Eating in Cuba: Paladares, Dishes and Where to Find Them

Paladares are privately owned restaurants, a category that has flourished into everything from rooftop tables with a view over Havana to candlelit courtyards in Trinidad. They generally outshine the state-run alternatives on food, service and atmosphere, and the best ones book up — worth reserving ahead in the cities, which your casa host can usually arrange with a phone call. Prices span a wide range, from simple family kitchens to polished fine dining, so there is a paladar for most budgets.

Alongside them, casas particulares often serve excellent home-cooked dinners to their guests on request — frequently some of the most authentic and best-value meals of a trip. Between paladares and casa kitchens, the private side of Cuban dining is where you'll eat best.

The Cuban table centres on rice and beans in two classic forms: congrí or moros y cristianos (rice cooked together with black or red beans) served alongside almost everything. Roast pork — lechón asado — is the celebratory centrepiece, and ropa vieja (shredded beef in a tomato-and-pepper sauce) is the dish most associated with the island abroad. Picadillo (seasoned minced beef) is everyday comfort food.

Round it out with tostones (twice-fried green plantain) and maduros (sweet ripe plantain), yuca con mojo (cassava in garlic-citrus sauce), and, on the coasts, fresh fish, lobster and shrimp. In the far east around Baracoa the food shifts, with coconut, cocoa and dishes like the coconut-and-fish preparations that make the region a genuine culinary detour. Tropical fruit — mango, guava, papaya, pineapple — is everywhere in season.

Cuba is rum country, and its cocktails are world-famous: the mojito (rum, lime, sugar, mint and soda), the daiquiri (rum, lime and sugar, shaken with ice), and the Cuba libre (rum and cola with lime). Local rum brands are excellent and inexpensive. For beer, the national lagers Cristal and Bucanero are the standards. Cuban coffee — small, strong and sweet — is a ritual worth adopting, and fresh fruit juices and guarapo (pressed sugarcane juice) are refreshing non-alcoholic options in the heat.

Havana has the deepest and most inventive scene, from the classic paladares of Vedado and Old Havana to newer tables pushing Cuban cooking in creative directions — it is the one city where you could eat somewhere different and memorable every night. Trinidad and Cienfuegos offer characterful colonial-town dining, often in beautiful courtyard settings. On the coasts, seafood comes into its own, while the beach resorts lean on hotel buffets supplemented by paladares in the nearest town, which are usually the better meal.

A few practical notes: tipping a little for good service is customary and appreciated; menus and availability can vary with what's in the market that day, so flexibility helps; and vegetarians can eat well with rice, beans, plantain, eggs and produce, though it's worth saying so clearly when you order.

Open the Restaurants layer, or a city page such as Restaurants in Havana or Restaurants in Trinidad, to see paladares and restaurants plotted where they are. Stack it over the Hotels layer and you can judge a base by what's within walking distance for dinner — the difference between strolling to a courtyard paladar and hunting a taxi after dark. It's also the fastest way to discover the good tables a few streets from the obvious ones.