Havana Restaurants

  1. Al Medina

    Habana takes on Middle Eastern cuisine in one of the city's oldest and most architecturally engaging Mudéjar buildings. Tucked into a beautiful patio off Calle Oficios, Al Medina is where you can dine like a Moroccan sheik on lamb couscous and chicken tagine with a spicy twist. It's especially recommended for its massive veggie platter that comes with hummus, tabouleh, dolmas, pilaf and falafel.

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  2. Asociación Canaria de Cuba

    A Spanish social club that also serves food, the Asociación Canaria de Cuba is housed in a venerable red-bricked building with a fancy lobby. The restaurant upstairs is far more basic, with plastic flowers and crummy tablecloths. But its ambience is secondary - the main reason to come here is the food. The grilled lobster is one of the city's biggest bargains; the shrimp enchiladas and beef stew also give incredible bang for the buck.

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  3. Bar El Polvorín

    This bar is just beyond Restaurante Los Doce Apóstoles, and offers drinks and light snacks on a patio overlooking the bay. There's zero shade here, but it's perfect for those famous Habana sunsets. Watch out for the energetic dancing that goes on into the small hours at weekends.

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  4. Bar-Restaurante Cabaña

    A longtime favorite with Habana bus drivers on the run to and from Varadero, the Cabaña is an unfussy Habaguanex place with alfresco seating and pleasant views across the harbor to the eastern forts. Main dishes highlight beef and come in fairly modest portions; they include filet de res (beef fillet) and filet mignon. There's a bar with a karaoke machine upstairs.

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  5. Biki Vegetarian Restaurant

    This vegetarian buffet that charges in Cuban pesos is one of Habana's more unusual restaurant offerings. Biki has dozens of good selections laid out cafeteria style in easy-to-reach trays; join the line and pick from several fresh juices and salads, veggie paella, fried rice or stuffed peppers, root vegetables and desserts such as rice pudding.

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  6. Bim Bom

    The famous Coppelia isn't Cuba's only ice-cream institution. Somewhere down the list in the 'not-half-bad' category is Bim Bom, an islandwide helado (ice cream) chain that serves a deliciously creamy version of the stuff in flavors such as coffee, condensed milk, and rum and raisin. Try it and see.

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  7. Café Concerto El Gato Tuerto

    Café Concerto El Gato Tuerto (the One-Eyed Cat) is a chic cafe and bar that hosts live music on Fridays and Saturdays. The restaurant upstairs, meanwhile, serves good soup, reasonably priced ropa vieja and excellent lobster fried in butter with a little sweet-and-sour sauce.

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  8. Café De Las Infusiones

    Wedged into Calle Mercaderes, this recently restored Habaguanex coffeehouse is a caffeine addict's heaven and boasts a wonderful resident pianist. Fancier than the Café Habano and more comprehensive than the Escorial, here you can order more than a dozen different cuppas, including Irish coffee, punch coffee, mocha and cappuccino.

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  9. Café del Oriente

    You'll have to pinch yourself to remember you're still in Cuba when you enter the confusingly named Café del Oriente restaurant. Firstly there's the fancy decor, which includes marble floors, mahogany paneling, a resident pianist (or string quartet) and powerful air-con. Then there's the menu, a culinary bonanza of smoked salmon, caviar, goose-liver pâté, lobster thermidor, pepper steak, cheese and port. To top it all, service comes in a tux.

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  10. Café El Escorial

    Habana Vieja's newest coffee bar is housed in a finely restored colonial mansion on the corner of Plaza Vieja and serves some of the best caffeine infusions in the city. Aside from café cubana (strong, sweet black coffee), café con leche (strong coffee with hot milk) and an eye-wateringly strong Cuban espresso, you can get frappés, coffee liquor and even a daiquirí de café (coffee daiquirí) here. There's also a small selection of sweet pastries.

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  11. Café Habano

    A gritty, no-nonsense coffee bar, frequented mainly by Cubans, the Habano serves sweet, strong early-morning café cubana that gets plunked down straight in front of you on the bar. Don't expect anything fancy like here like, um, milk.

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  12. Café O'Reilly

    The O'Reilly is a good old-fashioned 'spit-and-sawdust' cafe that sells drinks and snacks morning, noon and night. The bar is spread over two floors connected by a spiral staircase, with most of the action taking place upstairs. Grab an O'Reilly special sandwich and a beer, and listen out for the roaming troubadours.

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  13. Café Santo Domingo

    Nestled above a popular bakery in an older part of Calle Obispo, the Santo Domingo is an easy-to-miss cafe-restaurant that knocks up simple tasty snacks - fast! There are excellent sandwiches and creamy fruit shakes, and you can also grab a few pastries from the patisserie downstairs to enjoy with your coffee.

