Gaira Café Cumbia House — Restaurant in Bogota, Capital District

When I came to this place with my family we were assigned a table by the manager Carlos ... a few minutes later a couple approach my group ib a very agresive behavior claiming as yours the table that I was assigned., immediately the threw a glass on my legs and hurt my feet with the glass and threatened us so badly we ran away from that table and found the manager in charge CARLOS to let him know what just happened he did nothing about it he said that they can’t take people away from the restaurant not even when they are dangerous people we sat outside for a while to calm down and to wait for a solution but nothing happened then Carlos assigned us again the same table again.

We left the restaurant very dissapinted the next day we contact Julian Preciado who make and invite to us to the restaurant promising to change our experience from my party of five just two people decided to come back to the restaurant the other three are still very dissapinted and feel insecure about the security of this place. When we came back to the restaurant there wasn’t any invite we have to pay for the cover we were assigned a table for two with a nice view and we received without asking if we like wine a bottle of house wine and unfortunately we don’t drink wine. While sitting at the table the same manager CARLOS approach just to let us know that Diana Ariza a restaurant employee was looking for us and he brought her to our table and she came in a very agresive mannner saying that she was blamed by Julian Preciado in their weekly meeting for what happened to us. For the second time we felt insecure in this place we left again feeling disappointed.

At this point we decided to contact Felipe Scarpeta the general manager and let him know what happened what we went through in two different visits at Gaira cafe we told him everything hopping for some real support and here is his answer:

“We apologize that you don’t drink wine and I spoke to my employee that came to you in an agressive manner I...

Gaira Cafe is a restaurant/bar/theater that pays homage to many artists. Similar to a Planet Hollywood but with a live show and lots of dancing in between.

We came on our last night in Bogota and had a good time.

The reservation process could be a bit easier. I noticed they take reservations on The Fork (highly recommended app like Opentable where you can instantly make/change/cancel restaurant reservations and get points). Unfortunately, I contacted them through Whatsapp, and they made me prepay which was a bit nerve racking because you have to use this app like Paypal and it was taking a while for them to approve my foreign credit card, and the location of your table was firs come first serve depending on when they received your payment, etc. They also told me there were not a lot of seats left on the 1st floor and when I arrived, there seemed to be many.

Anyhow, reservation process aside, everything else was pretty smooth. You check in, get bracelets to go in and another bracelet on the amount that you prepay. On a Sat, we had to pay 150,000 COP of which 50k was a cover and 100k you can consume. So about ~$40pp. Not cheap but for the live entertainment and hours you can spend dancing, I think it’s worth it.

Service is good. Food is actually good. I had the prawns with chimichurri on top of mashed potato and it was tasty. I also had multiple non alcoholic drinks, appetizer and dessert and barely got to my prepaid amount. I even had to take some home.

At about 9pm, a DJ came out and played mainly latin music including a lot of Carlos Vives songs (after all it’s his/his brother’s restaurant). Then a band of about 3 rotating singers came. Not bad. They’d sing for a bit. Then the DJ would come back out and then they came again. We were with my father in law and a bit tired so felt like we had to wait a bit too long for the band to come back out. Wish they’d sing longer or come back sooner.

All in all, a fun place to spend the night, dance or just...

More than 30 years ago Carlos Vives was cast in the lead role of the soap "Escalona". This led to his singing career which took off in 1994 with "La Gota Fria".

Over his career he has 14 albums to his credit with Vallenato and Tropical music, and he's parlayed his fortune into a comfortable brand, here with a music/food venue (Cartagena has one too).

There is only street parking and if you go on a weekday in the early afternoon you'll be the only ones there at the restaurant. The restaurant is a three level music venue that serves unremarkable food.

[If you're used to US Dollars, any price in COP would be divided by 3,000 or so to get the US equivalent, so 30,000 COP would equate with exchange fees on your US Credit Card to ~$10.]

The anytime menu is reasonably priced but discouraged by servers who will insist on ordering from the Dinner menu for the "best experience". Drink prices are exorbitantly expensive, but someone's got to pay for the decor. Plenty of ambiance as heading up the stairs affords a better view and eclectic memorabilia.

As women in our group made their way to the restroom (upstairs-go figure!), one-by-one, someone claiming to be the man himself, would appear out of nowhere (like a Disney character) and greet them and most all did not initially recognize the guy as he hasn't looked like himself for over 30 years. (In fact recent photos, look like he helped design the food menu).

This surprise of meeting the man himself did not occur to men in our group, so I'm guessing the "chance" meeting him was no coincidence as he'd been watching the women (through multiple cameras) in our group since they walked in.

Music comes from non-Carlos Vives musicians. He RARELY sings. So they might as well have a cardboard cutout to take fotos with. 🤔...wonder why he doesn't sing twice daily in his...