Cuba Libre and Tropicana Casino and Resort have combined for a pretty sweet deal. Partake in chef Guillermo Pernot’s Tastes of Cuba tasting menu (PDF) for two at Cuba Libre’s 2nd Street location and you get a free overnight stay at the Tropicana in Atlantic City.

Dinner consists of three courses and a side for $39 per person and the free room is available Sunday through Thursday.

Complete menu after the jump.

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Chef Douglas Rodriguez is keeping things fresh this summer with some additions to the Alma de Cuba menu.

Chorizo sliders, duck empanadas, Alaskan crab salad, pan roasted lamb loin.

Read on! Read on!

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Craig LaBan turns his eyes towards ¡Cuba!, a Cuban BYOB in Chestnut Hill and finds the promising spot missing some essentials.

At ¡Cuba!, the traditional flavors don’t go nearly deep enough, or far enough beyond, to really merit the prices. Is a simple plate of pulled roast pork shoulder, pernil asado, worth $24 because it comes with a squishy, underseasoned tamale and over-pickled green beans? Ay-yay-yay! Bacalao is traditionally rehydrated salt cod in a piquant tomato sauce. But it loses its funk in a goofy rendition here with fresh cod, a small fillet over dry, parboiled rice beneath a lurid yellow mango cream and a handful of shrimp so tiny and chewy they were hardly worth the flourish.

One Bell – Hit-or-miss

¡Cuba! [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Elisa Ludwig visits Chestnut Hill’s Cuban restaurant ¡Cuba! and enjoys the homespun, soul-pleasing cooking.”

¡Cuba! really hits its stride with a sort of Creole combo plate offered on special with a mound of moros y cristianos (white rice and black beans); a few wedges of fantastically tender, fat-fringed lechon asado (slow-roasted pork scented with oregano and lime); fried plantains (you have a choice of savory tostones or sweet maduros); and a boiled tamale whose soft cornmeal encases salty nuggets of roast pork.

Gleaming the ¡Cuba! [City Paper]
¡Cuba! [Official Site]

The Wall Street Journal comes to town and they like us. America’s second most read paper has good things to say about our “restaurant renaissance” in general and our Cuban cuisine in particular.

Philadelphia’s Upscale Cuban Cuisine [Wall Street Journal]

In what has to be one of the more bizarre promotions to come across our desks in recent time Cuba Libre is celebrating Fidel Castro’s resignation. Through February 28th they are offering a complimentary “Cuba Libre” cocktail with purchase of lunch or dinner.

So drink up and celebrate the end of Fidel Castro’s times.

Brochure after the jump.

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Phillyist checks out Cuba Libre’s “15 Tastes of Cuba” tasting menu and they break down all 15 courses, including the bread basket.

The tasting menu will run through October 26, and overall, we give it our endorsement. It won’t be perfect, but it will absolutely satisfy.

Foodsday Tuesday: Phillyist Tastes the Forbidden Island [Phillyist]

If you got shut out on reservations to Cuba Libre for Restaurant Week why not consider lunch.

From September, 24th to 28th Cuba Libre is offering a couple lunchtime deals. $15 for a two course lunch or chow down on three courses for $20.

Cuba Libre [Official Site]

Trey Popp tries out Miami Cafe on South Street and finds the atmosphere can take you away from Philadelphia but the food is another matter.

For people who like the heavy, unchallenging food that predominates on South Street, Miami Café is a perfectly good place to sit down and eat food that’s not as different as it makes itself sound. But for the rest, South Beach is still a plane ticket away.

South Beach on South Street [City Paper]

Michael Klein reports today in his Inqlings column that Philadelphia’s origninal nuevo-Latin restaurant, ¡Pasion! has closed.

Last call after 8 1/2 years at 211 S. 15th St. was Saturday. Co-owner Michael Dombkoski, who said business was off, is cleaning up and working the phones to cancel reservations.

Guillermo Pernot, Dombkoski’s partner is working with Cuba Libre where he has been overhauling their menu.

The fires are out at ¡Pasion! [Philadelphia Inquirer]