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  14. Café TV

    One of Habana's best-kept secrets, Café TV is a performance space lauded for its hilarious comedy nights. It's also a cheap and tasty eating option if you're willing to brave the frigid air-conditioning and rather forbidding underground entry tunnel. Head here for fresh burgers, healthy salad, pasta and Gordon Bleu (chicken sutffed with ham and cheese). Decor is simple and the walls are adorned with black-and-white Cuban TV and movie memorabilia.

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  15. Caféteria 3 Y 62

    If you're staying in one of the pricey hotels and want a cheaper place to eat, then try this place on the eastern side of the Russian Embassy. It's a varied mix of five or six cheap permanent booths selling beer, biscuits, fried chicken and sandwiches, and the prices are rarely more than a couple of convertibles.

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  16. Cafetería Sofía

    The 24-hour Cafetería Sofía is on busy Calle 23 (La Rampa), resulting in an above-average amount of noisy passing trade. It's a cheap, if slightly seedy, central option with regular live music and a good mix of foreign and Cuban clientele. Look out for the special breakfast offers. The people-watching potential here is excellent.

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  17. Cafetería Torre La Vega

    A travelers' staple in the heart of Habana Vieja, Torre La Vega is the perfect place to catch a quick lunch while you're exploring the sights and sounds of intimate Calle Obrapía. Most tables are alfresco and there's a pleasant little park directly opposite. Large bowls of spaghetti, pork, chicken and ropa vieja (shredded beef with tomatoes and onions) go for a song. While the food's not gourmet, it's a palatable snack between sightseeing stops.

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  18. Cinco Esquinas

    Looking for somewhere to eat in Regla is like looking for the Niagara Falls in the Sahara. Bring a packed lunch! If desperation sets in, there are drinks and a few edible tidbits available at this Palmares place situated on 'Five Corners' in between the Parque Guaicanamar and the Colina Lenin. There's also a vastly unhealthy chicken booth nearby.

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  19. Coppelia

    Habana's much-loved ice-cream parlor sits in the middle of a park in a building that looks more like a flying saucer than a cafe-restaurant. Erected in the 1960s, the Coppelia faced hard times during the período especial (special period), but it managed to stay open throughout the 1990s despite the rather gruesome queues.

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  20. Don Cangrejo

    Perched strategically on the rocky shores of Miramar, this unique seafood restaurant is run by the Ministry of Fisheries and scores high points for atmosphere and service. Fresh fish dishes include red snapper, grouper and prawns, and there's lobster plucked from the pit on the terrace. Add to that a pool table and swimming pool, an inexpensive pizza-and-grill menu, and one of Habana's classic signs out front, and you can't go wrong.

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  21. Dos Gardenias

    Next door to El Aljibe is Dos Gardenias, an upscale complex with several restaurants, bars and shops; you'll have a choice of pizza and Chinese food. Dos Gardenias also has nightly shows beginning at .

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  22. El Aljibe

    On paper a humble Palmares restaurant, in reality a rip-roaring culinary extravaganza, El Aljibe has been delighting both Cuban and foreign taste buds for years. The hype surrounds the gastronomic mysteries of just one dish, the pollo asado (roast chicken), which is served up with as-much-as-you-can-eat helpings of white rice, black beans, fried plantain, French fries and salad. The accompanying bitter-orange sauce is said to be a state secret.

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  23. El Café Mercurio

    El Café Mercurio is an elegant indoor-outdoor cafe-restaurant with cappuccino machines, air-conditioning, intimate booths, smooth marble finishes and waiters in black ties. You can get decent main dishes here such as lobster and steak tartare, but it's also a great place for lunch or a snack. The formidable Cuban sandwich with ham, cheese and pork will easily keep you going until dinnertime. There are also some great desserts.

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  24. El Chelo

    El Chelo is situated in the swanky Club Habana. Perched in front of the sparkling Straits of Florida and a well-raked scimitar of private beach, El Chelo serves everything from a cheap, tasty ropa vieja to a pricier (but still tasty!) lobster. The decor is suitably luxurious.

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  25. El Conejito

    This surreal restaurant-bar housed in a red-bricked Tudor-style mansion in central Vedado serves rabbit, rabbit and yet more rabbit, along with a few more standard Cuban staples such as chicken, beef, fish and lobster. Ambience is German-meets-Cuban-meets-Tudor, with an amiable resident pianist serenading all comers. If all this doesn't sound too freaky, give it a whirl.

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