The replica of an eatery founded back in 1946 with the same name and using the recipes of the Garcia family, El Aljibe reopened its doors ten years ago next August. More than a million tourists has already visited the premises during that span of time.

This is a picture-perfect, thatch-roofed hick house located in the exclusive Miramar neighborhood and seating 280 patrons that's open from noon to midnight seven days a week.

The menu card at El Aljibe, the standard-bearing restaurant of Palmares Co. -also turning nine years old very soon- features Aljibe chicken (prepared and cooked for years using the recipes of the Garcia family, the same that still runs the restaurant), a thick broth of black beans (sleepy beans, as we Cubans put it) and white rice alongside fried plantains or potato chips. For the unbeatable price of 12 bucks apiece, you may tuck in as much food as you possibly can.

For Sergio Garcia Diaz, the restaurant's deputy manager, this Havana corner, with $30 million in sales over the past ten years, offers a quiet ambience and a casual service that help patrons enjoy the exquisiteness of its dishes.

With a daily average of 450 to 500 eaters, El Aljibe is currently undergoing a renovation and enhancement process. Some of the future additions will include a wine cellar -the restaurant's wine assortment is way over 200 brands, mostly of red wine- and a private lounge for nearly two dozen patrons, plus an easy-to-access parking lot El Aljibe 7th Avenue on the corner of 26th Street, Miramar. Havana, Cuba phones: (53 7) 204 1583/84, 204 7231