Babaluu

My boyfriend and I had a date night at this place Saturday night. We got there well in advance of our reservation but the hostess was kind enough to seat us early anyway (it wasn’t that busy at 830pm).
We ordered a delicious bottle of Argentinian wine and some apps. We shared the chips and dip plus the firecracker pastries. The chips were fabulous (Yuca, plantain and tortilla) and dips were good but could’ve used a touch more heat. The firecracker pastries were wonderful. For our mains, we shared the seafood pallela. The seafood was very fresh and the dish overall was cooked well but again, could have used a little more flavor (maybe more saffron?). We ended our meal with a couple mohitos, very refreshing!
Around 930 pm the free dance class began and the place seemed to fill up very quickly. The instructor was friendly and seemed to really know her stuff. Soon after the DJ took over and the whole floor was full of happy dancers. Really good Latin dancers.
Overall the vibe was incredible, the people friendly, the food pretty good, and the drinks delicious! I would come back here any day but, maybe brush up on my Latin dancing skills first!

I don’t quite get the negative reviews. So i went here last night to redeem a groupon meal and get some salsa lessons in — in efforts to make date night’s a little different
When we arrived at 730pm the place was empty! I suppose not a lot of ppl come here for dinner. I came with zero expectations because that’s what I do for groupon meals. Howeverrrr I was pleasantly surprised! We had emapanadas and croquet for appetizer, both were fresh and delicious though the crust for empanadas was a little too oily. For main we had the Peruvian chicken and paella — again both fresh tender and yummy. Dessert to share was the chocolate something– basically a molten lava cake!
The place really started to fill in around 9pm. The salsa lessons were decent. Good crowd overall. I’d have no issues paying $ 7 and coming here to salsa, right after I learn how to! Almost everyone on the floor knew what they were doing
For anyone visiting Ba ba luu for salsa, i“d say go a bit early and have a bite — food ain’t bad either!

I walked into here with my gf after watching the movie Chef at the Varsity. We wanted to have some Latin food and this seems to be the only Latin restaurant in the Yorkville area. I was a little hesitant in going here as the place seemed rather bare with people, especially on a Friday night, but later I found out that there were more people towards the back but they were there for their nightly salsa classes.
The waitor took us to one of the tables in the front, as the back was taken up by the salsa class. There were only two other diners in the restaurant and out of all the tables he seated us at a table that was dirty and he tried to discretely to brush off the crumbs with the menus but we definitely knew what he was trying to do and saw the stained tablecloth with bits of food on top. We pointed out the dirty table and the waitor said he will be back to change the tablecloth, which we thought was odd as he could have seated us at a clean table rather than change a dirty tablecloth after we have seated.
Ordering drinks I was extremely disappointed about their dismal wine list. I would have expected some decent new world wines, but the selection was very poor. The small thick rimmed wine glasses reminds me of cafeteria glassware, which suited the lacklustre wine.
Their ceviche of the day was tilapia, which sounded boring, but didn’t want to order the octopus ceviche that was on their menu as we wanted to also order the grilled calamari. When the food arrived we got the octopus ceviche instead of the tilapia, which was fine as the tilapia would probably be a poor choice given that the octopus ceviche was mediocre at best. The grilled calamari was overcooked and rubbery and lukewarm, and I suspect was made with from frozen.
The salsa class started during our meal which was fun to watch and provided some relief from our meal. Unfortunately our waitor, and any other waitors, seemed to be absent from the dining room and was working the bar instead during the salsa class. We finally flagged our waitor for the bill after a long wait, and to add insult to injury they didn’t have a wireless credit card reader and the reader at the bar wasn’t working, so I had to follow the waitor through the crowd of dancers into a small room where a cash register with a wired card reader was. This was no fun.
It seems like the main draw was the salsa classes than the food which I am not surprised as the food and service was pretty bad and I am surprise a place like this exists in Yorkville.

If you’re looking for dance space… like Toronto’s real estate. …its premium.
In other words don’t be surprised if you’re bumping into people… stepping on someone’s foot. getting someone’s sweat all over your arm, etc. Don’t get me wrong the music and crowd is mature, and courteous in the event they bump into you lol. With Salsa, merengue and bachata playing you can dance here nonstop. Oh and Ilona G. sorry for elbowing your head twice. I didn’t mean it. I swear :(
On weekends their entrance fee is $ 14 which includes coat check, I found it a bit pricey however you have to consider this club is in the middle of Yorkville. The drinks are reasonably priced, staff are friendly as so are the patrons that come here.
I’ll be back Babaluu…

Been here countless times. Granted not recently however this place never changes.
Also, how you view this place will depend whether you are a Spanish, dancing person or not. No offense but it is the truth.
If you come here for the food or the overpriced bottled beer then you are coming for the wrong reasons. There is nothing this place –even with the nice decour, that other dance clubs will not be better at. Except for the extreme accessibility due to its excellent central location in Yorkville.
Generally speaking, this is where the non-​Spanish crowd come to dance. Not to say that Spanish people don’t come here, I mean, I used to come here for many years but the main draw, as I said before, was it’s accessibility and maybe bachata Thursdays. However if you really want to dance some serious bachata, you are better off coming with a partner. Since true bachata is fairly intimate and other dancer might feel uncomfortable with the intimacy. Maybe…
If you are a dancer, then avoid the Friday/​Saturday night combo as they are known as the «pick up nights.» This place gets way too packed and you can’t really dance unless you enjoy bumping into people for most of the night. If you are a girl, expect to be hit on fairly frequently.
If you like to dance salsa then you will want to come on Wednesdays and Thursday nights, otherwise known as «dancing nights.» These are the nights where most of the non-​dancers or pick up artists tend to stay away and only people who are really committed to dance come out.
Thursdays are know as «show off nights,» you can still dance but be prepared to see many very advanced couples take to the floor. They are great to watch but there is a vibe of exclusivity which scares the non-​initiated. It can still be fun though.
As you can imagine during these two nights, bar traffic is fairly minimal and thus the club will try to make money by charging cover… sometimes. Oddly there are times where they do not. When they did, I always used to think it was because they wanted to make sure they made the rent at the end of the month! ;-)
The free classes are okay and are a draw for people who are starting but don’t think much about them as they are nothing more than tasters, so do not expect to know how to dance by the end of the hour and unless you are a good looking woman you probably won’t be asked to dance. Well, the truth is that if you are a man, you probably won’t be asked to dance due to the culture expectations anyway.
Hence you get a bunch of men just making a circle outside the dance floor looking in… longingly.
If you are a man and you can’t dance then I would suggest to go elsewhere because even if you ask a regular out, chances are they will figure you out very quickly and excuse themselves the moment the beat stops as they will be looking for a more advanced dance partner.
If you are Latin and you know how to dance then this place is not bad and it is a great place to become a part of a community as you will get to know a lot of people by cheer exposure.
Having said that, all in all, the club is just okay as there are better places to dance, like Lula Lounge for example which tends to have better music. However you still can’t beat Babaluu’s central location.
If you need to get your Salsa fix, this place will do.

My friend had her birthday hosted here on a Friday night, and it was empty during dinner time, but very packed after 9PM!
The waiters were such gentlemans — from coat check to the server — they were all smiles and very polite. Service was prompt and the food arrived at our table at a reasonable amount of time. I ordered the seafood platter for tw