Restaurante San Valentin — Restaurant in Cartagena

Resumen: mal servicio , mala comida en especial el plato típico "Posta cartagenera" sobre-cocida casi imposible de comer.

Summary: Bad service: rude waiters Bad food: an overcooked “posta cartagenera” is almost impossible to eat.

Being tourists, we were recommended this restaurant since it has a great local reputation, good service, and quality food. Unfortunately, the experience was not good for us. I can tell you the ambiance felt nice, good music and good chairs, not a good table (it was unbalanced), which we asked multiple times to be fixed, in the end they moved us to another table... and it had the same problem. To eat a snapper and the famous “Posta Cartagenera” typical local dish, when the dishes arrived the presentation was good, the problem was the texture; The meat was overcooked, which normally were beef medallions cooked over low heat to make it tender and not hard as it happened to us, not even the knife could cut that meat well. So we called the service and explained the inconvenience so that they could tell us how to compensate for the carelessness of their chefs, to which the service gave us some illogical explanations “you let the meat cool and that's why it got too stiff, if you see the tendon, you can see that it is soft”. The explanations led to giving us a compensation of a red wine and a piece of cake... which is derisory compared to the fact that we were two people and the cost did not match the price paid for the bad meat. We accepted anyway, but given the inconvenience, we decided not to pay for the service, which offended the waiter, and he was very disrespectful when we went to pay by credit card and did not explain or let us see the receipt. It was a lousy service, a bad meal, and in the end it gave an experience not to...

My family and I had heard of this restaurant by a few people around Cartagena and also saw good reviews online. Unfortunately, it did not live up to the reviews. We were lucky to get a table quite quickly as we arrived around 9pm, but it was still quite busy and lively. The atmosphere was definitely what kept it lively and fun. A live band upstairs and downstairs, nice music and beautiful interior. Service was decent, lovely waiters/waitresses and helpful. We were first served with drinks. Daiquiri was nice and sweet. San Valentino was nothing special. We ordered Cartageno ceviche and mushrooms in garlic butter. Ceviche was the star dish of the night. The tomato base was a nice flavour and the ceviche was fresh. Mushrooms were salty and basic. The downfall continues with the mains, but do have to mention that the portions were quite big and affordable for its price. To begin, the Caribean basa filet was cold. It was soft but quite unpleasant to eat cold. The grilled striploin, although ordered medium rare, it was well cooked, therefore, struggling to even cut through the meat, let alone eat it. No sauce comes with it, but comes with fresh cut fries and side salad. The overcooked meat continued with the grilled meat for 2, which was true and was more than enough. All the meats were chewy and dry. Some flavour to it, but couldn’t hide the fact you had to chew through it for some moisture in your mouth. Came with some fries and plantains. The only dish that was flavourful, not dry and was warm (at the least) was the mixed seafood rice. Huge portion but had 1 mussel, so will be needing your muscles to fight for it if you’re sharing. Live music continued to play throughout the night which added a nice ambience and the...

Nice setting and quite trendy... But food is simply tasteless and service average. We 1st ordered to share a "molcajete" which is about the only Colombian dish on the Menu. While the name molcajete is in fact the name of a local stone mortar, it did contain a local guacamole with fried lard. This dish was nice. Then the problems started... The 2 individual dishes we ordered were served way before we even finished the 1st course. Bad timing. My wife ordered a sweet and sour pork, but they delivered a pork with melted cheese... My wife still tried it, thimking it was their way of doing it. But obviously it was not what she had ordered. Being polite we did not send it back. The whole dish was tasteless. I had ordered a "cazuela de mariscos" (seafood casserole) hoping I would get some tasty local food. But although the portion was very generous, the sauce was a tasteless mixture with hard to identify ingredients in which a couple of mussels, a few shrimps and some pieces of cuttlefish were trying to swim. And while the sauce was tasteless these ingredients did have some taste, but it was the taste of overcooked frozen seafood. Except maybe for the 2 large mussels. The sides were also so so: some larges fries and some salad with ready made mayonnaise for my wife. What appeared to be 2 slices of fried manioc (but hard and cold) accompanied by a nice looking pyramid of brown rice that was also overcooked and too sweet. Conclusion: if you absolutely want to try this place because the hostesses look nice and the music if fun, just take a cocktail and some fried appetizers and go have...