Paladar de Cuba

Restaurant

Paladar de Cuba
Tegnergatan 19
Stockholm
Sweden

Phone 08 21 22 52

Website www.paladar.se

Overview

Eva and I decided to try out Paladar de Cuba, a Cuban restaurant and bar, in Stockholm last week.

Paladar, in Cuba, is the colloquial Spanish name for a home-based restaurant (especially in Havana) restaurant run "off the radar" of the authorities.

Ambience

Paladar is a very welcoming and cosy establishment, a large number of wicker chairs are placed in the entrance and bar area, to the left of the bar is a good sized restaurant with cheerful wooden tables and chairs, which is well decorated with knickknacks, vegetation and curios.

In the days before the smoking ban was enforced, you could also smoke a fine Cuban cigar on the premises. Although they still have a magnificent selection of cigars in a man sized humidor, the law means that you now have to sit outside in the cold to smoke them.

However, the good news is that this ridiculous law does not apply to drinking; the Paladar has a most extensive and inviting selection of rum, which you can while away your evening with in the bar or in the restaurant.

The restaurant is very busy and popular (Che Guevara's daughter has dined there), you are advised to book.

Menu

The menu offered an excellent selection of Cuban cuisine including; peppers with cheese, crab, seafood, swordfish, steaks, lamb and young cockerel.

Service

The service was very friendly and efficient, the menu (unlike the website) was in English and the staff spoke English very well.

We were made to feel very welcome, and had a drink at the bar whilst our table was made ready for us.

Food

I began with the peppers and cheese, a most splendid starter. The red peppers (pimentos) had been roasted to perfection in olive oil (they were not out of a jar), and were served with a marinade and cheese. A really nice flavour, and medley of tastes.

Eva started with the scampi, which was served in a piquant spicy chilli and garlic white wine sauce. Absolutely superb, the scampi were plump and unctuous, and the sauce had a presence which did not overpower the scampi.

We both chose the young cockerel for our main course. This dish (per person) consisted of two large breasts of cockerel and a cockerel leg served with green rice, avocado salsa and a paprika source.

A fine main course, the cockerel was perfectly cooked and very succulent. The rice was light and fluffy, and the dish was well complemented by the sauce and salsa.

Perfect!

The meal, which included a bottle of good bottle of Spanish white and two very large rums and a rum coffee, came to an amount that I cannot remember; as in the rum fuelled haze of the evening I seem to have misplaced my bill.

Overall Opinion

A superb restaurant, which is well worth visiting.