The place was busy so we sat at the bar. It's a wee bit cramped and given it's not yet summer they really need to turn those gas heaters on to make guests comfortable. The food was nothing to rave about. The avocado and tuna salad should really be called avocado and corn salad. The miserly 2 slices of tuna are an insult. So basically you getting the worlds most expensive 1/2 an avocado. The drinks are good so I guess that's a plus. Overall it's probably a 2.5 star on food and 3.5 on drinks. Bar harbor is a tourist trap so I guess it's acceptable for them to enjoy lousy food and shake their head saying "...it's good..." when asked how the food is. Don't go out of your way to get here. read more

My husband and I were only in Bar Harbor for the weekend and knew we had to try Havana. After seeing many positive reviews online we made reservations for Saturday evening. The ambience is fabulous and the service is great. We ordered the tuna and the lobster/haddock in coconut rice and were so pleased with both. Definitely try Havana if you're in the area, it is well worth the trip! read more

One of the best dinners had in a long time. Christina, server, was excellent - knew the wine, menu and how to deliver a phenomenal experience- put this place on a go to list - we had the oysters, scallops and lobster dishes. read more

We had some awesome meals in Portland before coming to Bar Harbor, I gave them all 4 stars... and now I wish there was a 6 star option to give Havana because those meals don't compare to our meal here from start to finish. Every single thing we ate was amazing from the bread basket which we usually don't touch but this time devoured due to the irresistibly flavorful dippings, to the fish of the day, to the salted caramel ice cream we didn't have room for but somehow managed to eat. Bar Harbor, and Maine in general, has a lot of great food but this is a don't miss restaurant! read more

This place was so great. The bar tender was extremely on point with all of his creations. Our server Jake was very engaging. He answered all of our questions with vivid descriptions and was very helpful when it came to us making decisions. They also don't charge for splitting plates so you can easily share entrees with table mates so you get the best of everything. We LOVED the lobster paella and Moqueta. The spring roll appetizers were also delicious! read more

Excellent little spot to stop in and have good food and good drinks. Ordered the halibut and a salad. Both were outstanding. Service was awesome and you never had to wait for anything. Highly recommend!! read more

Where do we start?. . .We've been visiting Mt. Desert, Maine every year since 1973. . .We've been dining at Havana since Mike Boland opened the restaurant, many years ago. . .We've been extolling the virtues of this wonderful eatery since the first time we visited. . . The staff, the owner, the venue, and best of all the food is nothing less than first class. . .We travel widely, and have visited some of the best, and to our chagrin, some of the worst restaurants in the world. . .Havana ranks among the finest. . .To his credit, Mike Boland is a hands-on restauranteur. . .We've never been there when he's not there "minding the store!". . .And, he does it impeccably!!. . .Beg, borrow, steal, or commit murder, BUT, get yourself, and your partner a reservation. . .While any of the waiters/waitresses are top notch, if you are able, ask for Enrique to be your waiter. . You will never forget Havana, and you will always remember Havana!! read more

Excellent from start to finish. The owner checked in on us and complimented us on our wine selection! A pretty good compliment considering they have about a 50 page wine menu! We will make this a regular on our annual Bar Harbor trip going forward. Thank you for the great food and outstanding service! read more

Many of the aspects of our meal at Havana were wonderful and many were "meh." Overall, a nice date night experience. Wonderful: 1. Atmosphere/decor 2. Enormous wine list, which the owner offered to help us navigate 3. Mixed grille appetizer - we ordered the serving for two and could have happily skipped to dessert had we not already ordered entrees. 4 different kinds of sausage, spicy and sweet grilled peppers, and some particularly delicious pickled onions among other things. 4. Goat cheese cheesecake. WOW. I'm not even much of a cheesecake fan (my husband ordered it) but this was exceptional. (I also enjoyed my pineapple jalapeño upside down cake, but would classify it as good rather than great.) Meh: 1. We started with mojitos which I had high hopes for at a Cuban inspired restaurant. They were merely average; I've definitely had better. Too tart. 2. Soup of the day was a black bean topped with lobster which we shared. This was one confused soup. Much, much thinner than any black bean soup I've ever had. Brothy with the occasional bean and a few sad chunks of lobster floating in it. The flavor was good but perhaps it should have been named something different as it did not live up to the expectation of a black bean soup. 3. Entrees - my husband got the scallops which were cooked perfectly and thus delicious; however there wasn't much else added to the plate, not even salt. I had the tamales which were also good once I added quite a bit of salt. In comparison to the excellent appetizer and desserts, the entrees definitely took a backseat. As I said though, overall a very nice dining experience. I would return and try different entrees, or just apps and dessert. read more

