Embargo Grill

I was here on a Monday evening when there wasn’t much going on. They have a catchy name and my friend thought that it is brilliant. I can dig it along with the location.
I have never tried Cuban and was pretty impressed when I got inside. They were playing salsa, cumbia, and other latin music over the sound system which set the atmosphere in the room. The interior is great and you must see it inside.
Their menu is amazing. I ordered the Cubano Combo with extra pickles. My friend asked for garlic fries and the kitchen obliged. I didn’t wait long for my order to be filled, and while I was filling my fountain drink, I discovered that they have an espresso machine for you coffee lovers out there. So along with beer, sangria, and desserts, they also serve a variety of espresso-​based drinks for you to enjoy. Cuban style.
Furthermore, the sandwich was done quite well and very flavorful. The plate comes from the kitchen with two varieties of dipping sauce: honey mustard based, and regular mustard based. Both are good for whatever mood that you are in. I preferred the regular mustard based dipping sauce. And the fries are outstanding. They’re cooked fresh, and oh so tasty. You have to try them. They come in a mixed bag of regular and sweet potato. Eat them, love them, check it off of your bucket list.
Besides being amazing, the staff were also professional, and friendly. Thank you all for the amazing experience. I will tell all my friends and come back again!

I hate to write such a short review but when the food is this good… I believe there is not much to be said except «you have got to try this place» gotta do the Cubano, media noche, ropa vieja and whatever coffee you want to try. Absolutely one of my favs in San Diego and a necessary stop 2 –3 times a month.

I’ve been wanting to try this place for a while after seeing it on the Unilocal 100 list. I wasn’t disappointed, my friend on the other hand wasn’t so impressed. If you are dining in you can either order at the counter or sit at a table and have your order taken. I thought that was a little odd. There was a football game on so they put it on one of the tv’s.
The Mariquitas de platano free with the check in were made fresh. Warm and perfectly crispy! I ordered a combination plate La Isla Bonita~ the meat was nice and tender, perfectly seasoned. Side of Maduros was a nice compliment. I had their red sangria to wash to all down.
I loved the décor. The kitchen is open, i liked the matching fedoras the cooks wore. Our server Dino took good care of us. I’ll definitely be back.

I hated cuban food before this, but I’ve only tried Portos I thought all their sandwiches were cold and bland, and needed butt loads of mustard.
But this holy grail of Cubano food changed my perception of not only the food of Cuba but the people, the culture. Rhey no longer stink to me.
I usually hate the texture of pull pork and will only but here it was so juicy and tasted like im biting into a peice of freshly cooked thanksgiving turkey instead of a cold pickled penis. And the sides and the homemade dipping sauce were bomb bizzles.
They were nice enough to stay open and give is full service even thought we came in before closing and stayed far after.
This place is a must with very affordable prices.

I love this place! Amazing service and delicious food! Love the Cubano and Ropa de something with the dipping sauce. (Sorry, I dont remember the exact name) I would also recommend the empanadas, plantain chips, yaro fries, and the croquettes are pretty good too! The only negative is they onky have three beers on tap, but they have a pretty good selection of imported sodas.

Wow! Passed by this grill, saw the reviews on Unilocal,and decided to turn around and give them a try. So glad that we did!
The grill is located in a strip mall type area. They have plenty of indoor seating and a few outdoor, as well. The restaurant is clean. The staff is very friendly, attentive, and provides quick service. They even seemed to have a busy lunch rush, and their service was still on point.
We ordered the two sandwiches that were recommended to us and which seemed to have been the customer favorites: the Cubano and the Ropa Vieja Dip. We also ordered a side of Maduros which are their caramelized sweet plantains. Everything was so flavorful and delicious! The portions were large. We went in hungry and left satisfied. We didn’t even need dessert because the plantains had enough sweetness to curb that craving.
This place might be a little hard to miss as it is mixed in with the other nearby stores/​eateries, but make sure you give this place a try. According to their banner, they are within the top 100 places to eat in the US!

First time in San Diego and came here because it was on Unilocal 100.
The waiters were friendly and service was alright.
I ordered a grilled dish with chicken and it was similar to chipotles white rice yellow rice and black beans and pink beans. Like chipotle I thought I could split half half for part black and part pink so I requested that. The waiter told me that it’s better on the side and then charged me for extra 3 bucks.
Other than that, the chicken was soft and delicious! The restaurant is worth to try.

Stopped by Embargo for the first time today– I’ve been meaning to check it out for a while. I dined in and tried the Cubano and the Hurricane «bowl» with a side of plantain chips. I’d give the Cubano sandwich a solid 4 to 5, but the Hurricane only a 3. The Cubano was pretty solid: the bread was fantastic– crispy on the outside, chewy and smooth on the inside. The Hurricane bowl sounded alright in theory, but in execution there was too much sweet sauce on everything. I’d recommend asking them to go easy on the sauce if you order that one. The plantain chips seem to be made in house, and they were by far the best plantain chips I’ve ever had.
Overall, I’m not sure about the bowls, but I am very intrigued by the sandwiches– I plan to return to try some more. I am a huge Azucar (in OB) fan, and in terms of an apples to apples Cubano sandwich comparison… it’s pretty close as of this writing. The service was good and fast– no problems there.
Travis’s bottom line: come for the sandwiches and pick up a side of plantain chips.

