What is the food like in Cuba?

“Don't expect much from Cuban food,” says Julian Philpott, one of our travellers on a recent holiday to Cuba. It’s a feeling echoed by our writer Eloise, who has been to Cuba twice in the last 10 years and describes the same dinner that was served everywhere she stayed: “Black beans and rice, and a choice of spiny lobster, chicken or sometimes beef.” Even eating out didn’t improve the experience. “Once, we treated ourselves to a fancy meal at a hotel in central Havana. The food was terrible. I remember the ceviche so well. It wasn't even an approximation of ceviche. It was oily and strange, like the work of aliens approximating human flavours.”

Yet the majority of our travellers have a different story to tell. “The food was amazing everywhere!” says Joann Wellbrock, after an eight-day holiday in Cuba. “Ignore people telling you that the food is bad!” agrees Ariela Silberstei, who went on our Cuba culture tour. “It's wonderful.”

So what’s the deal? “It is funny about the food,” says Clarita Derwent, manager of our travel specialists Cuban Adventures. “Many people have a memory of Cuba past, when it was hard to get fresh food and there was little outside influence. It was all black beans, rice and pork. But Cuba is a fast developing country. It’s completely changed over the past 10 years, then the past five, and even the past two.” Relaxation of the Cuba embargo under Obama and changes to domestic laws are largely responsible, leading to more imports and more small, private businesses, many of which have been restaurants, cafes and bars.

“Now Havana is more cosmopolitan. There are all types of exciting restaurants and a lot of good food,” says Clarita. Still, some things may not be to everyone’s taste. “There is a reason guava isn't widely commercially available and is best consigned to a carton of Um Bongo,” says Eloise. “It's got a strange texture and isn't very nice.” Outside the main cities, meals are still based on a more simple Cuban creole diet, while state-owned restaurants and roadside stops do a good trade in not very good food. But stick to casa cooking (in homestays) and paladares (private restaurants), rather than state-owned premises and hotel buffets, and you’re more likely to be enjoying the same great food everyone else is talking about.

“Go to the increasing number of paladares and ask around for recommendations, and you will eat very well there whether you're a vegetarian, pescatarian or omnivore,” says Naranee Ruthra-Rajan, another of our travellers to Cuba. “I'd heard a lot before I went about how bad Cuban food was,” she says, “this proved to be a myth. Like anywhere in the world, including London, New York and Paris, it's possible to have rubbish meals if you go to a rubbish restaurant, but that doesn't mean it's not possible to eat well there.”

When it comes to breakfast in Cuba, whatever’s in the casa goes on the table – meaning there’s often masses of food. Everything from eggs to fresh fruit, fresh juice, fresh coffee, fresh hot milk, sliced ham, sliced cheese, sliced tomatoes, sliced bread – delivered daily from the state bakery as part of the household’s ration. Sometimes cakes, biscuits and sweets make an appearance, like some kind of morning high tea. “They really go all out on the breakfast,” says Clarita with a laugh. “The minimum is a jug of juice, coffee, and hot milk, eggs done any way you want, fresh bread and butter and maybe some guava marmalade – that would be the very minimum!”

Staying in casas particulares (often called ‘the original Airbnb’) means having the same breakfast as your host family. “Being in people's homes and eating their food is how to experience Cuba and the people,” says Tiffany Smith, who went on our 15-day Cuba tour. “The food at the house was amazing!”

It’s not uncommon, Clarita says, for travellers to complain that their breakfasts are too big. “I say to them: look, during the blockade and after the fall of the Soviet Union, which caused the Special Period in Cuba, people starved. People were starving. It was horrible, horrible the things that happened in those years.” Those years – Cuba’s economic crisis, which only ended in the 2000s – radically transformed the country. Which is why, she explains, there’s no need to worry about leftovers. “Nothing is ever wasted in Cuba. Never. You don’t have to talk to them about food wastage.” What isn’t eaten at breakfast is often made into sandwiches for lunch, or eaten by your hosts, and scraps are fed to the chickens and pigs. “For them it’s a psychological thing,” she says. “Lots of food on the table shows that you’re not going to go hungry today.”