RESTAURANTE LA UNICA CARTAGENA/MEXICAN FOOD/COCTELERIA/ CAVA DE VINOS/CATAS/MARIDAJES/ — Restaurant in Cartagena

A great upscale Mexican place. Some delicious dishes and lots of good flavors.

The cauliflower is really good, and a rare vegetable in Colombia. The bone marrow tacos are some of the best tacos I've had. How good they are seems to depend on the bone you get actually, but as one of the cheaper things on the menu they're well worth it.

The guacamole is solid. The salsas that come with the chips are quite good too (they charge for them).

The margaritas are good. I couldn't taste a difference between the top shelf patron and the Jose quervo reposado versions though.

There's a lot of very expensive meats on the menu that actually didn't impress me at all. The barbacoa was the single most expensive dish I ordered in Cartagena, but was still not nearly as tender, juicy, or flavorful as what you can find for pennies in Mexico. The skirt steak was also a bit chewy, and didn't have the richest flavor. I think the bone marrow tacos had much more flavor and depth then either of the expensive meats we got. The barbacoa is a bit of a presentation where they flambe the thing in front of you though, so still might be worth it on a date.

It's a very pretty restaurant. The main room with the bar and their wall of plants...

Came in with high expectations. They get 2 stars due to the bar tenders being extremely friendly. Had a good time at the start of the meal. I ordered the ceviche and a NY steak with a side substitution. Ceviche was solid, NY steak was just ok for the price. They lost a couple stars for bringing my steak out before my appetizer which would have been ok if the entree didn't sit under a heater while I enjoyed my ceviche. I could tell it was just placed in the broiler since I had a modified plate with mash potatoes instead of the French fries and the plate came out extremely hot and my steak came out slightly overcooked. They lost their last star when they charged me for my side of mash potatoes which should have been a straight substitution. When I brought this to the attention of the server they said they charge for additional sides. I tried to argue that I didn't receive my fries then and that I would have gotten a side of vegetables had I known since we were discussing the side options earlier. Either way, meal was overpriced for what I got. Wouldn't recommend. Many other better options around cartegenas old city at...

This restaurant was suggested by the folks at Carmen. So we were eager to try them. The host was warm and welcoming, and we were ushered to the bar while we waited for a table to be ready. We ordered some stellar cocktails and were soon seated. Our service took our drinks to our table and got us settled quickly. We ordered the queso with chorizo to share, which was delightful, although we could have taken a few extra tortillas. Our mains included a hamburger, pork ribs with passion fruit sauce, and the chiccaron octopus. This is where the disappointment hit us smack dab in the face. The flavors were delicous, but the burger was dry and crumbly. The octopus was tough and rubbery. The pork ribs were extremely inedible, I could not cut them with the steak knife. They needed to be braised for hours. The passion fruit sauce was so yummy, so that was a huge disappointment. Our server never returned to check on us, so we were never able to alert him to the issues with entrees. On the plus side, the restaurant has live music, and the entertainers put on a great show. So we still had an...