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Paladar Vistamar
The Paladar Vistamar is in the 2nd-floor family-room-turned-restaurant of a private residence in Miramar that faces the sea. The oceanside ambience is embellished by a beautiful swimming pool that spills its water into the sea. If enjoying delicious seafood dishes while overlooking the crashing ocean sounds enticing, this could be your bag.
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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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Pan.Com
One of two Pan.com establishments presently operating in Habana, the clean and friendly Miramar branch is easily the best. The menu at this Cuban version of the Subway sandwich chain is extensive and includes hearty sandwiches, fantastic burgers and ice-cream milk shakes to die for. Seating is in a shaded outdoor patio and service is surprisingly warm and efficient - it's the ultimate Habana comfort-food haven. The other branch is in Vedado .
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Pan.Com
A new Habana fast-food joint with two branches, Pan.com is great place to find comfort food if you're missing the everyday convenience of chunky burgers, fresh club sandwiches and authentic French fries. Even the cheese-and-ham sandwiches here are good. The original, better branch is in Miramar .
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Pastelería Francesa
With a great location among the five-star hotels, this place sells delicious pastries, sturdy sandwiches and OK coffee. The swarming jineteras (women who attach themselves to male foreigners for monetary or material gain) spoil the French flavor a little and the service is slow, but conveniencewise it can't be beaten.
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Pizza Nova
Best of a scanty choice of restaurants in Marina Hemingway and billing itself as the best pizza joint in Habana, Pizza Nova is a great place to end up after an all-day fishing or diving outing. Otherwise the pepperoni (which is allegedly imported from Canada) isn't worth the 20km (12.5mi) journey to get here.
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Prado Y Neptuno
The pizza at this Italian-themed restaurant is not nearly Habana's best although, judging by the crowds, you'd think the cooks were native Neapolitans. With its comfortable decor characterized by dark tinted windows, colorful tiles and green ceiling lamps that hang low over the individual tables, the P & N is a good place to escape the hotel buffet for a night. There's a good selection of Italian wines in the bar.
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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 Bambú
This place has led the way in government efforts to educate habaneros (inhabitants of Habana) in the benefits of a meatless diet. The all-you-can-eat lunch buffet is served alfresco deep in the botanical gardens, with the natural setting paralleling the wholesome food's tastiness. For a set price you can indulge in unlimited soup, salad, root vegetables, tamales and eggplant caviar. Juices, desserts and coffee are on offer too.
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Restaurante El Castillo De Farnés
Advertising itself as a Spanish-orientated restaurant (it was founded by a Catalan), El Castillo de Farnés has average food, with house specialties such as chickpeas and chorizo lacking bite; suffice to say it's usually busy. The varied seafood menu can be cheap or pricey depending on your taste. Next door, the sidewalk bar that sits alongside traffic-choked Av de Bélgica is OK for a beer, although the car fumes can sometimes be asphyxiating.
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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 Dominica
Despite its tendency to be a little overgenerous with the olive oil, La Dominica - with its wood-fired pizza oven and al dente pasta - may well be Habana's finest Italian restaurant. Located in an elegantly restored building, the restaurant offers everything from spaghetti and pizza to shrimp and lobster. Professional bands serenade diners with music that occasionally departs from the obligatory Buena Vista Social Club staples.
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Restaurante La Paella
The theme of this classic Habaguanex restaurant is that great Valencian gift to the culinary world - paella. Though popular elsewhere in Habana, the Spanish rice concoctions here are generally considered to be the city's best, and come in six different varieties. Decorated with plenty of Mediterranean greens and yellows, and continuing the old-world Spanish theme that characterizes the adjoining hotel, the restaurant has a very special ambience.
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Restaurante La Terraza
Another shrine to Ernest Hemingway, La Terraza specializes in seafood such as stuffed squid and paella, and does a roaring trade with the hordes of Papa fans who drop by daily. The terrace dining room overlooking the bay is pleasant. More atmospheric, however, is the bar out front, where mojitos still only cost a couple of convertibles. Check out the classic wooden refrigerators and don't miss the black-and-white photos of Hemingway on display.
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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.
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Restaurante Las Orishas
This Santería-themed place in Guanabacoa has a very pleasant garden bar in a courtyard with colorful Afro-Cuban sculptures. The menu is reasonable and varied, with everything from a dirt-cheap microwaved cheese pizza to a wallet-whacking lobster. There's good rumba music here at weekends.
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Restaurante Los Doce Apóstoles
Set in the shadow of El Morro, the Restaurante Los Doce Apóstoles is named for the battery of 12 cannons atop its ramparts. It serves comida criolla , and is a better-than-average government-run kitchen. Prices are fair.
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Restaurante Oasis
The Oasis is housed in the Centro Cultural de Arabe, but don't get your hopes up. The food here is bog-standard Cuban, and not particularly good at that - unless you've got a penchant for dodgy hot dogs or soggy cheese-and-ham sandwiches - but it's the kind of place where you'll see Cubans eating, and makes no provision for 'Western' palates. The shop downstairs is handy for late-night groceries, but the weekend disco is a jinetera -fest.
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Restaurante Puerto De Sagua
Restaurante Puerto de Sagua is a nautical-themed eating joint in Habana Vieja's grittier southern quarter. It's characterized by its small porthole-style windows and serves mostly seafood at reasonable prices. The jacketed waiters are courteous and friendly.
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Restaurante Tien-Tan
One of the Barrio Chino's best authentic restaurants, Tien-Tan (Temple of Heaven) is a local institution run by a Chinese-Cuban couple, and offers diners an astounding 130 different dishes. Considering the complex and varied menu, service is surprisingly fast and the food - which includes crispy vegetables and real Chinese sauces - is tasty. Dine outside in action-packed Cuchillo, one of Habana's most colorful and fastest-growing food streets.
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Restaurante Vegetariano Carmelo
This place has the same menu as Biki, but is in a much nicer locale opposite the Teatro Amadeo Roldán, and has patio dining and a full bar. Be careful with overcharging; prices should be in Cuban pesos rather than convertibles.
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Restaurante Wakamba
One of several restaurants in scruffy Calle O, the Wakamba has been serving customers since 1956. It is named after an African tribe and subregion in Kenya (Wakamba art decorates the wall) and, prior to the revolution, it was a famous nightclub. Today the Wakamba serves good cheap food such as chicken stuffed with ham, chorizo, olives and cheese. An adjacent cafeteria (24hr) has hot dogs and other snacks.
