaid, we had to wait 30 minutes for cocktails to be delivered and the staff seemed incapable of delivering all drinks at the same time – so that with each round ordered, half the party had almost finished the drinks before the other half's had even arrived.

Starters arrived quickly in most cases, but were whisked away before we had finished! I had 3/4 still on my plate – the waiter did not even ask if I had finished with it. One might attribute this to table-turning (we had booked for 7.30 and were told they wanted the table back by 9.30) HOWEVER our main courses arrived approx 20 mins after our starters were snatched away, and for the most part, were cold. We asked for some of the dishes to be heated up – they came back with scorching hot plates and the food unchanged in temperature. The food was mediocre at best, the chicken was rubbery and cold, the steak was badly cooked – the chef's idea of ‘medium’ appears to be bloody at one end and burnt to a crisp at the other.

We had asked to run separate tabs for food and drinks and were told by our original waitress that this was fine – this did not happen and we had to wait around 25 minutes for the bill to be corrected. We then discovered that we had been overcharged for several drink orders, and really had to fight with the duty manager to check with the bar and amend the bill accordingly.

Throughout the meal, we alerted various members of staff to the fact that we were unhappy with the service – no attempt was made to apologise or correct the problems, and when the bill came we were disgusted to find that 12.5% “discretionary” service had been added to it. Given that we had been forced to complain about the quality of food, slowness of service, and had been charged twice for certain items, this was unacceptable. Needless to say we did not pay the service charge, and will NOT be eating at Floridita again. Shame because the cocktails are really fantastic (when they arrive!) and the music and general atmosphere was wonderful.
Also a shame for Floridita because if we had been served quicker we would doubtless have spent a lot more on drinks!

Floridita is one of those venues that people love or loathe. It's loud and busy and sometimes feels a little cheesy however for a fun night dining and drinking it's one of the best all-rounders and I'll often find myself dropping by with some friends if we are looking for a little bit of fun. I do tend to use the venue more for drinks than food but do always enjoy the spit-roast suckling pig or one of the lobster dishes. If you are lucky enough to have a membership you will be able to dine in the members area ‘Bar Constante’ where things seem to run so much smoother, although generally service is fine all through the restaurant. One suggestion if drinking however is to put away your gentlemanly ways and send a lady to the bar, as they will be served in a split second by the smooth barmen whereas gents seem to have to wait…and wait…and wait… Live music every night also adds to this lively venue – only the smoking ban preventing you smoking big fat Cuban cigars detracts from the Cuban experience. Oh and don't forget the mojitos!