Interesting flavors at this latin tapas restaurant. We had two small plates that were quite good. The shrimp with rice and a very tasty oil in the plate that was both salty and sweet. The potato tortilla was a little bland and heavy for my taste but my husband liked it . We sat at the bar and it was fine. read more

We have eaten at Havana multiple times over the past few years - and have never had a bad meal. Good service, great food - and somehow they maintain it year after year. The Charcuterie and Mixed Frill are our goto dishes, and the chocolate banana dessert is one of the best deserts ever. We have ordered numerous items off the menu and have always been happy with any meal. Do get the national Drink of Brazil if you like cocktails. We have only eaten at the outside bar to date - but will be trying the indoor area next week when we visit again. It is a beautiful restaurant and a "must eat there" place if you go to Bar Harbor. read more

Food is... fine. Totally fine. But it's fine at best. And there's a vibe from the people working here (see, painfully obnoxious hostess who thinks she is way more hip than she is/looks) everyone seems to think this place is a five star gem. Truly. It's decent, folks. If you were anywhere else on the map, this place wouldn't scratch the surface. But you're not. I'd recommend going to a local lobster joint to have something really special. And delicious. If you want to try something out that has barely decent food and takes itself way too seriously, then Havana's is your spot! read more

First rate in every respect. Lamb shank was on the menu, but they were substituting (for a small up-charge) rack of lamb, and it was amazing. Waiter was both very professional and very engaging. Decor, etc., was quite satisfactory. This has to be just about the best place in this very tourist-oriented town. Even if you are there for only a short time, don't skip it. read more

This was our fave place in bar harbor. Not really a Cuban place at all, but delicious food and great service. Paella was awesome. Pork chop really good!! Oysters also great. read more

Wonderful service, delicious food and drinks. I got the chicken which was very good. My husband hasn't stopped raving about the Seafood Paella. We got the tropical food and mojito cocktails respectively and they were very good as well. Dessert was divine tres leches, coupled with awesome Cuban coffee. The owner came by and chatted with us and some of the surrounding tables as well. Really enjoyable evening! read more

Although we decided we were going to eat lobster most of the time we were on MDI, Havana was the spot we picked for dinner the first night. The folks running the place were very kind to move our reservation back by a night when we missed our inbound flight due to weather - and thus avoiding having to enforce the missed reservation charge. Even at 9 PM (which is when our updated time was), the restaurant was still quite packed, although it had emptied out a bit by the time we had finished dinner. There are many different areas of the restaurant, as it feels like it has been cobbled together from different structures, and we ended up sitting towards the back in front of the vast wine collection that Havana has. I ended up settling for other drinks, but their pisco sour here is excellent - unlike most, it didn't get very diluted when the ice started melting; and the beer selection is solid enough - I would have liked more local beers, but the Lunch IPA from Maine Brewing was a solid selection as well. Our waiter was quite earnest and made sure everything was brought out with relatively good timing. To start off, we shared a couple of appetizers - the mixed meat plate and an order of crab cakes. To be honest, the latter had decent flavors, particularly on the lightly fried outside, but it was a bit dry once you got to the center of the cake - without the moisture, the succulence of the crab really isn't there. The meat plate, though, was excellent; I really enjoyed the chorizo on it, and the filet mignon bite was perfectly seared and marinated to perfection. Alongside these was an excellent bread basket; the corn bread was quite natural but also a tad sweeter (which I liked). The sourdough was also fresh, and it worked very well with the assorted spice-infused butter and oil that you could put on the bread. I'm usually not a fan of variants of butter and olive oil, as I sometimes feel messing with a good thing that is simple and straightforward leads restaurants to be a bit too clever. However, the butter was excellent here, and I really liked the slow heat that the chili-infused olive oil had. For our entree, my wife had the famous seafood paella, and the flavors did not disappoint. Although it's not served in the pan itself, they do a very good job of making sure you get the crispy bottom parts of the rice in the paella. Even though the food tasted great, the one notable downside was that there was not a good deal of attention paid to cleaning the shellfish; there were multiple rocks in the paella in the mussels. Although not a huge deal (and perhaps indicative of being a very fresh haul), this seemed careless to say the least. Most restaurants I know of would have discounted or comped some portion of a dish that was served with rocks, but there was no offer made - somewhat disappointing from a hospitality perspective. I had the halibut (which was the fish of the day) - excellent preparation, and it came in a very good sauce as well. We were too stuffed to go for dessert, but I can see why the First Couple dined here a while back. The food is excellent, and although it is Cuban/Latin-inspired food, it does a great job of adapting everything to the locally available cuisine. I don't give it five stars largely because having rocks in seafood dishes feels a bit amateurish (that has never happened to me anywhere else), and the crab cakes honestly were overpriced for how small they were and how overcooked they ended up being. That said, I would certainly come back, and if you're tired of visiting lobster pounds for every meal, it is a very nice change. read more

