Your trip is too short to wait for a table!

You might need a fork for the side of beans, rice and vegetables, but the signature dish of roast chicken in a bitter orange-and-garlic sauce at this rustic family restaurant is best eaten a mano. Slow-roasted in a clay pot to sticky perfection, pollo asado ($12 Cuban pesos) is at the heart of traditional Cuban cuisine. In other words, it’s peasant food.

Both chicken and naranja agria (bitter orange) are national staples and clay pot cooking can be done anywhere there’s fire. Somehow, the end result amounts to more than the sum of its parts—and the bonus at state-run El Aljibe is that it’s all-you-can-eat.

This story was originally published in the October 2009 issue of up! magazine as part of Grab & Go, a package of stories profiling the most delicious dishes eaten with your hands in Canada, the United States and the Caribbean. Check out other scrumptious spots in these WestJet destinations:

Calgary

Comox

Halifax

Honolulu

Miami

Montreal

New York City

Phoenix

Toronto

Vancouver

Winnipeg