New opportunities present themselves within our lives. For myself, it was a new restaurant called Café Havana. A Cuban restaurant here in Storm Lake that provides many different options. If you do not mind a long wait and are looking for something different from the various Mexican restaurants, give Café Havana a try.  

Café Havana provides many different Cuban foods for their customers. These different foods include Pastelillos Cubana Cuban patties, tostones rellenos, croquetas cubana Cuban fritters, papa relleno cubanas, maiz saltiados, the jibarito plaintain sandwich, the Cuban sandwich, the Cuban turkey sandwich, the 3 meat Boricua sandwich tripleta, the sweet cuabn sandwich, various shakes, smoothies, coffees, kebab, and seafood.  

From my experience, I tried the 3 meat Boricua sandwich with no tomato and no cheese. I also tried a raspberry & cherry smoothie.  My sandwich and smoothie were very good. The sandwich had steak, chicken, pork, lettuce, potato sticks, and bori sauce on it. I thought it was very delicious because the meat was cooked well, and the bread was toasted. The smoothie was also very delicious. I never had a mix of raspberry & cherry within a smoothie. I could mostly taste the cherry, but it was still great.  

One thing that I found disappointing was the wait time. My friends and I had to wait about 30 minutes just to get our food. It was worth the wait, but I wish it could have been made quicker considering there was only 3 of us total. Another thing that I found disappointing was the hours. They are closed on Mondays, which seems odd to me because no other restaurant I know is like that. They are open 11 am – 7 pm Tuesdays – Thursdays, so it can be difficult for student athletes to go there if they have late night practices. On Friday and Saturday, they are open 11 am – 10 pm. This is more reasonable, but difficult still because it’s only for two days of the week. On Sunday, they go back to opening at 11 am and closing at 7 pm. These different times can be very confusing if one does not plan ahead of time.  

The location is also a little disappointing. The official address is 115 E Railroad St, Storm Lake, IA by the train tracks. It is a little bit outside of where the other popular restaurants in Storm Lake are, but it is still close to Brewsters and the new Storm Lake Candy Co. It’s about a 5-minute drive from campus, but students will not have to deal with very much traffic.  

If students want something different from the traditional restaurants here in Storm Lake, they should give Café Havana a try. Just be aware of the long waiting time. It may have just been a bad experience for my first time trying it, but it can still happen to others. I would also encourage smoothie and coffee lovers to try this restaurant. They have different flavors for everyone to enjoy at cheep prices of $4.50 for shakes, $3.50 for smoothies, and prices ranging from $1.75 – $5.00 for different coffees.