Havana Bank Square

Apart from the odd location, in behind Castle court, the service and food more than made up for it. Soft goats cheese starter and spicy soup chunky bread. Delish. morroccan spiced lamb and the largest battered fish and chips for mains. Even delishier. Staff were very attentive and friendly. Overall a very good dining experience.

Love this place. Great service with affordable food in a very relaxed atmosphere. Highly recommend to all.

We dined here around 6:30pm on a Friday and it was bumping already, so definitely recommend reservations.
Service was extremely welcoming and professional from start to finish.
They have a 2 and 3 course prix fix menu options up until 7pm.
For the 3 course meals, we had the Pork Saddle back salad, the Catch of the day (pan-​seared Sea bream, with tempura baby squid & seasonal veg), the braised beef, and steamed pudding. Our mate went with the risotto starter with the aged ribeye as an entrée.
The Saddle back starter was phenomenal, the honey mustard dressing was light yet flavorful and found ourselves mopping up the plate with bread from the bread starter. We all tried the risotto, which all agreed was brilliant.
The sea bream had a great skin-​on sear, and the oyster sauce and veg laison was grand. Beef was cooked perfectly as was the steak, but veg and starches were scarce, hence recommend ordering some of the a la cart sides. Presentation on all dishes were beautiful.
Steamed pudding was nice balance of light and sweet to finish off a wonderful meal.
Beer selection is minimal as is the cocktail list, wine list is ok.
This is a must when in Belfast.

Great service! Great food! Great conversation! This place is absolutely wonderful! If you’re ever in Belfast take a walk and eat here, you won’t be disappointed.

Good ideas, poor execution. Havana try to bring a bit of refinery to classic, hearty dishes but just didn’t work.
I’d heard good things about Havana so was looking forward to heading there for a wee Saturday date night but I left feeling a bit underwhelmed.
Firstly, I cannot fault the service. The guys running the place couldn’t have been more welcoming and prompt. We arrived at 7:30pm and were shown to our table, and after a quick browse or the drinks menu, we had cocktails within a few minutes.
Unfortunately, the cocktails weren’t up to much. This was a theme throughout the night as we tried about 4 cocktails each.
Food — started well, and but went downhill.
I had tomato and red pepper soup and it was lovely: and normally I wouldn’t be keen on tomato soup. My girlfriend had the risotto with goats cheese, which she said was very nice.
For mains we ordered a chicken supreme and braised beef, which we shared & were left a bit disappointed in both dishes.
The beef was well cooked and tender but was absolutely swimming in a combination of a jus and peppercorn sauce which made a weird taste. I’d have preferred one of the other. It was accompanied by about 12 little pickled onions, and that’s it. Who eats 12 pickled onions? I’d have preferred a lot less and a few other veggies. It did come with a choice of side, for which I chose mash potato which was grand, if little of.
The chicken supreme — resembled no chicken supreme I’d seen before, 2 pieces of roast chicken with a thick slice of smoked bacon on top. Unlike the beef, it came with very little sauce and whilst the chicken was well cooked, there was little of it and the bacon www just a tasteless mush — which I thought was impossible to do with bacon, so much we queried whether it was actually bacon.
Desserts — we shared a dessert, the lemon meringue. No meringue to speak of, it was basically like a biscuit, with lemon curd and whipped cream on top.
Overall, whilst it wasn’t an unpleasant meal, it was just poor in comparison to many of the great restaurants Belfast seems to offer at the moment.

Absolutely love this place! I was originally brought to Havana with a living social voucher, but have been back time and time again and it has become a favourite place to eat out in Belfast. The slow roast beef is awesome, but everything I have tried from the menu has been of excellent quality. The cocktail menu is worth a try too. Definitely a place I would recommend and have on many occasions!

Mmmmm how shall I word all this?! I loved Havana when it first opened ²⁄₃ years ago. Initially it served amazing, mouth-​wateringly delicious food in great portion sizes. Cuban inspired dishes which came with bowls of flavoursome side dishes such as deep fried aubergines. It was BYOB and it was fabulous. Back then I would have given it 5 out of 5 stars. Then (strangely) it all changed! Suddenly the fabulous Cuban food was gone and it was standard, unexceptional, bland English/​Irish type cuisine. Plus BYOB policy disappeared. Not good — hence I stopped going to Havana and haven’t been in about a year. I thought I’d give it a go tonight as a couple of friends wanted to try it. Mmmm don’t think I’ll return. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t bad — but it wasn’t great either. I had a braised mushroom starter which was very tasty. However my main was very, very disappointing. There was only one vegetarian main on the menu which was a butternut squash stew. I did email Havana during the week to ask about other veggie options and they said they could offer a veggie burger, roast veg sandwich or pasta. However I really shouldn’t have to ask — there should be more vegetarian offerings. I (unfortunately) opted for the butternut squash stew. It was a small, bland pot of tinned tomatoes with veg, beans and chilli powder thrown in — accompanied by a small bowl of potatoes on the side. Not great and not at all good value on a pre-​theatre menu of 2 courses for £15. Seriously overpriced for what it was. Unfortunately they seemed to muddle up our order and one of my companions had quite a wait on her side of potatoes — she had half her steak eaten by the time it arrived! The wine was ok. The staff did excel and I found them exceptionally helpful, pleasant and delightful — our waiter Robert was just amazing. Unfortunately, the food was not as delightful and I’m sorry to say I won’t return. Havana how, when and where did it all go so wrong!!!

I dined here with my mother, sister and Ms E. The lunch menu was extremely well priced and a BOGOF promotion was live. This made the bill very attractive. The service was… over attentive but forgiven. The food was small in portion but the execution was there. All in all a nice experience. Would recommend. Food-​on Joe

Another hidden gem down near the Castle Court is Havana Bank Square.
Starting it’s life as a sort of Cuban restaurant it has changed it’s focus in the last year, now concentrating on very pretty, tasty food from no particular place but making seasonality and local ingredients the star. We thought we’d give it a try on a Thursday when they have live music in the form of one guy playing almost classical guitar. The other half didn’t know this and it’s one of his pet hates, but I loved it, and the quality of the food distracted him from the background.
I had the daube of beef, which was slightly overcooked, but still really tasty, and everything had quite obviously been prepared with care. The other half had the chicken, and even though he is a very hard marker gave it a ⁷⁄₁₀. I also had a couple of glasses of wine, and you would be hard pressed to find somewhere like this for the money in town. We’ll be back, and I might even grab the girls to try their cocktail masterclass, naughty me. ;-)