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El Gran Dragon
First on the left as you enter Calle Cuchillo from Calle Zanja, this is as good an introduction as any to the energetic pulse of Habana's Barrio Chino. Specialties include wonton soup, chop suey, chow mein and fried rice, and the prices come in at less than 5.00 a dish; it's a good place for vegetarians. The restaurant is spread over three floors and has alfresco dining options.
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El Lugar
If you're in leafy Parque Almendares, check out this restaurant just across the road from the river, which offers fantastic value. For under 5.00 you get a juicy pork fillet, a whole heap of congrí (rice flecked with black beans), salad, tostones (fried plantain patties), ice cream and coffee. There's a talented trio playing nights. The attached pizza place is good too.
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El Palenque
Located next to the Pabexpo exhibition center, this huge place sprawls beneath a series of open-sided bohios (thatched huts) and offers an extensive menu at prices cheap enough to attract both Cubans and foreigners. The cuisine is Cuban-Italian, with pizzas, steak and fries, not to mention the extravagant langosta mariposa . As well as sit-down tables there are smaller booths, and stores that sell everything from cigars to imported apples.
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El Rancho Palco
Situated in a forest near the Palacio de las Convenciones, El Rancho Palco has one of the finest thatched roofs you'll likely ever see. This place has terrific ambience all the time, but it's particularly good at night, when live salsa music fills the air. Ceiling fans help keep the atmosphere cool. Beef is the specialty here, but their fish, chicken and shrimp dishes are also tasty.
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El Santo Angel
Often overlooked by restaurant-seeking travelers, El Santo Angel - situated in a gorgeous colonial house on Plaza Vieja's northwest corner - specializes in seafood, offering such dishes as langosta mariposa (butterflied lobster), as well as fish in green sauce, or with roasted almonds, prawns and vinaigrette. It's reasonably priced and a lovely spot to watch the goings-on in the square.
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El Templete
This upscale restaurant opened in late 2004 and is situated near its namesake temple, where the city of Habana was founded in 1519. Overlooking the harbor, the eating space is split into two halves: an alfresco area under a large awning, and a pleasant indoor dining room with starched tablecloths. For once, the food quality lives up to the fancy decor, with seafood specialties spearheaded by shrimps and lobster; prices are also what you'd expect.
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El Tocororo
Once considered to be one of Habana's finest government-run restaurants, El Tocororo has lost ground to its competitors in recent years and is often criticized for being overpriced. Nonetheless the candlelit tables and inviting garden are still worth a visit, while the unprinted menu, with such luxuries as lobster's tail and (occasionally) ostrich, still has the ability to surprise. Bank on paying for everything right down to the bread basket.
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Feria Los Fornos
Shoehorned behind a clothes shop on Calle Neptuno, where tourist Habana meets the gritty reality of bustling Centro, Los Fornos is cheap, simple and usually open. Beyond that, pickings are thin, unless you're keen to see what 45 years of rationing has done to Cuban cooking.
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G-Café
This cafe is the ultimate student hangout, with arty wall drawings and a modernist mural behind the bar. An airy front patio has lots of greenery, and there are over 400 books and magazines to read, lend and sell. As well as deftly concocting mojitos and chunky sandwiches, this place hosts trova (traditional poetic singing), jazz and poetry auditions.
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La Barrita
Stick your nose inside one of Latin America's finest art deco buildings, and have a snack in this comfortable bar-restaurant on a mezzanine floor just inside the illustrious Edificio Bacardí. The simple menu churns out Cuban staples such as bocadito de queso (cheese sandwich) but, with its leather chairs, friendly waiters and polished mahogany bar, there's oodles of old world ambience to be had here. Sample one of the bar's many rum cocktails.
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La Casa De Quinta Y 16 I
La Casa de Quinta y 16 is an upscale ranch-style restaurant tacked onto the Casa del Habano. Housed in a funky modernist building with a pleasant wood interior, the restaurant presents its food as daily specials, including prawns, grilled fish, paella and fettuccini alfredo. All are served with a glass of wine. Owners of local casas particulares (private houses that let out rooms to foreigners) always rave about this place.
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La Casona de 17
Housed in a wonderful eclectic mansion opposite the modernist Edificio Focsa, this small restaurant offers reasonable, if overpriced, food in an attractive early-20th-century setting. The menu specializes in chicken and rice dishes.
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La Cecilia
La Cecilia is an upscale garden restaurant run by government company Palmares. The menu features mainly Cuban cuisine, especially lobster and steak; prices vary, but you can pick up quality meat bruschettas and tender ropa vieja here for as little as 6.00 , making it much cheaper than most eating joints nearby. On occasion La Cecilia hosts excellent live music in its attractive back garden.
