La Cañada is a small Canarian restaurant tucked into a backstreet of the old village above Varadero, on Calle César Manrique. It is the kind of unfussy place that visitors to a resort town are always told to look for and rarely find — small dining room, blackboard menu, a handful of tables outside on the steep pedestrian street. The food is straight Canarian: goat stew, conejo en salmorejo (rabbit in a paprika-and-wine sauce), local cheeses, papas arrugadas, and the day's catch grilled.
Reservations are usually possible without too much trouble, but in high season come early; the kitchen closes when it runs out of food. The owner is patient with menu questions in English or German. Prices are about half of what the harbourside places charge.