2024-03-21: Paladar San Cristobal
Author: Rob
Dinner tonight was at Paladar San Cristobal. I wrote about privately owned casas particulares in a previous post, and "paladares" are the restaurant equivalent. A paladar (from the word for palate) was originally a small family ran restaurant that served home cooked food inside a private home. A number of revisions in Cuban law over the last decade have allowed paladares to grow into something closer to upscale restaurants, with more seats, better service, and expanded menus.
Paladar San Cristobal is one of the more highly rated paladares, known for a number of celebrities who have dined there including Barack Obama. We had to make reservations, and because we chose to eat on the earlier side we missed most of the big dinner rush, much to our delight. To be honest, the food here (and everywhere else that we've eaten in Havana) wasn't awesome. We knew this was likely going to be the case so we haven't been surprised or dismayed. Cuban is famous for food shortages, and while there seems to be "enough" food everywhere, there isn't much variety. Most of the places we've eaten at so far have had lots of menu items that are unavailable because of this shortage. We're both fine with very simple food, but the thing that has surprised me most is that the technique in cooking the food is severely lacking. We had a lamb stew that had excellent flavor, but the lamb was very tough, something that's easily remedied by braising it longer. Similarly the lobster, shrimp, and fish dish featured almost impossibly tough and overcooked lobster and fish.
All this taken into consideration, the experience here was fun and unique. The malanga fritters (what David and I know as taro) were very nice, as was the appetizer plate with various cheese, cured ham, pickled quail eggs, and other snacks. The best part of the meal is the after dinner experience, where the restaurant offers you a complimentary cigar and glass of Santiago 12 años rum, and they even light the cigar for you so you can enjoy it at your table after dinner. All told the two appetizers, cocktail, two entrees, sides, two desserts, after dinner coffee, and the free cigars and rum cost ~$30 USD
