Petronio Cocina de autor — Restaurant in Bogota, Capital District

By complete coincidence, we were urged to visit this restaurant, with the promise of cuisine from the Pacific coast. Little did we know what we would experience, but we’re always up for something new. When we arrived, we were greeted with a restaurant situated in an unassuming location, seemingly a residential area in north central Bogotá. It wasn’t very busy and we shown to our table. Almost instantly, our server Maribel arrived to welcome us and to advise us that we were about to experience cuisine from the region of Chocó. We didn’t know anything about this department of the country or its cuisine, but we were about to find out. The menu was fairly simple but we didn’t recognize any of the dishes, so we had to go with recommendations. The first was a local drink, slightly alcoholic, the name of which I didn’t get but the flavours were undeniable. Somehow a blend of sweet and savoury - simply delicious, with a cool presentation in coconut shells, bougainvillea and rosemary (which was lit on fire for a smoky aroma). Next, we had 3 starters: El Saladito (fried cheese with a smoky pepper garnish), Timbales de Timbiquí (prawns in plantain baskets) and Lulada de Mar (a lulo-infused ceviche). All were great but the ceviche was a standout. Unbelievably good, followed closely by the prawns. For mains, we had the Tan picada que ni saluda (fried Fish and prawn with ripe plantain and potatoes - they love plantains in Colombia!), and the Cerdo que se duerme (pork rice with chicharron). Both were very tasty and offered completely different flavours. We were persuaded to try dessert, even though we were full. The Tres leches de Palmira was unlike anything we’d ever tasted and probably top 5 desserts of all time. Light, sweet, full of texture but not overwhelming. It rivalled all of the dishes that came before it. We’re still thinking about how good it was. Compliments to the chef and all the staff for a truly excellent meal and experience. We can’t compliment Maribel enough, she was truly exceptional. If you’re ever in Bogotá, don’t think twice about having...

TL;DR - Buyer beware - expensive bad food prepared slowly from a restaurant unwilling to make up for glaring flaws.

We ordered a plantain cup appetizer that was good and unfortunately the positives end there. The "corn" appetizer pictured was extremely saucy and had what appeared to be an unappetizing green dye added. The fish pictured is huge but very dry - the chef even came out at the end to tell us they are aware of the issue and they sell this overpriced item anyway, as consolation we were given an inedible coffee dessert. I would have expected the fish comped after admission of it's poor preparation but to be fair my grandmother asked to take the leftovers to give away to the less fortunate. We ordered an item that the menu stated included a tuna tartar, when the plate came without it we were asked to prove it was on the menu - this was apologized for profusely after we showed them the issue but this did not make up for the poor experience given we waited over 1 hour for food after ordering and they subsequently admitted there were several errors on the menu that have not been addressed. We also ordered a lobster bisque that did not taste at all of lobster - when we mentioned this to the chef he said he likes to do things "differently". Finally we ordered a sea food pasta that had a tasty sauce but was overcooked (pasta and seafood) and seemed to have sat out waiting for the other dishes as you could see the sauce drying and changing colors on the plate when served. Overall a very frustrating and unsatisfying experience especially for a high price tacky restaurant that was previously highly recommended. I can't help but imagine some big changes were made...

You should come here if you just want to enjoy the look but don’t care for the taste. Not many chefs can archive good presentations and good food. This chef must spend too much time making things .. cute, but less time on good food. The inside of the restaurant is covered with tons of plastic plants, cocktails are in cute cups, may a “sommelier” (hahaha) comes to your table to mix your drinks, eatable flowers and colored mayonnaise are sprinkled on your dishes and your dish may come on fire. But once you take your drinks and food in your mouth, you will be disappointed because they are off and are missing flavors. We had one cocktail/starter/main dish each but the cocktails were boring, one of the starters came with awfully sweet sauce, and the other came with tasteless mayonnaise. One of the main dishes' sauces came with awfully sweet red wine sauce which was not fully cooked it was still sourly and tangy unless it is meant to be that way … ugh! Beef is good in Bogota, Why does it have to be covered with a ton of the meaningless sauce? My tamale wasn’t too bad but, again, it was very sugary sweet. Bogota is far from fresh seafood and, therefore, they should take extra care to make it good. Hope they will see that making the drinks and the dishes cute doesn’t solve any of the core issues. For now, this restaurant is very...