Golden clouds under the red skies, brushes of tomato and cheese on the molded flour, fresh pasta and chopped basil: Italian cuisine is always a pleasant surprise that guarantees those elusive good moments we dream of. That is why it is common and recurrent in our inventory, just as it is in the imaginary of a country like Cuba, which has made it its own in every spoonful.
AlaMesa then brings you a selection of 7 special places where you can taste these delicacies:
The note: A small, friendly place, just a couple of rooms from a house. It is precisely the family who takes care of you. Without great apparent pretensions, its magic resides precisely in the quality of what comes out of its kitchen.
Thumb up: The service is extremely friendly.
Thumb down: The place is small and lacks the glamor of high end restaurants.
Recommended: The whole menu is good, but we strongly recommend the lasagna.
The note: A solo adventure by a chef who, had already shown us his skills in another restaurant. Nero is a well-organized place, specializing in traditional pastas and recipes of handcrafted pizzas.
Thumb up: Some of the key elements for making Italian food, hardly found in Cuba, are not simply replaced but carefully bought or imported.
Thumb down: If you go by car, it can be very difficult to find space to park.
Recommended: The seafood pasta.
The note: Simple in decoration and in concept, this is a place that surprises, above other senses, the palate.
Thumb up: The undeclared fusion of techniques that belong to the Italian cuisine and ingredients that come from this side of the Atlantic.
The bad: It shows no menu, so the bill may be an ugly surprise. There is no air conditioning. The service and administration could benefit from an attitude adjustment.
Recommended: The food. The cuisine in this place is excellent.
The note: With all the charm of the dim alleyways of Old Havana, this corner is the ment for friends gatherings around a good table.
Thumb up: It has great location, an informal atmosphere and what comes out of that wood-fired oven is delightful.
Thumb down: It does not have air conditioning.
Recommended: The charcuterie pizza and the crab cannelloni with spinach.
The note: One of the places that has contributed to make Italian cuisine popular in our capital. Central and with competitive prices, it has a large menu with the most diverse proposals.
Thumb up: The quantity-quality-price ratio is one of the best ever.
Thumb down: The queue. On especial days it will cost work (and time, and patience) to find a spot there.
Recommended: The Pizza Mimosa (Ham, Shrimp, Chorizo, Lobster, Tuna, Olive).
The note: It is a hotel restaurant, located in a hotel that is part of a large hotel company. That, per se, would indicate that it does not have to be good. But the truth is that it is and not only if compared to the rest of the mottled set of hotel restaurants.
Thumb up: It is Central, well located and with ample capacity.
Thumb down: It congested at peak times despite its size. Also, call us Sheldon Cooper, but ... are you okay with the idea that an Italian restaurant is decorated with baseball motifs? It's just an idea thrown into the air.
Recommended: The seafood pizzas.
The note: Just out of the imaginary furnace in which AlaMesa cooks its restaurants. They only accepted to be included in our directory under the promise of reminding you at every step that its kitchen it’s not “simply” Italian but gloriously Sicilian. And that we do. Much could be said of a place that cultivates its own condiments in the backyard and prepares homemade recipes of a cuisine so specific (and delicious) that will be a suitable pretext for the adventure.
Thumb upThe intimacy, the tranquility of the environment that complements a good table.
Thumb down: Not particularly central, for those who live downtown, it implies a full-scale tour.
Recommended: The lobster lasagna.
Have we forgotten a place? Recommend us your favorites.