Meliá Habana Hotel -La Scala

CA4
Style of food: Italian
Cost: Moderate
Type of place: Hotel
Food
Ambience
Service
Value
Best for: Excellent pizza and good buffet. Attentive service. Clean.
Worst for: Generic hotel formula
Ave. 3ra entre 76 y 80, Playa
(+53)7204 - 8500
Open 12:30-11pm

  • I never knew the name of La Scala before I had to write about it. Thus is the fate of hotel restaurants. Even the best ones like La Scala become anonymous, generic, the pizza place at the Meliá Habana, even though you have eaten there 20 times.

    This is a quality Italian restaurant set next to the swimming pool and (at least on the outdoor terrace) amongst plenty of greenery. The service is excellent, the food reliably good (they do a great Calzone pizza), and relatively quick. They also have a great help-yourself salad bar, which always has the best parmesan cheese amongst much else.

    This makes for a great lunch stop if you want to escape from the bustle of Havana and relax in an upmarket environment.

    
  • Parrillada 84 y Quince

    Parrillada 84 y Quince  LH 3

    Translated Parrillada 84 y Quince means Charcoal Grill located on 84th Street on the intersection of 15th Avenue. What more do you need to know? This is really a neighbourhood place just off the busy …

    Casa Lala

    Casa Lala  LH 3+

    Havana Chef has had a makeover and a name change to Casa Lala. It has the same delicious menu (including the suckling pig that I talked about in a previous column), but with lower prices. The place is …

    Rancho Palco

    Rancho Palco  LH 2

    Apparently the place has had a make-over and may be worth checking out for the great shows they are putting on…watch this space Opposite La Finca, the attraction of Rancho Palco is really as a venue f …

    La Casona de 17

    La Casona de 17  LH 2

    This painted, peach-coloured 1920s mansion has two indoor colonial-style dining rooms and an outdoor grill restaurant. Both offer healthy-sized traditional Creole dishes, which are reasonable value wi …

    Don Ricardo

    Don Ricardo  LH 2+

    On for a good Irish pub in Old Havana where you could get a meat pie and a pint of Guiness. Don Ricardo is an Irish restaurant, but how Irish is a little debateable. The place recalls the founder of t …

    Zaragozana

    Zaragozana  LH 2+

    This restaurant’s origin dates back to its founding in 1830. Some people say that it always had the distinctive cooking style of the Spanish region it was named after ever since they opened. In those …

    La Amistad de Lanzarote

    La Amistad de Lanzarote  LH 2

    We had dinner here once a few years ago. We have never been back. The décor looks cheap and there have been reports of aggressive overcharging. Food wise, the specialty is Pollo Lanzarote, chicken wit …

    Marina Hemingway – Pizza Nova

    Marina Hemingway – Pizza Nova  LH 2

    Once upon a time the Pizza Nova was one of the better Havana restaurants serving good quality pizza in the upmarket Marina Hemingway. Perhaps the competition just got better and it is now simply relat …

    El Castillo de Farnés

    El Castillo de Farnés  LH 2+

    In the 19th century, this building was home to a grocery store. Later, Francisco Puig bought the establishment and turned it into a cheap restaurant, which he named Castillo de Farnés after a fortress …

    La Cabaña

    La Cabaña  LH 2

    La Cabaña has a great view of the city but truth be told is a relatively basic place. The Cabaña Restaurant Bar has a private air-conditioned room for 30 people with live music. The rooftop terrace ha …

    « 11 of 14 pages »