Eating in Havana has been a challenging, fun, and confusing part of living in Cuba. During our time on the program we’ve found great food and not-so-great food. The hardest part of eating here has probably been the lack of variety that we’re used to in the United States; long menus with obscure ingredients and endless choices of processed and imported foods in grocery stores are not a part of most people’s lives here. Eating restaurant and street food involves a lot of bread, rice, and pork at the most basic level. The most common kinds of food are comida Criolla, Italian food, Chinese food, and sandwiches. Additionally, there are endless amounts of jugos, batidos, and helado to be consumed. To follow are descriptions, locations, pricing ($-$$$$), and the dishes I would recommend at some of the restaurants we’ve found in Havana.
Doña Laura’s; 21 y H; $
Rec: Yucca frita con Ropa Vieja
I figured I would start with #1. This is my favorite restaurant in Havana. However, we only happened upon it a couple weeks ago despite its proximity to the busy street 23rd. Doña Laura’s has plates of comida Criolla which include ropa vieja, fish, chicken, and cerdo all served with arroz moro (rice and beans), an ensalada, and vianda. This is pretty standard Cuban food but there are a few things that separate this cafeteria from the rest. First, the salad is superior to most side salads one finds here (one should not underestimate the importance of fiber). Second, the menu also features tamales and tamal en cazuela (a kind of tamale soup) which are not incredibly difficult to find but not always around. Third, its speedy service and consistently offers all the food it has on the menu— places often run out of a lot of things and only end up being able to serve a couple dishes. It’s even speedier if you make like many Cubans and bring your own tupperware to take your food para llevar. Lastly, its even more economic than many cafeterias of its kind. Bonus: they have self-serve agregos of pickles and a salsa picante to add to your plate.
La Chángana; Línea y B; $$
Rec: Bistec de Pollo
This is a spot frequented by most of the people in our group quite often as its close to the building in which many of us live. This cafetería has comida Criolla, pizza, pasta, hamburgers, and sandwiches. While none of the food I’ve had from here is bad, I would only really go for the bistec de pollo or cerdo. However, the arroz moro is noteworthy and definitely some of the best I’ve had here. Nothing else very special (in my opinion, others on the trip might disagree with me), but its a reliable and convenient spot in Vedado.
Q’Rico; Línea y Avenida de los Presidentes; $
Rec: Pizza con Aceitunas
Another popular spot among the LC group because of its location. This is one of the many peso pizza eateries to be found on the streets of Havana. I wouldn’t consider myself a peso pizza aficionado, but out of the 3 or so places I’ve tried this is my favorite. It takes no more than 10 minutes to get your pizza which you take para llevar with a piece of paper. There is a nice variety of agregos. Standard peso pizza prices. The man who takes orders, handles money, and makes the pizzas is very kind too. One time Merrill lent him some neosporin.
Miranda’s; 19 y Avenida de los Presidentes; $$
Rec: Jugo de mamey o batido de plátano y maní
I might consider Miranda’s to be the stomping grounds of the LC group. This has a lot to do with the fact that its right around the corner of Sarah’s house. It’s the go-to place for jugos or batidos or an egg sandwich before our class on Monday mornings. They make all the smoothies and juices with fresh fruit (as far as I know) and whip up good food as well. Mostly eggs, sandwiches, and burgers. Not incredibly speedy service but not slow. Most importantly, the staff is very friendly. Sarah’s family and many of us have built nice rapport with them, so its a good place to sit and talk. Here one must absolutely try the juices and batidos of the lesser-known tropical fruits like mamey and guanábana, which is not a mix of guava and banana as I had thought but is its own very delicious fruit.
Café Gallería Mamaine; 15 y L; $$
Rec: Frapuccino y Tortilla de Vegetales
A café and restaurant with lots of cool seating. A nice place to sit and read, do homework, chat, or get drinks. The main draw of Mamaine’s is probably the ambiance and coffee. There are a lot of nice breakfast foods to choose from and plates of entrantes but I’ve also had a great tuna sandwich here. The main drawback is definitely the slower service. However, its a pretty nice space relax so theres not too much to complain about.
