El Arsenal: The Rum Box — Restaurant in Cartagena

I hate to leave a bad review because the service and atmosphere was great, but the food and prices were bad. I don't mind paying top dollar for good food, but the food was very mediocre. The main entree was bad. The drinks were good and the appetizer was mediocre at best .

I get that colombia is rightfully so known for its bad food and cooking, but there is no way this place should be the number one restaurant in the city on trip advisor. The salmon was overcooked and poorly seasoned. The salmon was not fresh either. I could tell. Also the portions were very small. The mashed potatoes were cold and not creamy at all. It was cold, hard, and lumpy with no seasoning. Even microwave mashed potatoes taste way better. Seriously. The salmon was not warm either. The side vegetables were soggy and poorly seasoned. 65 dollars for 2 entrees, 2 drinks, and 1 appetizer. Never again.

Side note: colombia has to be the worst country for food I have ever visited. The cuisine is so simple, lacks any seasoning and creativity, and the meat is overcooked to a rubber texture. They do an equally bad job at cooking other cuisines also. The only city I have liked is the food from Santa Elena, which is a small mountain town 45 mins from medellin. It is a Beautiful small city with some...

After hearing about this from other people, I booked the rum tasting for my wife & myself. Note that you reach out to them directly to reserve a time. Once we arrived, we were greeted with hugs and escorted to the tasting room. Luckily it was just us for rum tasting, so we had our guide Sebas all to ourselves. He was a wonderful instructor & was funny as well. We tasted eight different rums, and had chocolate with each one. I'd definitely suggest to eat a meal before doing this, just for balance. Rum tasting took just under two hours. Once done, we got walked to a gift shop to buy rums & chocolate we had during the rum tasting, as well as pay for rum tasting. I'd definitely recommend doing this while you're in Cartagena.

We also wound up choosing them for dinner, and man it was so good. There were so many good options, we did all appetizers to try a lot of the food. We had the meatballs, which were out of this world, then we tried the spicy orzo, also good. We added on the plantains baskets and the fried yuca stuffed with chorizo. Everything was so good! Also, David gave us excellent quality service. Thought the idea of crayons to write on your placemat was a unique touch. Prices were great. Restaurant is on a very lively street, so expect noise but...

Okay, so, people in Colombia are generally lovely/friendly and the Costeños especially so. But if you want an exceptional culinary experience (drinks included) and want to walk away feeling like it doesn't matter what else you do with your time in Cartagena because you had such a special experience, then I'd hands down recommend this place above anywhere else I've been (and I've done the rounds). Now, you have to sit at the bar, or else how else will you interact with the experts? (Don't hide in a corner, shrinking violet. ) Everything is delicious, but what actually makes this so special is the attentiveness of the staff and their knowledge and charm. It's like going over to (a very stylish) friend's place who let's you in on all their food and drink secrets and makes you feel like you're the only person in the world who matters and that heir sole mission in life is to make sure your meal is ricissimo. Plus you get a hug by a handsome young man. Bottom line is this is as charming a place as it gets, and is now one of my favorite watering holes (with exceptional food) in the world. Hemingway (a-hole that he was) would have approved. Just go. You will be at worst glad that you did and sated or at best delighted...