Stop in for Cuban coffee and stay for a delicious lunch. Order at counter or take a seat and order. Nice outside seating — dog friendly. Terrific food; am working my way through the menu. Not a miss yet!

The Unilocal proclaimed «Top 100 Restaurants in the Nation».
I brought the family here after an evening at SeaWorld to see what this hype was all about. Based on the reviews Embargo’s bread and butter (pan y mantequilla?) are their Grill Plates. It’s basically a salad over rice and beans. You can also «create your own» plate options. I chose the Churrasco Steak, black beans, yellow rice, and a few sauces. It’s the sauces at the Embargo Grill that really make the experience here complete.
The waitress strongly suggested the Ajilimojili sauce. She mentioned that it’s made fresh every day but it had been terrible the past few days. Hmmm. She said the right chef was working this night and it was properly prepared. A bit weird but okay. The sauce is handmade with cilantro, green & red bell peppers, garlic, scotch bonnet peppers with olive oil and lime juice. So, when I put this sauce on my salad bowl it was incredible. Any time I get to experience a bold new flavor I’ve never tried before I’m very happy. This sauce was an incredible complement to the Churrasco steak and propelled it to that fabled «next level».
The chimichurri was also spot on.
I didn’t care much for their fries. Too dry.
I also had some of the «Key West» bowl and it tasted a like a flavorful chicken salad.
In summation, it’s probably not one of the «best» restaurants in the Nation. But it definitely makes my list for one of the best dishes in town. Get the Embargo Gill Plate with the Ajilimojili, chimichurri, and whatever sauce suites your fancy.

I’ve had this place bookmarked forever!
I was excited just looking at the menu because everything looked delicious. We decided on the Caribbean Curry Stew (normally with braised beef but they were out, so we got steak instead.) and a jerk chicken sandwich.
(We also tried mofongo because we’d never had it before. It wasn’t really our cup of tea, but that’s just us.)
The curry stew was interesting – it had a hint of fruity sweetness. The steak was just ok, but overall I enjoyed the dish, which came with white rice, fried plantains, and succotash (which is mainly black beans). The portion was quite big. The jerk chicken sandwich ($ 7.50) was very tasty. It came on the same sort of bread like you’d have in a Cuban sandwich – I can’t wait to try their Cuban or ropa vieja dip sandwich on a future visit.
We saw lots of people ordering the big salads with meat on top. That also looked delicious!
With a Unilocal check in we got a free order of plantain chips, and you could tell they were freshly fried! They were tasty, but really needed something to dip them in to take them to another level – but I’m not complaining about something that was free! (They were good, thank you!)
They have lots of sodas/​beverages from Cuba, Colombia, Peru, Jamaica, and more, and also coffee.

We ordered the mofongo, yuca frita, elena ruz sandwich, a hearty steak salad, and bread pudding.
I wouldn’t order the mofongo again. The chicharrones were barely visible and mixed in with the mush. I think the taste is an acquired one. The yuca frita, on the other hand, was a big hit. It was crisp on the outside, mealy on the inside, and covered in glorious garlic. The bread pudding was alright.
Elena ruz sandwich was very tasty and not too sweet. The steak salad was balanced and filling. I’d probably stick to the sandwiches and classic dishes next time.

Ambiance: small family style restaurant for Cuba, Latin, Caribbean style food, plenty parking available in the plaza.
Service: fast, friendly and attentive, they provided a lot useful recommendations
Food: in general delicious and bold flavors
mariquitas de platano — **** crispy chips, recommend
Cubano Medianoche — **** the original Cuba sandwich, marinated, slowly roasted pulled pork, ham, Swiss cheese and pickles on toasted Cuba bread with mayo mustard spread, crispy and flavorful, recommend
Key West — **** grilled marinated chicken, yellow rice, black beans, curry sauce, topped with rum soaked cranberries, creamy and tasty, recommend

Price: very decent prices and portions, less than $ 10 per person for a fulfilling meal

First time ever eating Cuban/​Caribbean food! And it did not disappoint. My family explored the San Diego zoo and decided to try here after searching on Unilocal.The people were super nice and service was really good. They were all so helpful.
I only remember about half of the dishes we ordered. Hurricane, Vegan Island and La Isla Bonita and Key West. all of these dishes were so good. So I had Vegan Island and it’s basically mushrooms and eggplant with some really nice tasty sauce on it. Under it was white rice with bell peppers, corn, beans and tomatoes. And under all of that is a bunch of chopped lettuce. The key west is almost similar except it’s grilled chicken and I had some of that and that’s my second favorite. There is also a section where you can create your own and not have to go with any of the traditional dishes. Overall the meal was big sized portioned and tastes real good. We also had the red and white sangrias! I had the red sangria which is just red wine mixed with cranberry and raspberry juice. The white one is mixed with peach and orange juice, I believe?
And for dessert we ordered the Maduras Foster. It’s basically vanilla ice cream and fried banana with caramel drizzled on top.
So if you’re ever in the area and want to try something new, come here because it really won’t disappoint.

