Casona Restaurant
More than a year ago, I saw a little piece in the Food section of the Philadelphia Inquirer about a Cuban restaurant opening in Collingswood, and that it would occupy a renovated corner Victorian. Thereafter, every time Judy and I drove through “Oppy-land”, as a friend of mine once dubbed Collingswood, we tried to imagine where that building might be. Then one day I saw a sign at the corner of Knight and Haddon Avenues announcing the arrival of Casona, a new Cuban restaurant. Well it took nearly a year, but Casona is finally open.
As luck would have it, a group of us attended the “soft” opening on April 7. Our reservation was for 7:00 PM, but we knew from the line outside and the crowds on the wrap-around porch, that it might be a while before we were seated. How long? 8:30! By then we were pretty hungry, but we soon learned it would be a while before we actually saw some food. We didn’t see a waiter until 9:00 PM, and our appetizer didn’t arrive until 9:10. Now I know you are thinking, “why didn’t they leave”? Two reasons; 1) we were having fun (three bottles of wine and a six-pack of beer), and 2) everything was half-price!
We began with an order of Yuca Frita with guacamole and mojo garlic sauce, the national Cuban sauce or marinade. The Yucca pieces were unusual … they tasted like eggplant stuffed with cream cheese in a tasty mojo sauce. But guacamole was no where in sight. We ordered for the table and were promised a second dish which never arrived. But in its place to keep us calm, we received an order of Nacho-style Mariquitas, a delicious fried plantain dish with citrus marinated pork and seasoned ground beef. There wasn’t a crumb left. The best salad was the Watercress with spring greens, grilled pair, blue cheese, and house dressing. I’m not exactly sure what anyone else ordered because room noise was pretty high at this point, so I wasn’t asking many questions, and I was too hungry to care anyway.
Then came the entrees; chicken fricasse, ropa vieja, and paella. I got the paella with a dry fried saffron rice filled with seafood flavor. There were also tender mussels and clams, baby shrimp, and chicken pieces, all topped nicely with a lobster tail. If there was chorizo as advertised, I missed it. The paella was authentic and delicious; the lobster was tough but tasty. Judy had the chicken fricasee, which sounds like a strange choice for a Cuban restaurant, but our server reminded us that they serve nuevo Latin cuisine, so I guess it’s okay. The chicken was served falling-off-the-bone-tender in a tomato coulis with olives and tri-colored peppers. But it was to much to eat, so Judy left half of it on the plate, prompting a “didn’t you like it” from our server (she did!). The last two entrees were similar, served in a mouldless mound of rice, though one was pulled pork in saffron rice (Lechon Asado) and the other, shredded beef with white rice and plantains (Ropa Vieja). Both were excellent but, as before, an item listed on the menu was missing … black beans. So our server returned several minutes later with a bowl of beans for the table. We were too full to try dessert but we did try a dark and rich coffee.
After three hours and twenty minutes we were done … a record stay in any restaurant. The pain of waiting was ameliorated when we received the bill … $56.20 for five persons (half price, remember?), which would have been about $23 per person at full price … still a bargain. Being Collingswood, there are no liquor licenses, so Casona is a BYOB. The real opening was the next night, Saturday, April 8. While the food is excellent and the restoration beautiful inside and out, the owners and servers have along way to go to solve their wait problem. I say this because my wife and sister-in-law had been to Casona for lunch earlier in the week and experienced the same slow service problems. I know Latin cultures have a mañana reputation, but I think the restaurant is simply unprepared to handle volume efficiently. I am sure they will do better … or they will be out of business and someone will fill that lovely victorian home with furniture for living rather than dining. 563 Haddon Avenue, Collingswood, NJ 0810, (856) 854-5555