Very disappointed. Not so much in the food -- it was adequate. Not so much in the service -- it was fine, not exceptional, but fine. But we were immensely disappointed in the attitude of the owner. We've dined at Havana's every year we've visited Bar Harbor (about 3 times). We've always felt welcomed. But tonight we watched the owner (whom we've talked with before), go table to table to speak with every patron EXCEPT the two tables in the restaurant occupied by same-sex couples. We were completely ignored. He even stood next to the kitchen door and made eye contact with me. Yet, while he went table to table to acknowledge every other table, my partner and I were ignored. Overlooked. It was if he thought that if he didn't talk to us, we didn't exist. Disappointing. We won't be back. There are other much more welcoming restaurants in Bar Harbor. We will not be back to Havana. read more

Skip their brunch! Really wanted to like Havana because it was recommended by a friend, but the Sunday brunch was a big disappointment. We ordered Breakfast Burrito's with a side of sausage for my wife, side of bacon for me. Unfortunately we could see the inexperienced chef preparing our meals, as the grill is next to where we were sitting in the covered outdoor patio. The Burrito's were pre-made and wrapped, simply pulled from somewhere down under the counter and placed on the grill. For $12 the B'fast Burrito should be made fresh with fresh scrambled eggs, no excuse to pre-make them. They should be fresh and hot off the grill. When the "chef" was not flirting with the waiter I watched her cook a piece of fish for another patron, she had no idea what she was doing. That poor grouper was turned about ten times, chopped up into mush and had every ounce of moisture cooked right out of it. It look terrible when it finally made it to the plate, and probably tasted as bad. Our burritos arrived barely warm, overstuffed with twice as much rice as necessary, without any visible eggs inside (there were some yellow specks). We watched the Burritos sit on the counter cooling whilst the chef continued to undercook our sausage and bacon (she should have treated them like fish!) This place has good reviews for dinner, they obviously have a real chef at night, but the brunch "chef" needs significantly more training, and for goodness sake, make the meals fresh to order! read more

Was really looking forward to eating here unfortunately our experience was a bit of a let down. It started with the greeting when we entered the restaurant where the greeters seemed a bit put off that we didn't have a reservation even though the restaurant wasn't anywhere near capacity. Our food was less then stellar neither entree (one hangar steak and one Filet Mignon) were cooked properly. There is nothing more unacceptable when a fine dining restaurant of this supposed caliber can't deliver beef cooked to requested temps. The waitress barely acknowledged our issues with the meals and management was no where to be seen. That was a bit surprising to us for this kind of restaurant. Sides with entree's were done nicely and the coffee was very good, we did not stick around to try desert. Definitely will not be going back during this trip...we might try it again next time. read more

My husband and I came here for dinner to celebrate our recent nuptials. We had a great time. I notated on the reservation that we were there on our honeymoon and the staff had a card waiting on the table to congratulate us (sweet touch). We were also seated in a great spot right by the window. The food was delicious. I highly recommend the tuna entrée with the squid ink sauce. The only small downside was that I had to phone the restaurant 15 minutes prior to our reservation to let them know that we were running about 10 minutes behind. The hostess on the phone literally told me to hurry up. LOL I wasn't really offended because I was on vacation and in a great mood, but still. Who does that? read more

This place lived up to the hype. It was upscale without being pretentious. It was delicious without being overpriced. and most importantly, service was excellent. The paella was something I will have dreams about. We also had the tuna tartare which was wonderful. My husband had the special, an arctic char, and he nearly licked his plate. Great wine selection as well. read more

What a wonderful experience for our anniversary dinner! Impeccable service and outstanding food and cocktails. A really special place that we look forward to returning to. read more

I'm quite tempted to write a review with a single word of "WOW"...but since I'm in the office and I need to look busy to my coworkers, I will elaborate. Most of the reviews are spot on about this place: excellent food, service and ambiance. They have an amazing not over the top wine selection that's reasonably priced (think Opus One but 1/5 the price). This is a must try next time you are in Bar Harbor. read more

havana was good. nothing remotely cuban and definitely pricey. but, if you want well cooked food and you wanna eat it with people wealthier than you are: you found your place. my highlight was a slaw made with brussel sprouts that served as a bed for my bass. the bass was good but the slaw was awesome. read more

Best seafood paella hands down. The owner comes and greets every single table and that was so cool. The waiter was so knowledgeable about the food read more