Typical Tuesday: What do you want to eat? I dunno, what do you want to eat? Well, what did you have for lunch, we won’t get that… usually this ends up a «same olé same olé» dinner. Something close, easy and with something that will appease both parties concerned.
Enter a random Tuesday where we weren’t stuck on the couch making the normal dinner decision and enter Embargo.
Entering the restaurant was a bit confusing, do I wait to sit or order at the counter? It says on the sign that you can do either. Grabbing a menu, I headed to the counter. The restaurant is full of families, small parties and pretty lively considering it was a rainy San Diego night. I was greeted by a man I imagine to be the manager or owner. He was helpful in pointing us to an appetizer and filling our beers as we found our seats.
I order the «Vegan Island» and despite the «V» word that so many are scared of, it was a filling, delicious satisfying meal. The portabella was grilled perfectly, along with a nice amount of eggplant. The fresh greens atop the rice were light but also filling. The best was the chimichurri sauce. This is what I would make for myself if I wasn’t so lazy.
We also had the Yuca Frita which were anything but yucky. The sauce was delicious, filled with garlic and perfect with the fried yuca.
The same gentleman that helped us at the ordering counter checked on us several times during the meal after giving us our beers and once again as we finished.
I’m not surprised they received such high marks and considering the delight I had with my «vegan island» I’ll be back for sure!

One of the top 100 restaurants in the US (as far as Unilocal ratings)? I actually agree.
Judging Embargo against what it is — a small ethnic restaurant serving Caribbean food — it just can’t be much better. All of the food items are beyond what I hoped for, not just a few of them. Come here for lunch. Come here for dinner. We did both. Try anything but don’t miss the maduros. No way Embargo is anything but five stars, but it is by no means fine dining. The food just tastes better.

Always a great experience gracias por la buena vibra y la comida es super excelente ;) el cubano, boricua y yucca fritas are a must.

Good food, I had the Cubana torta «muy rica» friendly staff. Manu kind of complicated. Place is neat and very clean.
I took some friends the next day to show how amazing this place is and for my surprise, the guy with a bear was rude and not friendly at all. Wow the difference of customer service can do to the place. My friends were not impressed. Took one star out. The food was still good but we left with a bad taste because of him.

I tried my first Cubano here and it was delicious! After watching the movie, Chef, I was like I need to go find one in San Diego and I’m glad I found this place.
I definitely recommend the cubano. The bread is toasted/​panini pressed and the meat was very moist. The sauce they use is delicious! The jerk chicken sandwich on the other hand was not so great. It had a bunch of bell peppers in it and the cheese was rubbery. The chicken was cooked perfectly but lacked a lot of flavor.
I wish the fried plantains were more flavorful though. These were pretty bland compared to the ones I’ve tried before.

After a crazy flight and we finally managed to arrive safely in San Diego. We found this on Unilocal!!!We are glad we came here. Food was good and staff were very friendly and helpful. It seems to be the top spot to go in town as we saw many locals coming here. So we knew we came to the right spot. We ordered the cubano sandwich, boricua, and calamari. These were recommended by the staff as the top picks. It indeed was very good. The boricua had savoury pull pork that exploded my taste buds. Really good. But after a huge plate full you may find it getting a bit sweet. Maybe it’s just me.
We also ordered some drinks as well. Mojito, sangria, and ice tea. Warning. Ice tea is unsweetened here, unlike in Canada hahha.
Try it out if you’re near SeaWorld.

Great food and awesome service!
I found this place through Unilocal,surprised I haven’t heard about it before. When my bf and I got to Embargo Grill, we were looking at the menu outside. We decided to grab a to go menu and sit down inside to read through all the food items and descriptions.
The inside has Cuban, Caribbean, Latin prints hung on the wall throughout. Several of my fave bachata songs were also playing. We sat down and while we were looking through the to go menu, Josh came by and gave us the sit down menus and asked if we had any questions. We told him we needed a few mins to look through the menu.
A few mins later Josh came back and we had a few questions on the menu. There were several apps, sandwiches, entrees, desserts that I wanted to try. I ended up getting the cubano and tostones. With a Unilocal check in you also get plantain chips.
The plantain chips and tostones came out first. There was a good amount of plantain chips. The tostones came with a type mustard sauce. Both were good, but I particularly did like the plantain chips. When the cubano came out, it looked really good! Shredded pork, melted cheese, and ham. This was my first cuban sandwich and it tasted as good as it looked. Both my bf and I were impressed.
I really wanted to order the maduros foster, but we were pretty full at that point and I still had ½ my sandwich to take home.
Josh was fantastic! He came by often to check up on us and was really helpful and nice.
Prices are really reasonable. I highly recommend! I will definitely be back to try more.

Este lugar esta acabando”!!! Tremendo el tratamiento al cliente, buena música, buen lugar, fácil de encontrar, rápido parking y la comida excelente… You wanna try some Caribbean food”, come here!!! Highly recommended…