The Secret Garden Placencia — Restaurant in Placencia

I went there because they advertised Grilled age Rib Eye! I needed to get some beef into me. I should have listened to the following cues: 1- there is no mention of the size of the steak on the menu, make it seem amateur. 2- when i asked about the size, she showed me with her hands…3- she never asked for how i wanted it cooked and when I precisely asked for medium rare she was caught off guard and had sat it again. Not her fault, she was nice, she just does not have the training to serve steak because this is not a steak place. Obviously the steak was ridiculously small, poor quality and overcooked. Probably not aged and definitely not grilled but cooked in a pan…. If you want a steak, do not go there. With that out of the way. The rest of the service was great, cool quiet place, the mash potatoes and veggies tasted really good. The chimichuri kinda sauce was awesome and the wine was good. I wish i could rate the place better but honestly they should not have steak on their menu. Or at least, avoid bragging about quality , put the weight of the meat on the menu and do not falsely advertise for grilled meat if you are going to fry it. Sorry for bad review, the...

It was probably the best fine dining we had the entire week we were in Placencia as far as food and service.

We came early because we didn't have a reservation (5:30pm). That was a bit of a mistake, because that seemed to be the time when the bugs come out. It had rained a few days before, and maybe it's bad this time of year for bugs, I'm nor sure. They did put out a citronella coil a while after we got there, and either it did the trick or the bugs went to bed, but my wife woke up the next morning with a significant amount of bites (15+ bites). We should have asked them to do that sooner. That, or we could have sat somewhere with less bugs, like on the veranda.

The food, service, and setting was absolutely superb, and I'd give it a 5 star rating if my wife would let me. If it wasn't for Mother Nature, it would be 5 stars. Next time we'll be...

Pros: we got a table straight away, the food came fast and we liked the courtyard setting. Food was good for the most part. Cons: the music on the radio they were playing had constant air horn and other sound effects that were really annoying after a few minutes. The food was good but not amazing given the price. They also didnt have the drinks we wanted on the menu and only had one dessert option. My curry was quite watery but had some flavour. They advertise they accept card payments but then they were awkward when asking for part cash part card payment, then when we handed them our card as we didn't have much cash on us, our card was out of sight for 10 minutes which we didn't like. The menu was also a bit pricier than other restaurants we have...