Villa Lagarto — Restaurant in Cienfuegos

A nicely located restaurant that also offers rooms for overnight stays. These are rather simple. It is privately run and apparently has sponsors from abroad, otherwise the food options in today's Cuba and after the Corona crisis would not be possible. The interior of the restaurant is touristy, friendly, slightly overloaded. But not uncomfortable yet. The dishes are quite versatile and the taste is good. The billing was shocking. Two people received a good and varied dinner for 47.50 euros. Since we couldn't pay with euros or dollars, we wanted to use the pesos previously exchanged at almost 1/1.1. This can be done using a domestic account card for this currency and is also required by law. We were told that the machine would not work (usual) in this very well run and fully stocked restaurant. That ended that possibility. Since we could only pay with the usual currency, pesos, which the Cubans also use as a means of payment and which is the official means of payment, we had to pay 4,025 pesos, which translates to around 160 euros (exchange value). So fourfold. Unbelievable. Way too expensive. This happens in this city in almost all private accommodation and restaurants, which also...

This was the second of our 3 Casas that we were staying in. Zero,welcome, unfriendly staff. Smelly hot rooms, even the towel in our room smelt,like fried chorizo. The toilet seat in our room didn’t fit and my daughter had to sit sideways on hers ! Breakfast was ok, but we tried to have lunch there on arrival to be given a menu with no prices on, which is always very odd. €18 set meal, which we didn’t want. Would have been the most expensive meal in 3 weeks in Cuba . Ended up,going next door to the very friendly Comilla’s for food and drink which was nicer, and cheaper, even the water was cheaper 200 cf 300 cup. ||||There was a pool but it was dirty ||||Completely out of the way from anywhere, staff not at all helpful with advice re tours or arranging taxis. The only time we asked it was obvious the guy was ringing his friend and we were going to be ripped off again. ||||When we left just handed a bill, no good bye etc....

I don’t even want to give one star. This is the most expensive restaurant in Cuba, if they notice you’re a tourist they’ll give you a menu without prices. I ordered the mixed kebab with shrimps and I received some chicken that looked and tasted as if it came straight out of the freezer, one side was super dry and the other completely wet. There was some pineapple too which was brown, and no shrimps in sight. Took one bite and left the rest of the food on the plate and the waiter didn’t even think of asking if something was wrong when he came to take the dishes. We got the bill it was way overpriced (for food we didn’t even eat) and when we were about to leave the waiter told us he made a mistake; the bill was for another table, He handed us another bill with exactly the same things but higher prices. They also include 10% for service, which they obviously...