One doesn’t or shouldn’t go to Cuba for
the food. There are too many shortages of great cooking ingredients. But with the opportunities opening up to
allow for private restaurants (paladors), many in converted homes, one can have
some pretty wonderful dining experiences.
And it’s always an experience on top of the food. We recently spent about a week in Santiago de
Cuba and Havana and had some memorable meals, along with mediocre buffets and
“group” meals. I’ll talk about the highlights.
Santiago is Cuba’s second largest city
with 500,000 people but it feels like a small town. Also, there was extensive damage from
Hurricane Sandy so we did not see it as its best. But we had a great meal at Compay Gallo (San German 3), housed in
a beautiful Art Deco home with terrazzo floors and a marvelous staircase with
no banister, a la Baragan, leading up to the third floor where the restaurant is. Service,
food, and presentation were great. The most spectacular dish was my appetizer
of shrimp cocktail, a generous serving of shrimp and crab with homemade
mayonnaise, served on top of a small fishbowl with 2 live goldfish in it.
Pictures were taken! My main course of lamb stew was in a thick, rich dark
sauce served with rice and malanga, a starchy tuber. Other entrees were
well-executed with individual integrity, very Impressive as our group of 8 were
the only customers besides 2 couples. I’d go back there.
A pizza and pasta dinner at the Ristorante Italiana la Fontana at the
Melia Santiago Hotel (where 5 stars is a real stretch of the imagination) was
just fine, nothing special. The breakfast buffet at the hotel is very good, including a roast pig! A lunch at Restaurante Zunzun (Av. Mandulay 159),
in a restored mansion, was like a Rotary banquet meal with satisfactory grilled
fish. Although those who got the curry chicken were impressed.
Havana is a marvelous city just waiting
for redevelopment to explode and fortunately the restaurant scene has some
stars. Our best meal was at Café Laurent
(Calle M 257), near the National Hotel, a civic treasure with plumbing that
makes its 5-star rating questionable. The 5th floor of an apartment
building reached by a temperamental but charming elevator has been turned into
a wonderful restaurant. Our lovely and friendly server made us feel special and
the fresh mahi mahi done a couple of different ways, salads with real lettuce,
tasty ceviche, delicious gazpacho, and a decent albeit small wine list made our
group of 7 very happy eaters. We also
had a very nice meal at Dona Eutimia
(Callejon del Charro) on an alley near the Cathedral, with some superb
appetizers like croquettas and fried fish bites with different sauces. We expected the paella for 2 to have more varieties of seafood, but the
lobster was nice and portion generous. Those who got lobster as an entree had
plenty to share. Service and presentation were perfect and everyone had a good
time, hoping to share cigars as we left but finding the wind coming through the
alley greater than our lighting skills.
Our first tour meal in Havana was at
the lovely La Ferminia (av. 5 #
18207), apparently a Castro favorite, where we ate in the beautiful garden next
to the beautiful mansion with marble floors and several dining rooms. They
feature brochettes with a very good chicken and a nicely flavored but tough
beef. And tres leches cake for dessert, all accompanied by a music trio. I
recommend it for its beauty. The group also had lunch at La Domenica (O’Reilly #108), a lovely Italian restaurant with
decent pizza and spaghetti and accompanying live music. Our final tour
celebratory dinner was held at the beautiful Café del Oriente appropriately on the Plaza de San Francisco. The
formal dining rooms look like they should be in New Orleans or Charleston, so
no reeking of local color. A nice onion
soup was followed by a decent steak and a good flan. We didn’t make it there,
but those in our group who went to Palador
La Guarida, featured in the film, Strawberries and Chocolate, thought it
was fantastic. So our number 1 choice
for the return trip to fascinating, enigmatic, beautiful Cuba.
