97 Darlinghurst Road
Kings Cross, Sydney, 2011
(02) 9816 4777
http://www.cococubano.com/
Man, we are amazing. We can commercialise and consume anything, including poverty and communist regimes. Z has mixed feelings about the Coco Cubano chain popping up around Sydney. On one hand, the franchise faux 1950s Cuban decor suggesting impoverished decadence, antique foreign furnishings, and revolutionary baristas in guerrilla greens, subversively preparing expressos and lattes for the freedom fighters dropping in to read their Dan Brown manifestos, check their insurgent emails on their iPhone2. or chat about the countermeasure tactics of Warney and Liz as they sit back and on display in the upholstered sitting room chairs in the breezeway is a textbook study in the postmodern oxymoron of seeking the authentic via the artificial in our disposable consumerist lives. You want the "Cuban" experience? Go to Kings Cross and smoke a cigar while you drink coffee out of a paper cup with a logo on it.
On the other hand, Z has a weakness for artifice and kitsch and loves little havens of fantasy escapism amongst the mundanities of urban colourless concrete, steel, and drab lemming-like hurriedness amongst the unsmiling masses. Tucked in at the back wooden tables, surrounded by pictures of a young strapping Che Guevara and farmers harvesting tobacco crops, reading her paperback Steinbeck, she can pretend for a little while that maybe she is in another country and another time. That is, if they would keep the rumba playing and not Rhianna on the house speakers.
But Z confesses she has a weakness now for a particular dish at Coco Cubano's. It is her nature to fixate on a single dish she likes at a cafe or restaurant and thus will return again and again to the eatery and constantly order that dish (such as the "Newtown" at Burgerlicious, the Chicken Pad Thai at Big Boy Thai 2). Today, she has journeyed to King Cross' version of Havana for her new fave - the Chicken Wrap. It's Sydney pricey at $11.90, since it's "designer" food and you are paying as much for the decor of the franchise as you are the food on your plate. But there is a reason Z keeps going back and ordering it. It's freakin' good!
The wrap is sizable, and toasted. The chicken is succulent and juicy. Z hasn't yet encountered a too dry serving, which can be the gamble you take when ordering chicken. Guacamole, fresh tomato, and rocket lettuce also fill the wrap, and it's brought warm to your corner where you have nestled yourself.
Twice, Z has given the chai latte a go but will not have it anymore, as it's too bitter and lacks the creamy sweet richness she likes. Even drowning it in sugar doesn't quite take the sting out of if.
The overall menu is quite varied, with pizza's, full brekkie fry ups, salads, cocktails, a range of alcoholic delights for those who imbibe, and decadent chocolates under glass to drool over. (Good thing the glass is there to stop the drool from coating the confections). Z knows she will need to drift from the Chicken Wrap one day, but even just thinking about how juicy and luscious the wrap tastes temps Z to go get her second one for today. The decor may be fake, but this dish is the real deal.
Ratings (out of 10)
Chicken Wrap : 10 for taste but 5 for expense. A treat to be had sparingly.
Chai Latte: 1
Overall: 7 It's a fun little place, even if you are an ideological hypocrite for eating there.
