The restaurants below have been classed into four different pricing categories:
$$$$ (over CUC25)
$$$ (CUC15 to CUC25)
$$ (CUC10 to CUC15)
$ (up to CUC10)
These prices are for a three course meal for one, including tax but not drinks. A service charge of 10% will be added to your bill in most restaurants. Tipping is customary if not.

Havana has two types of restaurants: state-run and privately-owned and operated. While there are some very fine state restaurants and food quality and service have vastly improved in recent years, paladares (private restaurants) generally offer more variety (at a corresponding higher price) and more welcoming ambience. Always check restaurant bills carefully to make sure a random starter or cerveza hasn’t migrated onto your bill - a pretty common scam.

Gourmet

El Aljibe
This Cuban restaurant is world famous with reason: the all-you-can-eat prix fixe chicken meal. It comes with all the traditional trimmings, including mouth-watering black bean potaje (Cuba’s classic soupy sided dish), and perfectly roasted and seasoned chicken. The secret is in the sauce, based on naranja agria (bitter orange), a staple in all Cuban kitchens. The wine list is one of the city’s best. Located in modern Havana, 15 minutes by car from the oldest part of the city, the restaurant has a rustic, tranquil décor though it can get loud with boisterous diners.

Avenida 7ma, between Calle 24 & Calle 26, Miramar
Tel: (7) 204 1583/4.
Price: $$$
La Fontana
One of Havana’s top private restaurants bar none, La Fontana’s European-style menu is inspired. With charcoal-grilled sausages, cilantro spiked ceviche and Dijon mustard dressed rabbit as highlights, La Fontana specializes in dishes not found elsewhere in Cuba. The people watching is great too, since famous locals frequent this intimate place. 

Calle 3ra A 305, corner 46, Miramar
Tel: (7) 202 8337 or 264 7572
Website: www.lafontanahabana.com
Price: $$$-$$$$
La Paila
This off-the-beaten-track place near the Tropicana nightclub is a rising star on Havana’s private restaurant scene. The lush garden setting, combined with gourmet food almost no other Cuban kitchen can match, makes for an unforgettable evening. Save room for dessert. 

Calle 88B, corner Calle 51A, Marianao
Tel: (7) 267 0282.
Price: $$$-$$$$
Tien Tan
Seek out this small restaurant in the heart of Havana’s Chinatown, and taste the house specialty: res al hierro caliente (roast beef on hot iron), or the equally delicious seafood soup. The food is authentic and the portions generous. Open until midnight.

Calle Zanja 1 & San Nicolás, Centro Habana
Tel: (7) 861 5478.
Price: $

Business

Café del Oriente
Overlooking the 19th-century Square San Francisco de Asís, Café del Oriente is one of the most luxurious restaurants in town, with an intimate environment, a varied international menu and an excellent wine list.

Plaza de San Francisco de Asís, Habana Vieja
Tel: (7) 860 6686 or 2917.
Price: $$$$
Cuatro Estaciones Club Habana
On the premises of the Havana Yacht Club, this seafront restaurant offers very good international cuisine in a relaxed atmosphere, with a perfect combination of tastes and colors. Good value for money and popular with foreigners and Cubans of a certain status.

5TA Avenida between 188 & 192, Playa
Tel: (7) 204 5700.
Price: $$$$
El Lugar
The quiet, professional dining room here means eating and work can be combined without a problem. The menu is extraordinarily economical, with traditional Cuban dishes like ropa vieja (shredded beef), coming with all the trimmings. Proximity to Parque Almendares offers a bucolic setting for a post-meal stroll. 

Calle 49C, corner of Calle 28A, Parque Almendares, Vedado
Tel: (7) 204 5162.
Price: $

Budget

Bar Taberna  
Havana’s only microbrewery enjoys a privileged setting on lovely Plaza Vieja, from where you can sip delicious beers from mini-kegs and watch the world go by. Everything coming off the grill here, from bratwurst to shish kebab, make great accompaniment. 

San Ignacio 368, Plaza Vieja, Habana Vieja
Tel: (7) 866 4453.
Price: $
El Buganvil
Nothing fancy, this private restaurant serves reliable Cuban food in a leafy, often crowded, setting. The lomo ahumado (smoked pork loin) is particularly tasty and their coconut ice cream (served in a coconut shell) and lemonade (made with copious amounts of crushed ice) are the city’s best. For a very Cuban experience, they’ll roast a pig for six or more people with 24 hours notice. 

Calle 190, 1501, between Calles 15 & 17, Playa
Tel: (7) 271 4791.
Price: $-$$
La Flor de Loto
Huge affordable portions of everything from lobster tails to chow Mein has earned this restaurant a spot in Havana’s heart (though be prepared to wait for a table). The seafood selections are particularly good and the nice prices mean it’s ideal for travelers on a budget.

Calle Salud 13, between Gervasio y Escobar, Centro Habana
Tel: (7) 863 5450.
Price: $
La Vicaria
Waiting-staff-in-training cut their teeth at this sprawling restaurant offering traditional Cuban food, so you can be sure of attentive service. Choose between a leafy outdoor setting or head indoors into a converted mansion full of intimate dining rooms. This place is popular with Cuban families out dining and celebrating.

