64 Best Restaurants in Cuba

Although prices are on the high side, the romantic location makes them worth it. Standing at the foot of El Morro, this restaurant offers splendid views over Havana and is a good spot for dinner after the cañonazo at La Cabaña. Your best bet is lobster; kept alive in an on-site tank, it's guaranteed to be fresh.

While both its decor, neighborhood, and context may be Chinese, this restaurant has very little to do with the Orient. (Frankly, rare is the Asiatic face at any Havana Chinese eatery.) Very popular with locals, there's always a queue halfway out the door. The restaurant's menu includes a wide variety of food that is popular with Cubans. The grilled chicken criollo-style is grand and not dry at all, while the shrimp in a cream sauce is delicious. Prepare yourself for king-size portions. Daily offerings and the chef's selections are stapled to the menu daily.

Set in a scenic garden, around small ponds and fountains, this is one of Miramar's best paladares, which also functions as a bar and lounge with good cocktails and some great live bands. Specializing in a variety of grilled meats, which are cooked on an outdoor charcoal grill, this place will definitely satisfy the carnivores among you. Other excellent dishes include shrimp teriyaki and fish fillet with clams in a green herb sauce. Vegetarians meanwhile will be happy with the starters of eggplant or fried chickpeas and mains of grilled vegetable platters, risottos, and pastas. Sometimes there is an extra cover charge for the music.

In the Hostal Valencia, this restaurant specializes in paella, just as its name suggests, and has won high praise for its Valencian dishes. House suggestions include grilled Caribbean seafood, Yoruba lobster with béchamel sauce, and buttered shrimp. In keeping with the cuisine, the large, airy dining room has a terra-cotta floor, a rustic feel, and is dressed in traditional Spanish furnishings. A signed image of a notable bullfighter, another of the running of the bulls, and even a memento to former president Fidel Castro Ruz dating from 1989 adorn the walls here.

The Italian fare—pizza, pastas, and seafood dishes—is good by local standards. The white-tile, European café–style setting overlooking the plaza is pleasant, and the staff is friendly.

Situated right across from the Capitolio, it might be easy to miss Los Nardos if it wasn't for the long queues. Popular among locals, hefty portions of red snapper, rabbit or chicken and lamb stew are served up daily. There's virtually no exterior signage, and the restaurant is decorated with locally crafted wooden lamps, tables, and chairs, giving the dining room an eclectic decor and a romantic ambience. Make sure that you are on the first floor—and not the upper floor, which is another less stellar eatery.

This Canadian chain restaurant serves quality pasta dishes, salads, and pizza in a low-key, outdoor setting. Look for the yellow sign.

This open-air restaurant—built within the prow of a boat—is the flagship of the Complejó Punta Perdíz, with beachfront, thatch-roof shelters and beach chairs and a dive shop. The restaurant has fine views over the water from its upper deck but, sadly, the buffet menu is uninspiring. The CUC$15 buffet price is only worth it if you plan on spending the day here, imbibing the included bar drinks, and enjoying the beach lounges under thatch-roof shelters facing the sea. The snorkeling is excellent; dives cost CUC$25 a tank. The only place to change clothes is in the inadequate, cramped restaurant bathroom, so bring a large towel along with you. There are outdoor, cold-water showers and basins to rinse off salt water and snorkeling and diving gear.

The well-prepared seafood dishes and extensive wine list befit Zun Zún's elegant Vista Alegre setting. You can dine outdoors on a wraparound porch adorned with potted ferns or inside amid the unique decor of the house's former owner, an Arab merchant.

Although this state-run spot serves much of the same fare as its many like-owned neighbors, its setting in a restored colonial mansion on Plaza de Dolores is terrific. Fans spin slowly overhead from a lofty wooden ceiling, and large windows open to the plaza's northwest corner.

A few steps from the Iglesia de la Soledad, this open-air restaurant has several tables overlooking a courtyard and a dozen more in back, surrounded by potted plants and colored glass. The menu is Cuban, but includes variations on common themes. Try the bistec mayoral (steak in a wine sauce on toast) and pollo grillé al huerto (half a grilled chicken with vegetables).

Set in the Plazuela de Jigüe, a tiny plaza shaded by one tree, this colorful and historic restaurant (dating from 1720) seems to say "come on in." Its bright interior has high ceilings, chandeliers, and landscapes hung on white walls. The menu ranges from bistec de cerdo grillé to enchilado delangosta (in a red sauce). The specialty, pollo al jigüe, is a Cuban version of chicken cacciatore.

Down the hill from the Plaza Mayor, across from the Museo Histórico, this building is as historic as any in Trinidad: wooden ceilings, brass lamps, terra-cotta floors. The menu is traditional to match the address—bistec de cerdo grillé (grilled pork steak), bistec de res en cazuela (stewed beef), filet de pescado grille (sauteed fish fillet). Sometimes there's live music at lunchtime.