The lobster paella was delicious and good portion size. Lamb was delicious but small portion. Tuna wrapped in ham was good, as well as the chicken and scallops. You might want to avoid the filet mignon as it is somewhat distasteful. Dessert and cheese are excellent! read more

The food is just ok, we ordered lobster moqueca and seafood paella which is very salty. As a high end restaurant, it's food is not good enough comparing to other restaurants and it is very expensive. Super disappointed and will not try it again. read more

Overpriced and my food was blah. I had the stuffed poblano. Sounded so great but I was boring and almost no cheese. The atmosphere and music were good but I will not be back. My husband did enjoy his paella. read more

This restaurant deserves to be rated as the top in Mount Desert Island. Food great, very creative, really tasty. Good recipes, exceptionally prepared and tastefully served.. Wine recommendation was excellent. And the ice cream from Mount Desert Ice Cream is heavenly ... I ate in the back room which I liked. The owner came and talked to us ... interesting story and he has genuinely succeeded in creating a unique and wonderful eating experience. Service was quite exceptional from the maitre d', to the manager who recommended our wine, the servers and the table waiter who noticed me drop a knife and immediately replaced it. read more

Favorite restaurant on Bar Harbor. Great food, music, cocktails, service and atmosphere.

My wife and I had an unpleasant experience at Havana tonight. We sat at the outside bar and ordered a a couple of drinks. While serving the drinks, the bartender knocked over a glass of red wine, most of which ended up on my wife and me. The bartender was very apologetic and gave us some sparkling water to blot up the wine, but it was a hopeless cause. Rather than make a fuss, we decided to stay for dinner. When the bill came, the bartender said that they would comp the spilled drink and its replacement. This seemed a bit unfair, given that our clothes were ruined, so I paid the bill and went to the manager. He said he wanted to make things right and offered a $50 gift certificate. I said I wasn't from the area, so he offered to pay me cash instead. I said that would be great, at which point he produced a $10 bill! I said that wasn't good enough and asked for a full refund. He said OK, and came back 5 minutes later for a credit slip for the cost of 1 drink and 1 entree. At this point I just laughed, because I could see what sort of person I was dealing with. He wanted to know if I was laughing at him, but rather than tell the truth, I said that I was just amazed. I guess he probably was too. Great food and decor, but don't sit too close to the outside bar and don't bother to speak to the manager if one of the staff members ruins your clothing! read more

A completely awesome meal. The chicken mole was one of the most delicious dishes I've ever had. The poblano pepper accompanying the chicken was extraordinary. The carrot soup was creative and yummy. Even the bread was truly excellent, as was the service. We'll be back! If you're in Bar Harbor, DO NOT miss Havana. read more

Meh. Not impressed with the one vegetarian option. My husband said his lobster dish was just okay. We would not return.

Dinner here last night was almost perfect. From the varied menu, the wonderful atmosphere, and the unusual but delicious combination of ingredients, our time there was extremely enjoyable. The staff was great too. read more

i liked havana -- didn't LOVE it. it was fine. and the food you get will be well-prepared. i'm not sure why it is called havana since the food isn't really cuban influenced. the atmosphere was very dimly lit to the point of having menu reading problems. the wine list is excellent. perhaps the best in the area from what i have investigated. the portions were quite large to the point that what we ordered should have been flagged by the server with a "i think maybe you might want to just get this or get that because you have ordered a ton of food you won't be able to finish." though i guess it is my responsibility to ask. my partner thought the sea grill was very good. i had the lobster paella and it was quite rich and sort of the consistency of a risotto not a paella. this kind of seems like a churn and burn tourist place of a higher level. maybe because the president dined there they have gone into auto pilot? read more

Loved everything! Apps, dinner, and cocktails were amazing. Thank you for a wonderful night.

Service and food was excellent. Paella was hearty and seafood was fresh. Pork dish also big and tasty. Local beers on tap and good selection of wines by the glass. Definitely a keeper. read more

We had a very nice diner as a family (my wife, myself and 3 boys 9, 12, 14). The service was excellent, attentive, and the food very good. We will have amazing memories from that diner. Price was a little steep but all things considered was well worth it. I will definitely come again. read more

By far, Havana offered us the best dining experience during our stay in Bar Harbor. Really inventive combinations of ingredients, flawless service, and an impressive sommelier. We basically let our server and sommelier choose our experience for us, and they couldn't have done better. The ambiance is nice and cozy, it's an easy walk from most anywhere in town, and the experience can't be beat. It will be the first place I'd head back to next time I'm in town! read more

Very good dinner in Bar Harbor. We ate on the patio at Parrilla. Fun ambiance. Service was fine. Price point is a little too high. Can recommend the carnitas dish as one of our favorites. One of the better places to dine in BH. read more