Topoly; 23 y C; $$$
Rec: Vegetarian plate
Topoly is a persian restaurant that serves great appetizers, flatbreads, and vegetarian as well as meat dishes. A bit of a rare find here. Its on the more expensive side but its a great way to spice up the palette with some different flavors. Unfortunately, there’s no hummus but there is yogurt dip and eggplant puree (similar to tzatiki and baba ghanoush). All the seating is on a nice patio and there’s live music sometimes. Service is not very fast but standard for sit-down restaurants like this one here. A nice place to go in desperate times when you get sick of cerdo and rice.
O’Reilly’s; Calle O’Reilly in Habana Vieja; $$$$
Rec: Tacos y Daiquiri de frutas o Bloody Mary (if you’re into that)
If you go to O’Reilly’s you should call to make a reservation ahead of time. Its definitely somewhere that I would go for a special night out or occasion as its expensive and requires a trip to Habana Vieja. Its very hip but also filled with english-speaking tourists. Often live music going on. Lots of fancier-looking food. The times I’ve gone there its really only been for the drinks which are very good and very big— cuidado.
Plan B; 23 y 6; $$
Rec: Garbanzos Fritos
A nice go-to place that I would recommend to a friend. I don’t understand the name but its open 24 hours so maybe that has something to do with it? This is a good cafetería with sandwiches, hamburgers, tamales, and a variety of entrantes. Some notable dishes in addition to the Garbanzos fritos (stewed chickpeas) are the brusqueta de atún, an open-faced tuna melt on a baguette, and the maripositas chinas, a wonton-esque appetizer. Good variety, pretty quick service.
Dragones de Bavaria; Chinatown; $$$
Rec: Chow Mein
We visited this restaurant twice with Julie at the beginning of our program during excursions to Chinatown. This is a nice, bigger restaurant and a good place to go out with a group. I think there has to be better Chinese food around Chinatown but I haven’t eaten very much of it and I wanted to include a Chinese restaurant on the list since they are surprisingly prominent here! So I would recommend this restaurant since we had nice experiences there but would also recommend doing your own exploring around the city for better Chinese food. Maybe I will update this with a better place after some searching. Anyways, the food which included fried rice, chop suey, and some more standard meat dishes was all decent-good. Ahmed ordered the Chow Mein and since they ran out of noodles it was made with spaghetti. It was still quite good, despite that nuances that I can’t identify but I’m sure exist between different kinds of noodles, so I figured that it should be the recommended dish.
Vampiritos; 19 y 6; $$
Rec: Spaghetti con Vegetales y Batido de platano
Vampiritos is a crowd pleaser— even Julie approves. Its an Italian restaurant that always has a line but is worth the wait. There’s pizza, pasta, sandwiches and burgers, and more traditional pollo or cerdo plates. If you’re really hungry and craving Italian food make a beeline here. I’m also told that the banana smoothies are exceptional. Get one of those instead of the very green limonadas. You will leave vampi’s feeling very full and might even have leftovers for the next day. Also noteworthy: they deliver! It’s only about 1$ more and it might have been faster than going to the restaurant and sitting down.
Amore; 15 y L; $$ (as far as ice cream goes)
Rec: Un barquillo de nocciolo, maní o mamey
This is a gelato shop that also sells cakes, other small postres, and bread. A small cone costs a little over 1$ which is quite expensive in comparison to the other good ice cream you can find all over Havana. However, in one small cone at Amore you get to choose two flavors and end up leaving with a lot of gelato. I really want to emphasize the crazy amount of ice cream in this city though. There are tienditas with helado every few blocks on main streets. Most common and my favorite is the soft serve ice cream that can be purchased for 2-5 mn. Common flavors are chocalate y vanilla (claro), coco, leche condensada, almendra, swirl, and fresa. I’ve digressed from Amore, which is a really great spot if you’re looking for a more unique flavor/texture, but its not at all difficult to find good ice-cream here. Maybe too easy.