3 Best Restaurants in Havana, Cuba

In a quiet corner next to the Hotel El Comendador, this restaurant offers an array of tapas, which includes various seafood offerings. On top of that, it also offers grilled fare such as vegetables, chicken, pork, and fish. Tapas servings vary from CUC$1 to CUC$3, a great deal in any destination. Seafood tapas menus can be had for CUC$12 for two persons. Service is rather slow, but friendly.

Opened on the site of a warehouse that was frequented by Spanish sailors in colonial times, this little hideaway serves such creditable Spanish specialties as tortilla de patata (potato omelet) and gambas al ajillo (shrimp sautéed with garlic). The flamenco performances (nightly at 9) provide a bracing shot of atmosphere, although the Café Taberna just a couple hundred meters on tends to attract the crowds these days.

In the Hostal Valencia, this restaurant specializes in paella, just as its name suggests, and has won high praise for its Valencian dishes. House suggestions include grilled Caribbean seafood, Yoruba lobster with béchamel sauce, and buttered shrimp. In keeping with the cuisine, the large, airy dining room has a terra-cotta floor, a rustic feel, and is dressed in traditional Spanish furnishings. A signed image of a notable bullfighter, another of the running of the bulls, and even a memento to former president Fidel Castro Ruz dating from 1989 adorn the walls here.