2 Best Restaurants in Havana, Cuba

Background Illustration for Restaurants

Shortages of raw materials and a bureaucratized approach to food preparation in state-owned restaurants have produced many a mediocre meal, but with the privateer restaurants leading the way, Cuban cuisine is coming back. For the best cooking in Havana, seek out the paladares (privately owned establishments; the name, which literally means "palates," was cribbed from a popular Brazilian soap opera in which the heroine makes her fortune with a roadside restaurant named "El Paladar de Raquel"). Call ahead to reserve a table if you go to a paladar, and never believe a taxi driver who swears to you that the place is closed; he gets a commission for taking you to the place he is flacking for.

La Guarida

$$$$ | Centro Habana Fodor's choice

Still Havana's most famous paladar, La Guardia has reached almost legendary status. Enrique Nuñez and his wife, Odeysis, have transformed their early 20th-century town house into a fine paladar. It's so photogenic that scenes in Fresa y Chocolate (Strawberry and Chocolate) were filmed here. The three-floor climb up the squalid but picturesque stairway generates an appetite-enhancing adrenaline. The daily special is never what Enrique and Odeysis need to get rid of but rather what they hope will make you happiest. Look for cherna compuesta a lo caimanero (with coconut and spices) or conejoal aceite de oliva con caponata (cooked in olive oil with a sauce of eggplant, peppers, and onion). On Sunday the restaurant is open only for brunch from noon to 4.

Aguiar

$$$$ | Vedado

For decades, the elegant dining room in the Hotel Nacional has been one of the city's premier establishments. Despite the table-side shrimp-and-rum flambé performances, which are always entertaining, the atmosphere is generally subdued—even when the place is full. The wine list is excellent, though pricey.