64 Best Restaurants in Cuba

Still Havana's most famous paladar, La Guardia has reached almost legendary status. Enrique Nuñez and his wife, Odeysis, have transformed their early 20th-century town house into a fine paladar. It's so photogenic that scenes in Fresa y Chocolate (Strawberry and Chocolate) were filmed here. The three-floor climb up the squalid but picturesque stairway generates an appetite-enhancing adrenaline. The daily special is never what Enrique and Odeysis need to get rid of but rather what they hope will make you happiest. Look for cherna compuesta a lo caimanero (with coconut and spices) or conejoal aceite de oliva con caponata (cooked in olive oil with a sauce of eggplant, peppers, and onion). On Sunday the restaurant is open only for brunch from noon to 4.

Elegance abounds on the ground floor of Cienfuegos's most gracious mansion, with its ornate arches, marble columns, and crystal chandeliers. And there's usually someone playing the restaurant's grand piano. The food may play second fiddle to ambience, but it's still some of the best in town. The specialty is langosta (lobster), which is prepared five different ways; other choices include sopa de mariscos (seafood soup), camarones al pincho (shrimp shish kebab), and even filet mignon.

Try to arrive early enough to enjoy a sunset cocktail on the roof deck.

Close to a cluster of hotels, this popular steak house is in an attractive colonial-style villa, with a covered, arched terrace. Specialties include Chateaubriand, grilled beef, or strip loin. The restaurant also serves a variety of seafood plates, including grilled lobster with garlic and butter and mahimahi fillets. It's an excellent, well-priced option for those who have exhausted their culinary choices in one of the many nearby all-inclusive resorts or are just interested in more private dining. Decor is classical, tasteful, and almost elegant.

In a quiet corner next to the Hotel El Comendador, this restaurant offers an array of tapas, which includes various seafood offerings. On top of that, it also offers grilled fare such as vegetables, chicken, pork, and fish. Tapas servings vary from CUC$1 to CUC$3, a great deal in any destination. Seafood tapas menus can be had for CUC$12 for two persons. Service is rather slow, but friendly.

One of the most sophisticated-looking eateries in Havana Vieja, this upscale restaurant sits on the atmospheric Plaza de San Francisco. Try for the upstairs corner table, which overlooks the plaza and has a view of the Sierra Maestra boat terminal, the Iglesia y Convento Menor de San Francisco de Asís, and the Lonja del Comercio (Commerce Exchange) across the way. The food is overpriced and only fair, but the suave decor does offer a nice ambience. Tempting dishes here, prepared by head chef Ernesto Rosario, include seafood à la crème or prawns sautéed with rosemary.

This lively café, with a large, covered terrace overlooking the plaza, is the perfect place to grab a table and a cool drink and enjoy the view of the Sauto Theater. Inside, the scene is vintage 19th century, with wood floors, Corinthian columns supporting the high ceiling, a long, polished-wood bar, and vintage photographs on the walls. Stained glass transoms top the arched windows, while a cool breeze wafts in from the bay, and there are ceiling fans to keep the air moving. Open daily from breakfast to late at night, the menu is inexpensive snack fare, including pizza, large beakers of beer to share and, of course, every coffee concoction. There's a modern art gallery next door, and a little farther along, an interesting book shop that sells artistic, handmade books using old photos, hand-written text, and drawings. The café is a good bathroom stop after visiting the nearby Provincial Museum.

Despite the bevy of new eateries along the main street, this is still the classiest place in town, set in the most charming of Viñales's oldest houses. The white clapboard house, circa 1889, has neat, blue trim and shutters, and guests enter along a garden path under an arbor of vines. Both the excellent traditional food and the charming service make this place memorable. Diners can choose a table on the front veranda, in the garden terrace, or in the interior dining rooms decorated with sepia vintage photos. The delicias de Don Tomás, a rice casserole with ham, pork, chicken, lobster, and sausage, is a favorite, as is the tasajo a lo guajiro (shredded beef in a criollo sauce). The signature cocktail here is the Trapiche, a refreshing blend of pineapple juice, rum, and honey with a sugarcane swizzle stick.

Located near the seafront in the open air, this is one of Havana's best seafood restaurants. Shrimp, crab, lobster, grouper, snapper: every type of seafood available in the Antilles seems to find its way through this bustling kitchen. At night, the restaurant turns into one of Miramar's most popular nightclubs, with a host of live bands and DJs.

One of the better state-owned restaurants, El Aljibe offers a pretty open-air setting and live music while you dine. The criollo fare here is reasonably priced and served gracefully, and the place is always filled to the brim with clued-in diners (including such celebrities as Omar Linares, Cuba's finest former baseball player), as well as bus loads of tourists. The roast chicken in bitter-orange sauce, served with black beans and rice is famous, and it's worth coming here just to try it.

