Cuba - Lonely Planet [121]
CUBANACáN
El Buganvil ( 271-4791; Calle 190 No 1501 btwn Calles 15 & 17, Siboney; noon-midnight) A solid paladar with a pleasant outdoor plant and thatch setting, this place has sterling service and good comida criolla. The house specialty is loma ahumado (smoked pork loin; CUC$4), but if you get a group of six together, they’ll smoke a whole pig for you.
La Cecilia ( 204-1562; Av 5 No 11010 btwn Calles 110 & 112; noon-midnight) All-time Havana classic, this classy place is up there with El Aljibe in terms of food quality (check out the ropa vieja), but trumps all comers with its big-band music that blasts out on weekend nights inside its large but atmospheric courtyard.
El Palenque (208-8167; cnr Av 17 & Calle 190; Siboney; 10am-10pm) A huge place next to the Pabexpo exhibition center that sprawls beneath a series of open-sided thatched bohíos (traditional Cuban huts), the Palenque offers an extensive menu at prices cheap enough to attract both Cubans and foreigners. The cuisine is Cuban/Italian, with pizzas starting at CUC$3, steak and fries coming in at CUC$9 and lobster mariposa maxing out at CUC$22.
La Ferminia ( 273-6786; Av 5 No 18207, Flores) Havana gets swanky at this memorable restaurant set in an elegant converted colonial mansion in the leafy neighborhood of Flores. Dine inside, in one of a handful of beautifully furnished rooms, or outside on a glorious garden patio – it doesn’t matter. The point is the food. Try the mixed grill, pulled straight from the fire, or lobster tails pan-fried in breadcrumbs. There’s a strict dress code here: no shorts or sleeveless T-shirts (guys). It’s one of the few places where Fidel Castro has dined in public.
MARINA HEMINGWAY
Restaurante La Cova (cnr Av 5 & Calle 248; noon-midnight) In Marina Hemingway, this place vies with Paladar Piccolo in Playas del Este as Havana’s best pizza joint. Part of the Pizza Nova chain, it also does fish, meat and rigatoni a la vodka (CUC$8). The pepperoni topping is purportedly flown in from Canada.
Papa’s Complejo Turístico (cnr Av 5 & Calle 248; noon-3am) There’s all sorts of stuff going on here, from beer-swilling boatmen with Hemingway-esque beards to warbling American Idol wannabes hogging the karaoke machine. The eating options are equally varied, with a posh Chinese place (with dress code) and an outdoor ranchón (rural restaurant). Good fun if there’s enough people.
Entertainment
MIRAMAR
Teatro Karl Marx ( 203-0801, 209-1991; cnr Av 1 & Calle 10) Size-wise the Karl Marx puts other Havana theaters in the shade with a seating capacity of 5500 in a single auditorium. The very biggest events happen here, such as the closing galas for the jazz and film festivals and rare concerts by trovadores like Silvio Rodríguez. In 2001 it hosted Welsh rockers The Manic Street Preachers, the first Western rock band to play live on the island (with Fidel Castro in the audience).
Casa de la Música ( 202-6147; Calle 20 No 3308; admission CUC$5-20; 10pm Tue-Sat) Launched with a concert by renowned jazz pianist Chucho Valdés in 1994, this Miramar favorite is run by national Cuban recording company, Egrem, and the programs are generally a lot more authentic than the cabaret entertainment you see at the hotels. Platinum players such as NG La Banda, Los Van Van and Aldaberto Álvarez y Su Son play here regularly; you’ll rarely pay more than CUC$20. It has a more relaxed atmosphere than its Centro Habana namesake.
MARIANAO
Tropicana Nightclub ( 267-1871; Calle 72 No 4504; 10pm) A city institution since it opened in 1939, the world-famous Tropicana was one of the few bastions of Havana’s Las Vegas–style nightlife to survive the clampdowns of the puritanical Castro Revolution. Immortalized in Graham Greene’s 1958 classic Our Man in Havana, this open-air cabaret show is little changed since its ’50s heyday, featuring a bevy of scantily clad señoritas who climb nightly down from