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Paladar Bellamar
A friendly family-run paladar, this tiny eating joint is squeezed into a front room that looks out onto the street. Inside the walls have been scribbled on, Bodeguita del Medio style, with the comments and signatures of customers past. However, unlike its more famous culinary cohort, the Bellamar is usually deserted. This is a shame considering the food (which includes classic chicken, pork and fish dishes) is rather tasty and reasonably priced.
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Paladar Calle 10
While this place's name might be somewhat unimaginative, the food certainly isn't. In fact, the meals served up here could well be some of the best in Cuba. Set up barbecue-style in the owner's back garden, the paladar has alfresco seating arranged under a thatched canopy. The varied and adventurous menu includes delicious main courses like octopus, ropa vieja and exquisite chicken dishes. Portions are huge and arrive with roasted vegetables.
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Paladar Doña Blanquita
Paladar Doña Blanquita overlooks Paseo de Martí and is one of Centro Habana's best-placed paladares. On entry, you'll be handed a proper typewritten menu listing the reasonably priced main plates. You can dine in the elegant salon or on the pleasant terrace overlooking the promenade.
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Paladar Doña Carmela
A good private dining option when it's open, this paladar offers quality chicken, pork and seafood in a very pleasant alfresco setting. It makes a good dinner before or after the cañonazo (shooting of the cannons) at Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña, but check ahead as opening times can be irregular.
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Paladar El Buganvil
For Habana's old hands, El Buganvil is what you'll have come to expect from a choice Playa paladar, but for comparative newbies this will still be a rare treat. Take the house special loma ahumado (smoked pork) with piles of rice and yucca outside amid the blooming bougainvillea, and all those memories of bad tinned ham and insipid melted cheese will quickly fade away.
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Paladar El Helecho
Tucked in a tree-lined side street in western Vedado, this romantic little place is a longtime favorite. The nice atmosphere is complemented by decent prices (around the 5.00 mark) and good portions. The food is remarkably tasty; try the chicken soup.
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Paladar El Hurón Azul
This place is often touted as one of Habana's best private restaurants and, although the food might be tasty, the windowless interior combined with all the after-dinner smokers can leave your meal tasting more like nicotine than chicken in orange sauce. Nonetheless the Hurón Azul (Blue Ferret) boasts plenty of original food and is locally famous for its smoked pork served with a pineapple salsa. Be warned, though: it's not cheap.
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Paladar Gringo Viejo
Paladar Gringo Viejo offers a good atmosphere and large portions of invariably brilliant food. It has recently reopened after a lengthy refurbishment and appears to have lost none of its culinary creativity.
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Paladar La Cocina De Lilliam
Slick service, secluded ambience and food to die for, La Cocina de Lilliam has all the ingredients of a prize-winning restaurant. It's no wonder that Jimmy Carter made a pit stop here during his landmark 2002 visit (for the record he had ropa vieja ). Surrounded by a garden of trickling fountains and lush tropical plants, the restaurant has Cuban rarities such as chicken mousse and tuna bruschetta - not a cheese-and-ham sandwich in sight!
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Paladar La Esperanza
The food, ambience and creativity showcased at this unassuming paladar puts it among Habana's best. Unspectacular from the street, the house is a riot of quirky antiques, old portraits and refined 1940s furnishings inside. The food, produced in a standard-sized family kitchen, includes such delicacies as pollo luna de miel (chicken flambéed in rum), fish marinated in white wine, lemon and garlic, and lamb brochette. Expensive but memorable.
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Paladar La Julia
With an abundance of excellent government-run restaurants to choose from, Habana Vieja is something of a letdown in terms of paladares. Best of a meager bunch is the longstanding La Julia, an inconspicuous yet homely place wedged into a small downstairs room on Calle O'Reilly. The house specialty is pork with all the trimmings.
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Paladar La Mulata Del Sabor
This OK paladar is hidden away behind Plaza Vieja on the corner of Sol and San Ignacio. The decor inside is quirky and the food refreshingly tasty; it includes plenty of egg-based vegetarian options. It's worth a turn if you've been overdosing on historic Habaguanex restaurants and want some authentic home cooking.
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Paladar Los Amigos
Situated in the back of a pre-revolutionary house near the Hotel Victoria, Paladar Los Amigos serves good Cuban meals, including side plates. It is regularly recommended by locals.
