Cuba provides Cardiff with a little Latin sunshine as well as dancing.

The Venue
Bar Cuba dresses itself up in Latin colours with oranges, yellows, sun-blasted whites and terracottas. There’s a brown tile floor and a high ceiling with a balcony around the top almost replicating a South American courtyard. The bar is to the left and there are leather-backed booths down the right-hand side, as well as a raised area with plump settees and mosaic topped tables.

The white tablecloths, even though they’re made of paper, still look the part and are practical too as the staff whip them away as soon as a table is vacated. There are big colourful pictures on the walls and Cuban music playing in the background day and night. This gets louder as the evening goes especially at weekends when people have been known to dance.

The bar is open till 3am on a Monday which is student night and on Friday and Saturday it's open till 4am. There’s an upstairs section too with mosaics on the walls alongside exotic posters of tobacco and rum adverts. They do salsa classes for beginners every Tuesday.

The People
There’s a healthy age range here, but it is popular with students and twenty to thirty-somethings. It does all depend on the night though so expect students on Mondays, more mature salsa dancers on Tuesday, and on Friday and Saturday the party crowd descends on the place ready for some cheesy chart and dance music. Business people come in for lunch during the week and generally it’s a home from home for the area’s Latin community.

The Food
Jacket potatoes, burgers, baguettes make up the menu and main meals are reasonably priced with Thai fishcakes for £5.25, chunky chicken kebabs for £4.50 and chilli con carne for £4.49.

The Drink
On tap there's Stella, Worthington’s, Guinness, Strongbow, Boddington’s, Beck’s and in bottles there’s Sol, Stella, Budweiser, Grolsch, Carlsberg and Magners. House cocktails are £4 to £8 each and the list includes frozen cocktails as well as June Bug, Electric Smurf and Cape of Good Will which contains peach liqueur, Bacardi, lime and orange for £4.80.

The Last Word
Cuba can be great fun and it’s worth bearing in mind for a serious boogie after midnight.