At first glance, this simple restaurant under a blue, columned arcade may seem too scruffy to think about dining in. However, the locals choose "The Piglet" over the other options in town for a reason: the good-value, basic creole cuisine, including such pork specialties as chicharrones de cerdo (pork crisp), masas (pork loin), and cochinillo asado (roast pig) are delicious. If you prefer to munch your pig alfresco, there are a few tables sporting red-checkered tablecloths out on the arcade terrace.

Another popular addition to Callejón de Peluquerros (Barbers' Alley), El Figaro's tagline is comida sin pelos (food without hairs). The menu, which was set up by the grandson of Cuba's celebrity chef Gilberto Smith Duquesne, is full of gourmet, stylized Cuban dishes, as well as international favorites such as ceviche or gazpacho. Try the signature dish of lobster cooked in coffee, cream, white wine, and cognac.

Come later in the evening to watch old movies projected onto the outside wall (like a drive-in movie theater), while sampling one of their 15 varieties of mojitos.

This small café with a hardwood bar, brass lamps, and wooden ceiling has been in business since 1866. The view, overlooking Plaza Martí, probably isn't much different than when it opened, and it still serves ponche de la parroquia, a rum-and-milk cocktail that wily young men once gave to chaperones. (Once drunk, the chaperones would be less likely to interfere should the young men try to steal kisses from their girlfriends.) Though the menu has a wide array of beverages, dishes are limited to sandwiches, pollo frito (fried chicken) and bistéc de puerco (grilled pork).

Opened on the site of a warehouse that was frequented by Spanish sailors in colonial times, this little hideaway serves such creditable Spanish specialties as tortilla de patata (potato omelet) and gambas al ajillo (shrimp sautéed with garlic). The flamenco performances (nightly at 9) provide a bracing shot of atmosphere, although the Café Taberna just a couple hundred meters on tends to attract the crowds these days.

The most romantic Varadero restaurant sits atop a small hill, beside what appears to be an antique round stone tower. It's actually part of the aqueduct system the duPonts built to supply their estate. A metal sculpture of Don Quijote, mounted atop his spindly horse, points a lance in the direction of the tower. Cuban and international specialties are on offer inside the candlelit restaurant—count on paella and fabada marinera (seafood bean stew)—with innovative touches from the creative chefs. The menu also includes the usual filet mignon, lobster, fish, and shrimp. The restaurant makes an interesting night out for visitors tiring of their all-inclusive packages.

The low building with the fat pillars south of Parque Martí's bandstand, dates from the 1840s and evokes Cienfuegos's French heyday. Today it's a popular tavern, the perfect place for a quick Cuban coffee, a mojito, or light lunch.

They make a great selection of cheese sandwiches.

You'll occasionally hear live music in the late afternoon and early evening.

Also known as Casa de la Parra (House of the Grape Arbor), this simple, yet elegant restaurant only specializes in typical criollo and Cuban food, despite the name. Sit inside under old wooden beams or outside on the patio under shady grape vines while dining on the classic menu that includes such dishes as morros y cristianos (rice and beans), boniato cocido (boiled yam), various grilled meats, and fish and vegetable fried rice. Although the price is right, make sure to check your bill before paying as sometimes they overcharge.

First-rate Cuban cooking and excellent mojitos are served in this Varadero replica of Havana's Bodeguita del Medio—the famous Hemingway haunt—graffiti included. The food is carefully prepared, the prices are more than reasonable, and the musical trio is one of the reasons diners linger late into the evening. Diners can add their own poems, names, and graffiti to the restaurant's walls.

In a restored 18th-century house overlooking the timeless Plaza de San Juan de Dios, this restaurant was named for the campana (bell) that hangs in its courtyard, which was brought to Camagüey from Toledo, Spain, by a merchant who lived here. Seating is either in the courtyard, which is shaded by trees and decorated with the tinajones symbolic of Camagüey, or in the front of the house, with a view of the plaza. The Cuban dishes include boliche mechado (roast tenderloin stuffed with bacon and served in a light sauce), a specialty here; all come with arroz congrí (rice and black beans).

Its only decoration may be a pastoral mural covering one wall, but locals are drawn to this popular restaurant on the western edge of town by the food, the prices, and (we suspect) the air-conditioning—rather than the decor. The menu is a mix of Cuban and international dishes, with such local standards as escalope de puerco (breaded pork) as well as a selection of pastas and pizzas.

One of the smaller mansions in Punta Gorda houses this pleasant seafood restaurant. Its bright interior—full of shiny marble, colorful tiles, and carved hardwoods—makes it an elegant place to dine, and the waterfront terrace in back is a great spot for lunch. The menu is strong on seafood, with dishes ranging from pescado al camarón (fish fillets in a white shrimp sauce) to a grillada mixta (mixed grill) that contains lobster, fish, and prawns.