18 Scalini — Restaurant in Bogota, Capital District

What a mess of a visit this was. The place has potential, sure, but the need to improve their recipes, cut a little on the price tag, and most of all they need to have all the personnel to go through a serious retraining.

Waiter placed the drinks on the table without looking and while chatting personal matters with other member of the staff; Parmesan was brought to the table already ground and served directly by the waiter, just a couple spoons and then left without asking if we wanted more; napkins came to the table in the waiter's hands all from the deposit area; and as the closing mistake tip was charged without asking, something against the law in Colombia.

As for food, appetizer was Burrata, served here with Bolognese completely messing the flavor; both independently are fine, but together are a miss. Main dish is my reason to say there is potential: I tried the 18 Scalini Lasagna, made with pulled beef (not ground, nice surprise) and it was good, not excellent but good. No comments on dessert as the waiter didn't offer the option (the one on the phone before the visit mentioned desserts, so there are some, it's just another miss...

We came here excited to try the pizza. Big mistake. What we got was a soggy, cheese-drenched impersonation of Italian pizza. Think Colombian-style pizza in Italian costume — all cheese, no sauce, limp dough, and zero balance. We also ordered the burrata – their supposed specialty – which didn’t live up to the hype. The carpaccio and caprese were okay, but nothing memorable. Service was quite slow, but to be fair, our waiter was very kind and attentive. Overall, a letdown — and easily the worst pizza we’ve had in Bogotá (excluding street pizza, of course, which is in a league of its own when it comes to being inedible).

Before anyone calls me a pretentious gringo — my wife is from Bogotá, and she agrees with every word. She co-signed...

We popped in here by chance in the hopes that it being an Italian restaurant they'd have some coeliac friendly foods, and to our delight they did! My girlfriend who is a coeliac had freshly made gluten pasta for her dish, I believe it was something rustic, but she said its was delicious! I had their lasagne and it was superb and one of the best I've ever had. The service was great, there was a slight language barrier but they had a waiter who spoke good english who helped us with our ordering. Highly recommend this...