From its beginnings as the 19th-century Europa Café, the onetime famous colonial-style café and candy shop has reopened as a restaurant serving Cuban and international cuisine. As is typical here, a band plays live Cuban music, greeting visitors walking down Obispo towards the port. Dishes are uninspiring, but if you just want a cheap and simple lunch, this place is good. Plates include basic grilled chicken fillets, traditional Cuban hashed beef, and simple sandwiches cooked by chef Ernesto. There's an extensive cocktail list and an impressively stocked bar. As is often the case in Cuba, the restaurant even sells tobacco products.

At the end of a long dock, this simple restaurant under a thatched roof has the best views in town, not to mention the best ventilation. Though it belongs to the Club Santa Lucía hotel, it's open to guests from other hotels, and it is one of the few places in Cuba that has live lobster. The menu includes an array of seafood dishes, but the langosta, which is prepared a number of ways, is your best bet.

At this restaurant in the Fuerte de la Punta you can dine on traditional food 24 hours a day. Tables are set within the old fort walls. Just outside are wonderful bay views. Live music and dance shows take place nightly.

The Manaca Iznaga family's former manor house is now occupied by a restaurant. The building's ochre walls, square columns, wood-beam ceiling, and terra-cotta floors lend considerable colonial ambience. There's an old sugar mill out back, and scattered on the lawn in front are the cauldrons used to boil down molasses. Lunches are usually accompanied by the music of an excellent little band. The specialty is puntas de cerdo a la Iznaga (strips of pork loin in a tomato-vegetable sauce), but the menu includes everything from fresh seafood to grilled chicken.

This refurbished 19th-century building overlooks Plaza Serafín Sánchez and the porticos of the colonial buildings that surround it. It's an impressive edifice, with large, arched doorways. Seating is at sturdy wooden tables, a couple of which have views of the Iglesia Parroquial Mayor. The menu is traditional Cuban with a few twists, such as garbanzo mesonero (garbanzo and pork soup) and ternero a la villa (veal stewed in a clay pot).

Formerly named El Patio, Restaurante Paris is still a romantic and atmospheric option for a meal. It might be hard to pick a spot here: tables are either out on the Plaza de la Catedral or in the patio of the colonial house in which the restaurant is located. The criollo menu is complete, and although the food and service fall short of the spectacular settings, the quality of the ingredients is good. Most notable are the array of seafood dishes, such as lobster in salsa criollo or grilled fish.

Between the muddy Río Yayabo and the Calle el Llano, this ancient yellow manor house with a large, tree-shaded terrace is an appealing spot. Seating is available on the terrace, which has a river view, or inside, where the terra-cotta floors, thick columns, and wide arches attest to the building's lifespan of almost three centuries. Specialties are pollo a la quinta (chicken in a vegetable tomato sauce) and vaca frita (strips of beef sautéed with onions), and an array of criolla dishes.

In the former mansion of the rum-making Bacardí family, this restaurant is an old Santiago standard. Although the dishes lack a sense of adventure, you can't beat the ambience. The formal dining room, with its antique furnishings, is particularly striking; the informal back patio, whose offerings vary only slightly from those inside, is a great spot for a drink.

Trinidad's best paladar is a few blocks south of the Plaza Mayor in an elegant 19th-century home. Upon entering, you may feel as if you've stepped into an antiques shop, but at the back is a garden courtyard complete with candlelight and taped music. The menu is surprisingly varied, with several vegetarian dishes and such rare ingredients as olives. The service and ambience are first rate, but it's the food that keeps this tiny restaurant packed.

Conversation and music linger in the air at this authentic Cuban restaurant. Long white flowers known as campanitas blancas hang from the trellis of a broad interior courtyard. A marble staircase leads up to a narrow second floor and its long bar. Diners at tables on the balcony survey Plaza Dolores.

Lobster is the specialty at this breezy terrace restaurant near the Cayo Largo Marina. Along with criollo recipes featuring fresh fish, there's standard chicken-to-pizza fare. It's more than the beach shack it may seem at first sight, with a good wine list and unobtrusive live music from a local trio.

Located at the rear of the quiet and elegant Hotel Marqués de Prado Ameno, the decor here is simple and understated and dishes range from alluring fare like grilled seafood, langoustines, or filet mignon to the simple, homey stuffed chicken and vegetables that Cubans seem to favor. The best options are its two signature dishes—cider chicken or honey pork. Desserts are uninspiring, including such standbys as cheesecake, chocolate cake, and ice cream, but try the strong but tasty Café Cubano to top off your meal.