Havana Good Time: Cuban Cuisine at Caribeño

Beijing’s only, though not first, Cuban restaurant lies in the heart of the CBD, so out of place in this cold center of commerce and jammed between two hotels in what feels like the back alleys. In the face of this then, you can feel a defiant push of resistance from the space. The bright yellows and greens of its murals expand outwardly and the straw-thatched roof above the bar borders on melancholy, but is ultimately convincing that one should drop one’s opposition to clichés and imagine island breezes.

The menu rambles from appetizers like empanadas (stuffed pastries, essentially – RMB 38 chicken, RMB 28 vegetable) and papas rellenas (RMB 35), the Cuban variation on a Peruvian dish of mashed potatoes stuffed with meat and spices, breaded and then fried. Next comes a poetic main, ropa viejo (RMB 78), or “old clothes,”so named for the shredded beef ’s resemblance to tattered fabric. An order of arepas (RMB 68) means four variations of the stuffed maize flour flatbreads. There in a pepiada arepa with shredded chicken and avocado, lemony and fresh, must come from where ocean breezes whip the coast, although the unfortunate mortadella ham, cabbage, ketchup and mayonnaise in the tumbarrancho arepa recalls school lunches of a tender, awkward age you’d rather not remember.

Far fonder young memories can be found in the Creole Cuban soup (RMB 38). Cold days of feigning ill to stay curled up on the couch come steeped in a tomato broth– pork, chicken and thick bacon chunks fraternizing with soft carrots, pumpkin and corn.

Caribeño looks forward, too. An interesting section of the menu with more contemporary Cuban cuisine champions a modern dish called “lobster coffee” (RMB698). Why would you not return to experience a “delicious casualty of coffee and lobster,” especially when it includes a bottle of Chilean white wine?

Caribeño 加勒比人西餐厅
Daily 11.30am-9.30pm. 1/F, South Tower, China Overseas Plaza, 8 Guanghua Dongli, Chaoyang District (5977 2789)
朝阳区光华东里8号院中海广场写字楼1层
350m northwest of Guomao station (Lines 1 and 10)

Also try: Che Diego!

A version of this article appears in the January 2014 issue of the Beijinger

Photos: Sui