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La Ferminia
Habana gets swanky at this memorable restaurant set in an elegant converted colonial mansion along one of Av 5's leafier stretches. Dine inside, in one of a handful of beautifully furnished rooms, or outside on a glorious garden patio - it doesn't matter. The point is the food. A wonderful mixed grill pulled straight from the fire, or a thick filet mignon will set you back a bit, but it will be money well spent.
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La Mina
Despite a rather mediocre menu, La Mina has always been a popular place for travelers thanks to its privileged position on the corner of Plaza de Armas. The building itself used to be a girls' school and was one of the first structures in the old town to get the City Historian's makeover. The varied menu contains chicken, pork and prawns cooked in a variety of ways and the prices are perfectly respectable.
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La Paila
If this place wasn't so off the beaten track, it would be in Habana's top five. With just a few tables ensconced in a lush garden replete with soft-lit lanterns, this is the most romantic paladar no one knows about. And the food is infallible. It does a great bistec Uruguayo (fried, breaded pork stuffed with ham and cheese), or try one of the famous pizzas; both dishes are less than 5.00 .
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La Rampa Cafetería
One of Vedado's most welcome culinary oases is this authentic American-style diner. Superfast service and surgical cleanliness are second nature here and the no-nonsense kitchen serves up excellent milk shakes, filling and healthy salads, a mean club sandwich, and to-die-for chocolate brownies in hot fudge sauce. If you just can't handle another mouthful of rice, beans and deep-fried chicken, this is your get-out-of-jail card.
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La Torre De Marfil
Often dubbed Habana's best Chinese restaurant (though the chefs in Calle Cuchillo might disagree), this place, with its beaming waiters and bubbling fish tank, always seems to be at least three-quarters empty. But don't let that put you off. The chop suey and chow mein plates are huge, and the vegetables unusually fresh and crisp. After the hustle and bustle of the Barrio Chino restaurants, the Torre feels infinitely quieter and more discreet.
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La Zaragozana
Established in 1830, La Zaragozana is Habana's oldest restaurant - though it's a long way from being its best. Behind its well-varnished wooden doors lies an ample (and often deserted looking) seating area, plus what must be one of the city's longest bars. The Spanish-themed food - which includes the obligatory paella - is OK, but the ambience, amid assorted Iberian flags and memorabilia, can be a little dark and gloomy.
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Las Ruinas
Las Ruinas is one of Habana's most celebrated restaurants - at least in an architectural sense. It's a striking combo of an old ruined sugar mill juxtaposed with offbeat modern architecture. Antique furnishings enhance the elegant atmosphere, but the grossly overpriced food doesn't quite live up to the lavish setting. The menu includes lobster, plus a selection of Cuban and Italian dishes. You'll be lucky to get much change out of CUC 30.00 .
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Le Select
This minicomplex - complete with swimming pool, boutique shops, bars and a restaurant - is spread across the grounds of a 1950s Miramar mansion that was used after the revolution by a certain Ernesto 'Che' Guevara. Reopened a few years back to serve the neighborhood's affluent diplomatic community (what would Che have said?), Le Select hasn't yet lived up to the hype. The architecture might be impressive, but you'll get far better food elsewhere.
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Los Nardos
Los Nardos is one of a handful of semiprivate Habana restaurants operated by the Spanish Asturianas society. This unprepossessing but well-designed property is decked out in cedar, mahogany and leather, and serves up astoundingly delicious dishes like lobster in Catalan sauce, garlic prawns with sautéed vegetables and authentic Spanish paella. Portions are huge and the prices are unbelievably cheap.
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Los Portales
The main reason to come to this restaurant in the four-star Hotel Plaza is for the pizza, which - rather surprisingly - is among the best and cheapest in Habana. Don't be put off by the fancy decor (the tables and chairs look as if they're set for a wedding) - the prices here are very reasonable. A decent pizza with one or two extra toppings shouldn't cost more than 4.00 . The flan (baked custard with caramel glaze) makes for a nice dessert.
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Mesón La Chorrera
The Mesón La Chorrera is in the Torreón de Santa Dorotea de Chorrera, an old fortified tower that was built by the Spanish in the 17th century and marks the western extremity of the Malecón. The restaurant serves up a Spanish-influenced menu in a unique oceanside setting, and sometimes lays on music.
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Museo Del Chocolate
Chocoholics beware. Situated - with no irony intended - on the corner of Calle Amargura (Bitterness Street), this is more a cafe than a museum, with a small cluster of marble tables set among an interesting assortment of chocolate paraphernalia. Not surprisingly everything on the rather delicious menu contains one all-pervading ingredient- have it hot, cold, white, dark, rich, or smooth, the stuff is divine whatever way you choose.
