The Clock Pub Cartagena — Restaurant in Cartagena

I am a Brit who lives in Colombia, so I hope this review can give tourists a realistic overview. I went twice during my 3 day stay in Cartagena. (2 star food, 3 star service and 4 star atmosphere)

In brief - lot's of beer options and amount of TVs but everything else is underwhelming and overpriced. I understand why some call it a tourist trap. The place has lot's of potential but I see why it has a 4.5 rating, it should possibly be lower.

Pros: Lot's of drinks to choose from. Open most of the day. There's two floors, lots of screens for sport and music. Some staff have a basic command of English for those worried for miscommunications. British Pub décor vibes.

Cons: The food is bad. Change the nachos/chips to Doritos or another branded option, because they are awful and even a customer returned the nachos (some nachos/chips come with meals). Everyone who I saw order the burger (I ordered it too) ripped parts of the bun off. It's super thick and not very nice. I suggest you go for the wings or salad, which I saw people eat and seems to be a safe choice. I ordered the Mexican Wrap on my second day and it was literally a burger and cheese grilled in a cheap tasting wrap. It's just not the standard for the price.

For the most part, the staff are disinterested. I went across two days and only one member of staff was warm and welcoming. The rest were seemed a little miserable - which I can understand when in a tourist hotspot, long days, low pay but when you charge high prices, the service has to match. I saw other arrivals have this issue. On my second visit I sat there unapproached so I just went to the bar to grab a menu myself after a while. They tend to congregate together and are always on their phones. When pouring pints, talking with patrons and so on. This would not be a problem if everything else was really good, but it is not. You can even check the cameras on Sunday afternoon, it is very clear to see.

As I live in Colombia, I know the prices in a tourist hotspots will be more but it is ridiculously high here for the quality of food and service. I went twice to see if it was just one bad day on my first visit but it was not.

Overall, I think the place has a lot of potential, it's location, decor, and what it can offer inside but if they are going to charge almost European/US pricing, they have to up their service level, especially with the food. If you just want a pint and not bothered about price then it's...

we Read several reviews on the clock pub prior to visiting. The reviews were mostly excellent so we decided to try it. The location of the pub is excellent but unfortunetly this is where it ends. Although all signage, and menus are written in English our waitress could not speak one word of it. This made it impossible to ask questions about our meal or beers. As a result I received a dark beer instead of light and could not make any alterations to what toppings we wanted on our nachos because the best we could do after a few seconds of trying to communicate was to point at the menu items we wanted.

The service was beyond horrible. At some points it felt like the waitress was trying to avoid checking back in with us. She past us several times and seemed like she was avoiding the area until we finished our meal with out a single check in. After our drinks and plate sat empty for 10 minutes I decided to take matters into my own hands and seeker her out to try and communicate that I wanted my bill. This was another game of charades until I agreed with a Spanish word that in hind sight must have meant bill or check because she left and returned with it.

It would have been great to not leave a tip as I believe tips are reserved and to be paid out for the level of service that you receive but it was included on the bill with no option to remove or alter it.

How was the food you ask? Average. Not great but not bad. However literally seconds after leaving the restaurant my wife became so ill we had to sit on a bench outside the restaurant. After 15 minutes of this we hustled back and spent the rest of the night in our hotel.

What we expected to be a full night of drinks and entertainment at the pub turned into a single drink and stuck in our hotel room re cooping.

We will not be back and can not...

I don’t know where all these five star reviews are coming from. Yes is a great spot to watch the NFL games (but that’s not what I came to Cartagena for), great if you want to take a break from the heat, and great to people watch if you get the right table. However, be prepared to get ripped off. We asked for two shots of local rum on ice and was charged almost $15.00 USD for each shot. Did I say it was local rum? The same rum we’ve had since we’ve been here at better spots for half the price. Then I asked about purchasing t-shirts and they told me they accept US money and once again tried to ripped me off with the currency exchange. I showed them my currency exchange calculator and they said they reserve the right to do their own calculations which would have costed me an additional $5.00 per t/shirt. So basically they reserve the right to take tourists who aren’t on top of their currency exchange game for more money than they should. This might explain why the place is always empty. I hate to go a bar and ask how much things are but this is the kind of place you have to ask for prices...