Cala Roca — Restaurant in Medellín

Cala Roca is one of the best Italian restaurants in all of Medellin. Cala Roca is situated inside of 23 Hotel which is very beautiful.

We had three starters: The table of ripe, the beef carpaccio and the beef tartar. All of those 3 entrees were extremely tasty. I would even go as far as to say that the beef tartar was the the best tartar I have ever had in all of Medellin. It is a large portion of tartar, the kind you would get in France and other parts of Europe. Usually the tartar portion size you can get in Medellin is very small.

Then we had two pizzas. I will say the following right away: The quality of the dough that they use is astounding. It is best of the best pizza dough you will ever find in my opinion.

We had the morcilla pizza and the anchovy pizza. I had their other pizzas before and they were very delicious. Regarding the morcilla pizza: It is a blood sausage pizza. Which is very unusual and that’s why I picked it. Well, if you really like blood sausage you will like it. Otherwise pick one of their other pizzas.

The anchovy pizza was unfortunately very, very lacking in anchovies. The amount of anchovies they put on the pizza was pitiful. I will even go as far as to say that I felt insulted by the beggarly amount of anchovies that they put on the pizza. Anchovies are expensive. I get it. But then please double the price of the pizza or just don’t sell the pizza at all. I had a hunch that the anchovy pizza would be like that because in fact it is the cheapest pizza on the menu. A real anchovy pizza should be among the most expensive pizzas if not even the most expensive pizza on the menu. Give me a real anchovies pizza that is worth the name or get it off the menu. The wimpy amount of anchovies is the reason why I am only giving Cala Roca 4 stars. If the anchovies pizza had been the only item I had then this would be a 1 star review to be honest. Forget about the anchovies pizza or you will be left with a bitter aftertaste. You will feel like you bought a pizza Napolitana with some rugula and a tiny token amount of anchovies. You see I am not hiding my disappointment with the Anchovy Napolitana pizza at all.

Apart from the anchovies pizza by which I personally felt insulted I am still very content with Cala Roca and I will still call this one of the best places in Medellin for Italian food! Just make sure to avoid the ridiculous...

Not normally one to leave negative reviews, but this was an unusually bad experience. Started with me parking my motorbike in what looked like an open lot next to the building. No sign saying I couldn’t park there and was next to other motorbikes. A person who worked for the restaurant was standing at the entrance to the lot - watching me while I parked, dragged the bike to a good spot, and put away my helmet. He waited until I got right next to him and was about to walk inside the restaurant before he told me that I couldn’t park there. I asked him why he couldn’t have told me that while he was watching me park. He responded with a smirk. Inside the restaurant, the atmosphere is very nice, but the staff were mostly indifferent. Hard to get their attention. The food was mediocre and overpriced. The picture is of the 30,000 peso side of fries we ordered because the 45,000 cheesesteak sandwich didn’t come with...

The restaurant is in a very beautiful hotel that it facade is full of tropical plants so the restaurant is as well surrounded by this plants giving it an uncommon and pleasant place to be. The restaurant has very good starter plates but I recommend the tumaca, which is an intalian sausage with a sauce of tomato. The main courses are fine, the one that I liked the most is one that has orzo and osobuco. But definitely the best options are the pizzas and the cocktails. Very prepared, the cocktails there are strong! For dessert try the chocolate cake...