We are staying in Old Town Havana for two nights before the rest of our group arrives (3 adults) and 1 night at the end (7 adults, 1 toddler and a newborn).

I know the food in Havana doesn't get raves, but is there anyplace in particular you would recommend we have a meal, particularly with the large group on the last night?

Look at the restaurant section of www.lahabana.com
They are rated by stars, up to 5.

Thanks - that'll be great for other activities as well.

We enjoyed Vistamar Paladar in Miramar, not sure about it catering for large groups though. It was a few years ago now but the reviews seem still good.

Havana have a lot of very nice places to eat, though the food variety is not so easy to find. Most places will offer comida criolla (Typical Food), Seafood Plates and Pasta. Asian Food Restaurants can be found mostly in Old Havana and nearby the Chinatown.

We quite liked the vibe of the live music [if not the volume ] at the micro-brewery in the plaza vieja in Old Havana - cerveceria plaza vieja - they serve very good skewers of meat or fish which we really enjoyed

In the south east corner of the square the coffee [and coffee beans to bring home] at the coffee shop is excellent:

http://cafeelescorial.restaurantwebexperts.com

We asked the owner of the casa we were staying at where they bought their coffee and they said there so that's where we went. There is a long queue for the beans but you can have a coffee while you wait if you use the traditional cuban queuing system.

We also had an excellent pizza at a nearby Italian style restaurant but I've no idea what it was called or exactly where it was [not very helpful, I know!]

this place has live music, but both times we ate there, we arrived just to late to hear it:

http://mesondelaflota.com-habana.com

Regarding souvenirs, the chocolate from the Museo del Chocolate was very good and very reasonable, get there early to avoid the queues.

the food was fine but the service was laughably surly.