Viva la Vida | Restaurante Asiatico — Restaurant in Bogota, Capital District

Wow. Such an unbelievable experience. At first, I thought that this was going to be just another sushi restaurant, with some interesting cocktail options. When you review their menu, you initially think that all of the fancy pictures and extravagant creations are just marketing hype. But they absolutely are not! What you see in the menu is what gets delivered to the table. So your cocktail may come to the table with a three foot tall decanter or be served inside a ceramic iconic head the size of ... well, your own head. It really needs to be experienced to be belived.

When you arrive, you will be facing a six foot tall religious statue on a pedestal. Someone from the staff, who is dressed in ceremonial garb, will conduct a brief meditation ceremony. It was an excellent way to begin the experience, as it puts you in the right mood for your meal. You are then escorted to your table, and invited to sample one of the many wonderful cocktails that they have to offer. Each one is unique in and of itself, being a combination of alcohol and mixers, and a special presentation. Go to the web site to see what I mean. What you see, is what shows up at your table. My date and I tried a half dozen of the delicious aperitifs, and there was not a one that I would not drink again.

As to the food, that was also delicious. I only sampled two dishes from the Maki (Sushi) menu, but both were fantastic. Because we were so full from cocktails, we didn't have enough room for dessert, but that leaves me with something to try next time.

And just when we thought the evening couldn't get any better, at around 10pm, musicians appeared and started to play folk music at different points in the restaurant. Followed thereafter by dancers who were garbed in "mirror ball" outfits from head to toe. And then somewhat later, there was some sort of celebration by the staff, and at every bar in the restaurant, large balls of fire shot up, and the staff began to chant and clap. (Don't ask me what it was all about, all I know is that it was a sight to behold.)

There is no doubt that it is a pricier restaurant, although six drinks and two dinners still ran me less than $100 USD ($400.000 COP). In my opinion, it was money well spent, and I would not hesitate to come back to this restaurant again. Be sure to make a reservation, as the place will get quite crowded in the evening, both from diners, and those looking to have drinks while enjoying...

I put 5 stars so it can show in the top Google reviews. This place isn’t what you expect. We visited this place with a large group and the drinks are plain, pretty much all of them have too much lime and they end up tasting the same. Food, we ordered sushi, sashimi, gyosas and some plate with beef. Sushi 2 stars, plain plain plain. Sashimi 🤦‍♂️dude fix the sashimi. Gyosas they were ok maybe even 3 stars. Tokyo beef I got mixed feelings, the beef was ok, but the garnish was the best part of the dish. How come the garnish tastes better than the actual dish🤦‍♂️. The drinks waiting for a few minutes for a drink is common, waiting 30 mins for them is an insult. And even more insulting if it’s just plain water. The experience of being thirsty for of a while and then having to wait another 1-3 mins so that they can introduce a drink that doesn’t even come close to what they serve is absurd. Price, if the food was better prepared and the portions were proportional to the price it would be great. For the amount of food we got and what we got charged I feel it was very overpriced. About 45% overpriced.

Recommendations: Save the show for the circus and just serve the drinks on a timely manner. Easy on the citrus, in excess it will definitely damage your drinks and customers ulcers. Again save the explanation for the food, that’s what the menu is for. Train the people that you have wasting their time explaining stuff people don’t really need to know, have this personnel cooking the food and preparing the drinks, so customers don’t have to wait an eternity for their food. If you wanna sell an experience, open a travel agency and send people to Asia to eat the real food. Or just quit the experience and serve better prepared food on a timely manner. If you wanna have a Colombian-Japanese fusion, try including some Colombian food in there. What happened to the tropical fruits in the drink menu??? What about a Japanese whisky with lulo infusion or something in that area, be creative.

Or just keep the experience and serve better food. Or at least make it cheaper so that people don’t feel like they were taken advantage of.

PS: A server asking for a service charge “tip” after their customers had to wait half the time spend in the place for water shouldn’t be done.

By the way I spend almost 1200000 pesos in this place. This is about 300dls. Really expensive...

A frustrating and bizarre dining experience on 3rd Aug. This was my third time at this restaurant. I make it a point to come every year whenever I am in Bogota for the beautiful setting, great hospitality, and creative Colombian reading of Japanese food. We requested for 5 sets of the degustation experience for our party of 5. The food came out and it was gorgeous and delicious, but instead of the usual individual portions, food started was served family style. Something was wrong, I felt, and we asked the waiter in Spanish about which course we were on the degustation. We were informed that the menu was different that day. So we continued on consecutive strange courses of sharing items with terrible pacing and were cold when served at once. Many of these items were also duplicated. When the check arrived, we were shocked that we were charged for each item a la carte. We requested for the manager. He first tried to explain that the degustation experience was small portions and therefore switched us over to a la carte so we could share (!?!?!) then later tried to gaslight our Spanish-speaking local friend that it was previously communicated to him (he arrived late and so wasn’t part of the ordering process). These explanations were unprofessional. The restaurant should never decide without authorization what customers wanted. If the degustation menu were unavailable, the waiters should have explained and invited us to make alternative a la carte selections. We would not have made 2 orders of each item that were brought to our table, which were too much. The manager and restaurant did not offer any remedies. I used to recommend this restaurant to all my local and foreign friends. But after last evening, they can forget about us ever coming back. I recommend foreigners from staying away from this...