3 Best Restaurants in Cuba

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.

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.