5ta Avenida & Calle 13, Siboney
Tel: (7) 273 9100.
Price: $

Personal Recommendations

Decameron
The delightful setting in a private home full of art and antiques is ideal for business or a romantic interlude. The international menu is fool proof; chock full of delicacies like fresh ceviche, sumptuous risotto and the city’s best salads. Vegetarians will appreciate the wide selection of meat-free meals.  

Línea 753, between Avenida Paseo & Calle 2
Tel: (7) 832 2444.
Price: $$$
La Casa
This private restaurant boasts a fantastic homey atmosphere, with top-notch food and the service to match. Take one of the back tables (especially spectacular when the retractable roof is open) and enjoy the gurgling waterfall with a savoury garlic-smothered red snapper or perfectly grilled steak. 

Calle 30, 865, between Avenida 26 & 41, Nuevo Vedado
Tel: (7) 881 7000.
Price: $$-$$$
La Roca
Step back in time at this Vedado classic, where your chicken or pork fillet comes with live piano accompaniment and fine service. Old timers as well as young couples typically fill this fun place and the bar is a happy hour hangout for local film, television and music luminaries.   

Calle 21, 102, between Calles L & M, Vedado
Tel: (7) 834 4501.
Price: $
Maraka’s
Service can be painfully slow at this Vedado Italian restaurant, but the wait is usually worth it. The tasty mix-and-match pasta and sauce combinations and large, loaded pizzas are made fresh to order. 

Calle O 206, between Calles 23 & 25
Tel: (7) 833 3740.
Price: $-$$



Nightlife:

Havana nightlife is thriving and the choice of venues - especially for live music - will keep you moving and grooving all vacation long. The social scene starts to liven up by about 2200 and clubs and bars tend to close when the last customer leaves, normally between 0200 and 0300. Generally, Cubans like to look sharp, especially when out on the town, so expect to dress up when going out. To wit: many clubs have a rule of no shorts, T-shirts or jeans.

Bars: The mojitos are weak and the clientele 100% tourists, but La Bodeguita del Medio, Calle Empedrado 207, in Old Havana, remains a popular stop on every bus and walking tour. The walls are covered with autographs of famous 1950s stars such as Ernest Hemingway and Errol Flynn who frequented the old wooden bar in the 1950s. El Floridita, Calle Obispo 557, another one of Hemingway’s favorite bars, is much of the same. For a more local atmosphere, with a jamming quintet most nights, try the nearby Bar Montserrate, between Avenida de Bélgica and Calle Obrapía. The small bar in La Roca, Calle 21, 102, between Calles L & M in the heart of Vedado is an intimate nook for quiet conversation and good whisky.

Clubs: Make no mistake: Cubans are well up on the latest trends in the music, dance and fashion scene, all of which come together at the city’s many clubs and discos. One of the most frequented is El Chévere, in Parque Almendares, a giant open-air disco where salsa, hip hop and pop dominate. Piano Bar Maragato, in the Hotel Florida, Calle Obispo y Cuba, Habana Vieja, is a tourist hot spot and about as close to Havana gets to a lounge. Below the Teatro Nacional, Calle Paseo and Calle 39, is Café Cantante Mi Habana, which is a disco some nights and live music venue others. Habana Café in the Hotel Melía Cohiba, Paseo, between Calles 1 and 3, is the place to be seen in town. Cubans are natural performers and its no surprise karaoke is making inroads at upscale clubs like La Maison, Calle 16, 701, Miramar.

Cabarets: For real 1950s retro style, a visit to the world-famous open-air Tropicana, 4504 Calle 72, in Marianao, will not disappoint, where the nightly extravaganza features scantily dressed dancers in sequins and feathers. Tickets are best booked through a hotel tourist desk. Cabaret Parisien, Hotel Nacional, Calle O y 21, in Vedado, is similar, though on a smaller scale and more centrally located.

Live Music: Havana’s live music scene is on the up, and the recent restoration and re-opening of many venues means more choice than ever. Current hot spots for big names such as Kelvis Ochoa, Carlos Varela, and Interactivo include La Tropical, Avenida 41, corner Avenida 46, Playa, and Los Jardines de Tropical, Calle 51 (Puentes Grandes) near Calle Rizo, Marianao, with the country’s most majestic setting for live music.

Other places to catch famous pop and rock names include 1830, Malecón and Calle 10, Vedado, and Sala Atril, above the Teatro Karl Marx, Avenida 1ra, between Calles 9 & 10, Miramar.Cuba’s top salsa bands regularly perform at a trio of clubs: Casa de la Música de Centro Habana, Calle Galiano between Calle Neptuno y Concordia, Casa de la Música de Miramar, Calle 20 corner Calle 15 Miramar, and Mi Delirio Habanero, above the Teatro Nacional (and with gorgeous views of the Plaza de la Revolución). Below the Teatro Nacional is Café Cantante Mi Habana where Havana’s rockers young and old come on Sunday afternoons to dance themselves silly to Cuba’s greatest rock and roll cover band Los Kents. Small and dark, Jazz Club La Zorra y el Cuervo, Calle 23, between Calle N and Calle O, in Vedado, is nevertheless Cuba’s top jazz spot. Another option for jazz is Jazz Café, Calle 1ra and Malecón.


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