Paladares are 12 seat private restaurants that are licensed by the government of Cuba and are not allowed to serve lobster. They pay taxes whether they have customers or not.

I ate in one with Bruno the owner who collected antique Spanish exonumia .

The food was good for a home cooked meal and I think it costs about $5 for everything. I wanted to tip the guy $5 because that was not a lot of money for the food, service and amount of work that goes into running a paladar but I was told that would be insulting. I had a Havana Nights CD with me and gave it to him thinking he might enjoy it or maybe could trade it for food that he could sell.

Anyway, I strongly recommend finding a good paladar in Cuba.

Cigar Aficionado had their usual Cuban travel issue a few months ago, and it had plenty of paladares listed.  The only downside is that the Cuban government has to approve the dishes that are prepared, and has specifications of what ingredients can and can’t be used as well as the preparation methods.  Take a look at that Cigar Aficionado issue if you haven’t already, it also lists all the best restaurants in Havana.