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Paladar Los Cactus De 33
Reviewed in international lifestyle magazines and used as a setting for TV specials, this place has impeccable service, elegant surroundings, well-prepared food and (in a Cuban context) outrageous prices. A full pork meal with all the trimmings is pushing 20.00 ; the house special, chicken breast with mushrooms, olives and cheese, is even more. Look for the house with the lone cactus standing guard in the front yard.
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Paladar Marpoly
An unsignposted - and hence hard-to-find - paladar just off Linea, the Marpoly offers good food, including a seafood platter, and a great selection of wines in luxurious surroundings.
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Paladar Mi Jardín
It's a rare Cuban menu that offers chicken mole, tacos and quesadillas, which makes this Mexican place a keeper. Dining beneath the vine-covered trellis in the garden is recommended, as is the fish Veracruz.
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Paladar Nerei
Ah, the Nerei, the only paladar in central Habana where you can get whole roast pig on a spit (or so the owners will tell you). The pluses here are numerous: huge portions (almost too huge), an extensive menu, and a pleasant alfresco seating area arranged around a sleepy veranda that overlooks quiet(ish) Calle 19. The downside is the price piracy; insist on seeing a written menu first.
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Paladar Torressón
Situated at the eastern end of the Malecón with a great view of the Castillo de los Tres Santos Reyes Magnos del Morro, the Paladar Torressón takes up the 2nd floor of a suitably dilapidated seafront tenement. Complete meals of meat or fish aren't cheap, but the views are free and - not surprisingly - stupendous.
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Palmares Centro
The Palmares group has many incarnations in Cuba - from the internationally lauded El Aljibe in Miramar to greasy little beach barbecues in Santiago and Baracoa. This cafe on busy Calle 23 falls into the latter category, and is OK if you're desperate for a (hot dog). Otherwise you're better off satisfying your hunger pangs elsewhere.
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Rancho Coquito
Run by the Spanish Asturianas society, the Rancho is an unpretentious and inconspicuous food joint (look for the waiter posted outside) overlooking Habana's dreamy sea drive. Frequented mainly by Cubans, its balcony has views over the wild, tempestuous Straits of Florida. The food is tasty and unbelievably cheap: paella, garbanzos fritos (fried chickpeas), tortilla , even a reasonably sized portion of lobster pan-fried in butter for around 6.00 .
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Restaurante 1830
One of Habana's most elegant restaurants, this glittering old stalwart was refurbished in 2001. Chandeliers, antique furniture and palacelike table settings are two a penny here, and the food includes duck, pork and chicken in lemon-and-honey sauce (which is rapidly becoming Cuba's gourmet specialty). After the kitchen closes at , there's live music and salsa dancing in the garden behind the restaurant (don't come on a windy night).
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Restaurante El Patio
Possibly one of the most romantic settings on earth when the hustlers stay away, your mojito is mixed to perfection and the band's playing your favorite tune, this place must be experienced at least once during your Habana visit. Housed in the splendid Palacio de los Marqueses de Aguas Claras, El Patio relies more on its setting than its food, which isn't on a par with other less atmospheric places. But romantics won't care.
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Restaurante Hanoi
Despite its name, this place serves straight-up Cuban cuisine with a couple of fried rice dishes thrown in for good measure. An old-town favorite, its Cuban clientele mix with a liberal smattering of travelers with their noses in their Lonely Planets. Set meals of chicken and pork start at around 3.00 , the tasty paella goes for a few pesos more, while the lobster (which the waiter will probably tell you is the house special) is a hefty 12.00 .
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Restaurante La Divina Pastora
Just beyond the Dársena de los Franceses, is a battery of huge 18th-century cannons. Located behind the guns, the upscale but approachable La Divina Pastora offers well prepared seafood, including lobster and fish. You can also just sit and soak in the views with an icy Cristal and some crisp tostones .
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Restaurante La Torre
One of Habana's tallest and most talked about restaurants is perched high atop the 36-story Edificio Focsa. A colossus of modernist architecture and French-Cuban haute cuisine, this lofty fine-dining extravaganza combines sweeping city views with a progressive French-inspired menu serving everything from artichokes to foie gras to almond tart. The prices are as un-Cuban as the ingredients, but with this level of service, it's probably worth it.
