A little taste of Havana

Remember the Shoreditch Electricity Showrooms, that seminal Hoxton hangout? It's gone, and now Hoxton Square is packed with fashionably unfashionable gaffs where its indigenous, indolent peoples retain sang-froid in the face of the rigours of the real world.

The site that was the Electricity Showrooms - once a retail unit of the former London Electricity Board - is now a bar-cum-posh cantina, engendering the somewhat lame nuevo Latino concept on food and drink that fuses European ingredients with Latin tradition.

Inside the single, groundfloor room, we're treated to a fiesta of black and white: atmospheric, backlit, monochrome prints of Havana cover the ceiling. The room has the deliberate look of a downtown lobby bar in the Cuban capital, although vertical blinds at the windows introduce an unwelcome business air. Nevertheless, this style works well, but only in the evenings when candlelight from the tables helps to create an almost romantic air.

Unusually for Hoxton, Cube & Star has a grown-up atmosphere, for mature people on adult budgets. The wine list is long, unwieldy and betrays the Latin theme with far too many Australian bins on the menu. Prices start at £11.50 for the house Chilean El Cobrero Tinto Maule (red) and quickly escalate into the £20 to £50 bracket. Few represent good value for money.

Mojitos lead the way on the cocktail list, and extremely good, perfectly prepared drinks they are, too. Mercifully, this place underuses crushed iced in the preparation of the drink, which means you can actually taste the rum and other ingredients without risking a frozen mouth.

Various fruit-infusion alternatives are available, including ones in the list of daiquiris, although a daiquiri made with sweet potato, cinnamon and banana might be a flavour too far.

When it comes to the food, you can choose from a long list of familiar tapas dishes, ambitiously priced at £3.25 to £4.75 per plate, or order a platter, which represents much better value at £18 for eight dishes. An a la carte menu is a less promising option but offers pork chops with Cuban fries (£14.25), and a cigar-smoked beef tenderloin (£16.45).

This being a supposed Cuban operation, cigars are available from a temperature-controlled humidor, and non-smokers can feign indulgence by ordering a chocolate cigar as a dessert. Be warned, chocolate cigars do not look good sitting on a plate.

Those who remember this site of old will recall a funky bar in the basement, and this is due to open again in the autumn. Like the rest of the place, I'm not sure how Cuban it's going to be, but don't let this put you off.

Cube & Star, despite sporting a name you'd expect to find on a downmarket shipping company, is breathing an air of quality and sophistication through Hoxton Square and I will be making a return visit there very soon.