old's havana cuban bar & cocina reservations

The outdoor dining terrace is minimalist chic too with metal and wood tables, and a tropical feel amid the plants. The indoor space is modernist chic with white walls and sleek banquettes. A towering brick chimney looms over the entrance, and even when sitting on the rooftop terrace for your pre-dinner cocktail or post-dinner rum, you have to crane your neck to look at it. The year-old restaurant has been created out of an old vegetable oil factory. We didn't get to all the ones we had heard about, as you would need at least another full week in Havana to cover all the possible places to eat, and even then new ones might be opening under your nose. We wanted to be sure to cover our old favorites, touch base for the first time at the few places we had never visited, and sit down to eat at the new ones which had a special twist, seemed unusual or offered a glimpse of the future of Havana's dining scene. This time, things are different, and constantly changing.

There were not that many places worth investigating. Five years ago when we conducted our first comprehensive restaurant survey here, if we had eaten 30 restaurant meals, we would have been going back to the same ones more than once. We spent a total of 15 days in Havana in February, and ate at nearly 30 restaurants. It's not just new restaurants raising the standards, but some old favorites are improving, either from new investments in their buildings, or from the competition that is forcing every eatery to step up its game. Havana's restaurant scene is changing, and getting better. With high praise like that, you would think this story was about New York or London or Paris or Los Angeles. A décor as striking and chic as you could lay eyes on in South Beach.

A tuna sashimi platter as fresh as you could eat in Tokyo. A barbecue pork rib as succulent and tender as you could order in Memphis. A lasagna de papaya as creative as any dish you could find in Barcelona.

Roast chicken as good as L'Ami Louis in France.

Old's havana cuban bar & cocina reservations