Las Marías

CA3
Style of food: Cuban/Creole
Cost: Cheap
Type of place: Paladar (private)
Food
Ambience
Service
Value
Best for: The three Marias are all very charming. Cute. Personal.
Worst for: Those expecting more. This is a small neighborhood place.
Calle 48 No 1107, entre 11 y 13, Playa
(+53)7209 - 2140
Open noon-midnight daily

  • Las Marías is a small charming outdoor terrace in the heart of Miramar, which re-opened on Christmas Eve 2011. More to the point, it is a family affair between María Ofelia, her daughter Marilé and granddaughter Marisol. If this is too much oestrogen for you, there is Julio César who takes care of the kitchen. There are perhaps six tables set beside a nice bar around the side of a typical Miramar mansion with an increasing amount of green shrubbery. Pleasant, warm.

    Marilé is the heart of the place, charming, attentive, and busy. She takes care of her customers and then finds time to chat. She should run courses on multi-tasking to some other people I could care to mention! The atmosphere is low-key with Cuban musicians playing some nights, while on others a TV will play innocuously in the background.

    The food is anchored by the large charcoal grill, which provides for a range of fish and meats as well as a range of other dishes from the smallish kitchen inside the main house. Specialities include Filete de pescado con camarones en salsa bechamel y queso gratinado (fish fillet with shrimp in béchamel sauce au gratin) as well as surf and turf kebabs. Other dishes include octopus, grilled prawns and ropa vieja (shredded meat). The prices are pretty reasonable with a Crema de queso (cream of cheese soup) only CUC 1.50 and chicken dishes at around 5 CUC. Everything is fresh bought directly from the fishermen, which showed in the quality of some of the fish we tried. Desserts include a very tasty, Mermelada de guayaba con queso (guava marmalade and cheese) 1.50 CUC.

    You should be warned that the Marías have developed their own completely lethal cocktail ‘Las Marías.’ This consists of Havana Club 7 años, mint, and blue Curacao, lemon y hierbabuena.

    
  • Café Laurent

    Café Laurent  LH 5

    The entrance to Café Laurent gives little away. While just a few blocks away from the iconic Hotel National, Calle M has little commerce and you have to be guided into the apartment building where a s …

    La Moneda Cubana

    La Moneda Cubana  LH 4

    If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck…it normally is a duck. Walking into La Moneda Cubana I could not believe that this really was a paladar. From the bad fake copies of Mona Lisa and the Last S …

    Sevilla Hotel – Roof Garden Torre de Oro

    Sevilla Hotel – Roof Garden Torre de Oro  LH 4+

    The Sevilla Hotel recently celebrated its 100th Anniversary. This is now managed by the Mercure group, has a gorgeous Spanish-Moorish style lobby and one of the best rooftop restaurants in the City, t …

    La Terraza de Cojimar

    La Terraza de Cojimar  LH 4

    Ernest Hemingway lived in Cojimar for some years and this was his favorite restaurant there, as evidenced by the many pictures of the American author here, including one with Fidel Castro. In one of t …

    La Moraleja

    La Moraleja  LH 4

    La Moraleja is the point of the story, the moral of a kid’s fable. The philosophy of this new paladar located in the ample backyard of a Vedado mansion is “Dreaming is free, so dream on, you’re at La …

    Club Habana – El Chelo

    Club Habana – El Chelo  LH 4

    Cuba Absolutely Review: December 2012 Club Habana has a long and distinguished history as a beach club for the well heeled. Today it is the one and only beach club left which caters mostly to the expa …

    Los Nardos

    Los Nardos  LH 5-

    The Sociedad Juventud Asturiana is a Spanish cultural society from the province of Asturias, which has a special legal status in Havana. Essentially, the society functions as a cooperative which means …

    Habana Libre Hotel – Sierra Maestra

    Habana Libre Hotel – Sierra Maestra  LH 4

    Of all the views in the entire world, this is the place. Well perhaps that is overstating things but the view is certainly spectacular from the 25th floor of the Habana Libre Hotel. You have a 180-deg …

    Tien Tan

    Tien Tan  LH 4+

    Tien Tan (Temple of Heaven) must be a very hated restaurant from the other Chinese places in Chinatown. It is at the end of the Chinese restaurant strip and every time that we walk down here, the tout …

    La Cocina de Lilliam

    La Cocina de Lilliam  LH 4

    Cuba Absolutely Review: December 2012 La Cocina de Lilliam is set in the gardens of a beautiful villa in Miramar. This is right at the top of the list of many visitors’ dream list. It is easy to see w …

    « 3 of 14 pages »