Mint Leaf Salsa Berkeley
Overview:
Update: Mint Leaf in Berkeley has closed, and there are no longer salsa events here.
Salsa dancing every Friday night at the Mint Leaf restaurant (“Casa De La Musica”) in Berkeley, playing the best salsa and timba Cubana spun by DJ Antonio. Smooth floor, full bar, and late night dining menu.
Details:
| Event: | Salsa Dance Party |
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| Date: | Every Friday | |
| Time: | 10:00pm - 1:45am | |
| Cost: | $5 | |
| Instructors: | N/A | |
| Address: | Mint Leaf Restaurant 1513 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley, CA 94709 Get Directions via Google Maps  |
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| Contact: | (510) 510-7800 Visit Website  Event Facebook Page |
Important: Event times are subject to change. Always double check with the event organizer before making plans.
Our Review:
The Mint Leaf is a nice little Indian bistro located on the outskirts of downtown Berkeley. Parking wasn't as bad as I expected, with plenty of street parking available right around the block.
The restaurant itself is very nice, with great decor and a solid floor for dancing. There is a bar right by the front entrance, and the alcohol prices were fairly reasonable, which for me is a big plus!
The actual dance floor itself is pretty tight, but most of the dancers were experienced enough that there were few crashes. The primary style of dancing here is Cuban, and I only found a couple of girls who followed slot dancing. The music was mostly Cuban salsa with a pinch of bachata, kizomba, and romantica.
Overall, Mint Leaf has a great atmosphere and it's a nice spot to check out on a Friday night if you enjoy Cuban salsa.
User Reviews:
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10 people found this review helpful
So I found it to be surprisingly hard to find information on the quality of salsa dancing at Mint Leaf, but now that I finally went, I can help others who like myself don’t know what to expect. Overall it was a really great experience! I will definitely be going back (even possibly make it a weekly thing). It’s $5 at the door, and I was really hesitant to pay since when I arrived, around 10:30pm it was empty. I was really incredulous and kept asking the guy if it would actually fill up or if it was going to be just one couple all night long…the guy was right, it fills up. So people start coming in around 11:30pm (which according to my Salsa standards is really late), but the music gets louder and the space packs up. A lot of the East Bay salseros drop by, and it’s a very friendly vibe (no snobbery you get from places where people mainly dance on-2). Overall, fun place, kind of small, good music, and good people. Worth the $5. Oh, do bring your own water! They don’t provide salseros with free water and so you have to pay for bottled water. Just FYI.
9 people found this review helpful
I will never go to the Mint Leaf again. The owner is out of control.
The owner (Depak?) bartends, and is typically incredibly rude – but last weekend he went too far when he purposely sprayed my friend and me with soda water.
My friend ordered a drink. The owner put the glass on the bar, poured the drink, then attempted to spray soda water into the glass, but instead sprayed the bar and us. When we complained, he aimed the soda water spout AT US, and PURPOSELY sprayed us with it – we were dripping wet. He then threw my friend’s drink (glass and all) in the garbage can and eventually told her that she was “86-ed out of there”. All – for no reason.
The salsa crowd is a nice community; typically friendly, peaceful, and fun (we’re not the obnoxious, drunk, or rowdy type of crowd – we really just like to dance to good music).
I don’t drink alcohol when I dance (just water or diet soda). I always leave a tip at the bar (whether I buy anything or not), and always leave a tip when I order something. Earlier that night, I’d ordered a diet soda (“Can I a diet coke, please” – with a smile), and the owner was rude in the way he demanded payment, and tossed my change at me across the bar. I left him a tip anyway (I left $1 tip for a $2 drink…). The owner doesn’t even realize that I actually eat at his restaurant, too (no more).
The Mint Leaf charges a $5 cover charge, doesn’t provide free water (all of the other places provide tap water over ice in a pitcher and plastic cups), and the owner is always rude (not just to us… it seems that he’s rude to most people who show up on Friday nights. There are so many other venues to attend where we’re appreciated, wanted, and welcome. I adore DJ Antonio, but I will NEVER go to the Mint Leaf again. Don’t support them.
2 people found this review helpful
I was pleasantly surprised at the friendliness of the dancers. I got to dance with someone I knew and then others asked though I did have to resort to asking guys to dance as it got fuller, once I did they were friendly Lots of Berkeley locals. I got there a little before 11 and people where still eating dinner. by 11:15 there were a few people dancing and the DJ was great. A dancer told me it was a slow night because of another event happening in SF so there was lots of room to dance. It is a small space but worth going if you live near by. The biggest problem besides the fact that it is a restaurant space is that the floor is cement. it is smooth so you can turn but not the best on feet and joints. But it is close by and I will definitely be going back at least once a month.
Had a fabulous time dancing here last night! Great crowd, solid intermediate to advanced dancers without a lot of beginners cluttering up the floor. Mix of line and cuban salsa, but folks were patient with my dancing on the 2 and tried to accommodate, one even taught me the cuban salsa steps. Cons include a small cement dance floor and lots of bachata (not my favorite). The DJ was excellent. Salseros are here to dance, not try and pick up girls, which was refreshing. I was only asked for my name twice and not a single one of them tried to hit on me, a definite plus for a married girl out dancing on her own! I will definitely be back!
You know what I love about Cuban Style clubs? NO SNOBBERY such as what you find in On2 dance venues. Such is the case with The Mint Leaf…friendly dancers with intermediate to advance skills who don’t mind mixing it up with strangers. THIS is what Salsa dancing should be about. This venue is small but the overall atmosphere is quite friendly. The music is mostly Cuban or Timba oriented and the dancers make the most of it.
Holy crap, by far one of the worst salsa places I ever had to endure!!! And i am not joking and ive been to some bad ones like club miami where its a meat fest and others that are slipping my mind but this place reached an epic level of bad. Right off the bat a red flag for me was this is an indian restaurant that turns into a messed up club carribean gardens because they played crappy reggeaton, with a mix of far too long salsa remix songs most of which probably were 7 minutes for most. Even as a good dancer i hate dancing for that long especially when no one can dance. Not only that they have an open view like Cana which sounds cool but heck of people where smoking real dancers dont want to smell all that!!! And to top it all off the dude in front charged me 7 bucks when online it said five. Which i still would have been mad even if it was free!!! Be warned if your a dancer do yourself a favor and dont waste the drive especially for a guy dancer no ladys could dance and for the ladys the guys where just as bad if not worse, because you will be yanked all over the dance floor and get stepped on while off the dance floor…. Thats right dancers were so bad some dude stepped on a girl and she wasent even on the dance floor. Yes my friends the circus is in town and its called Mint!
Small place, timba (timba is an afro-cuban style of salsa tthat cuban style salsa dancers prefer), cement floor, fun – but I like a little timba mixed into my salsa for variety. Here it was 99% timba.
Too much Timba music. I like a little mixed in for variety, but this place had 99%. For those of you who don’t know, Timba is a very specific form of salsa music, kind of like country music compared to top 40 and other music. I think all timba places should be removed from this salsa by the bay site because it is a little misleading. When people look for salsa they’re generally looking for classic salsa, top 40 salsa, salsa romantica, mambo, and even bachata. They’re not looking for timba. That’s why you’ll find very few experienced salsa dancers. But it was a decent timba event.
No salsa any longer there