Elcielo Medellín Restaurant — Restaurant in Medellín

Terrible experience, which is a stark contrast from what I experience four years ago, coming here. The menu is pedestrian at best and well, the prices aren’t terrible the quality is just subpar. Now, if the food quality is a part than let’s get on with the service, which is even worse, I would say terrible.

We came the first night and we were not able to finish off all our 2 million pesos, The reservation system is a little flawed because it holds ransom 2.5 million pesos for a party of four and seems to direct you to sign up for their fixed menu experience. My original intent was always to go a la carte. No big deal, when we arrived at the restaurant. We were given the explanation and said we could begin using our credit towards the 2.5 million.

However, when we were sat with a server, whose name is Carlos, a bald headed tall gentlemen, I would not recommend you sit with him. I was offered drinks eight times in a very pushy manner. If that wasn’t enough, I was asked to order to go bottles of wine to consume the full amount. I had to be a little firm with Carlos and told him three people out of our four person party do not drink. We have already ordered over 1 million pesos worth of food, which is five steak, 8 appetizers, four desserts And you also had the nerve to criticize my partner, when he ordered two steaks in a condescending manner, which seemed borderline discriminatory as he was commenting about his weight. The second issue I have is another Friend ordered a certain dish, and the server commented that that is a dish for woman. So is he body shaming, as well as discriminating against orientation?

Towards the end of the night, they seemed to relax a little bit and said we could use the credit for a future meal, which we set a reservation at another part of the restaurant for 12 o’clock on Saturday, and it brings me to the next part of the review, which may need to be edited later, depending on the service we receive. I will write up until the check-in process to let you know how that went because I feel like for such a high and restaurant, they are clearly not organized, and this was money wasted. When we arrived at the hotel, restaurant, they told me that the Restaurant would not open till 1230, and I’ve immediately displayed my displeasure and disappointment. Victor, P was very attentive and saw I was upset. He offered us so many solutions such as sitting at the bar or another table until the restaurant was open. His service and understanding is exactly how I remembered this restaurant four years ago, so kudos to him and please have him train Carlos and Juliana. Let me tell you, why Juliana is in this review. When Victor asked if we could sit at our table early, even though the restaurant was not open, she gave a scout and a very ugly reaction and said no. I took offense to that because it could’ve been delivered in a better way, or in a more understanding, manner, and clearly service is not her first property. However, I saw her dealing with another table of a different race and color, and she was nothing, but nice. Does this entail racism or some other sort of discrimination ?

Until now, our server in the lower floor has been super attentive, and nice (Javier) and I will update you. If there are any other shenanigans, dropping up the ball during our overpriced experience, but so far. It has been decent, and I will update accordingly.

Management, please work on your policies and improve your menu to bring it back to where it was three or four years ago. Also, make sure your service are well. Trend, and able to handle different races and colors while not being...

Currently on a bit of a fine dining tour through Colombia, and I have to say Elcielo was almost comically bad. The entire thing felt like it was being run by children while the parents were out of town. Service was severely lacking. For a place that holds itself up against the other Michelin starred restaurants of the chef, it was a mess. To start, we were offered the choice of wine pairings or by the glass, and given some time to think. We were never asked if we had made a decision, and about 2 courses in our glasses had been cleared. If asked, we would have chosen one glass and one pairing. Their loss. Throughout the meal, our water glasses sat fully empty. Again not something I normally care about at a normal restaurant, but when you claim to be at a Michelin level that’s pretty unacceptable. Service team was actively showing hostility to one another on the floor, and were completely uncoordinated. At one point they lost the jar of coffee for the final coffee course, and ended up walking around with a gallon bag of grounds from which to scoop. The food was incredibly average, if not less than so. While it was all beautiful, the execution was just flat out disappointing. Just about every dish was lacking in flavor or texture, and really didn’t have much to say. The worst offender was the duck- the set itself was amazing. Great sauce, great veg, but the duck was completely rare bordering on raw, with none of the fat under the skin rendered out. This lead to a chewy, almost inedible protein. There were two positive parts of the meal, both part of the “gastronomic sensory experience.” The first was a chocolate hand massage. They poured liquid chocolate over our hands, then coffee and sugar. We were instructed to massage our hands and eat the chocolate. While very very strange, it did leave our hands exfoliated and soft. It didn’t taste bad either. The second was at the end when we were instructed to blow out a candle, then dip some of the wax onto our hands, then inhale. Again, strange, but quite lovely to enjoy. The tables around us didn’t fare much better. One solo diner sat without a wine pairing pour through 2 of the courses that went with the pour, and sat not touching her duck for 5 minutes before she begrudgingly tasted it when no one seemed interesting in checking in. Another guest (an elderly man) noted the lack of render on the duck, to which the server basically said he was wrong and they did it the way they like to serve it. Throughout all of this, the kitchen/ chefs were standing around, not really doing much. In fact they were all smiles and jokes while the admittedly understaffed service team got their butts kicked. While courses were complained about on the floor, the chef was reading a cookbook in the pass.

While inexpensive compared to most fine dining, I would not possibly recommend this to fellow diners. You’re better off enjoying some more local...

I am incredibly disappointed with my experience at El Cielo. After having spent $400+ USD on lunch for myself and my friend, I was left hungry and in need of some real food…I ended up going to the burger restaurant at the nearby Masaya hostel and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of their food and service.

I am happy to spend this amount of money on a meal and experience that my guest(s) and I are able to look back on fondly. Unfortunately, I think the only thing we’ll remember from our time at El Cielo is the gag-inducing food. A couple of examples include: the odd trout paste crackers, weird (in a bad way) fish sausage that legitimately made my stomach turn, and the inedible main fish protein course that was somehow incredibly dry even though it was doused in an albeit tasteless sauce.

The only thing worse than the food was the service. I try my best to be a great guest at any restaurant, but once your break the $200+ USD per person mark, there is a certain standard of service I expect. Honestly, the service provided by El Cielo was so bad it’s funny. It seemed like our table and those around us cycled through multiple servers during the lunch seating, which in and of itself isn’t a big deal as I’m sure the servers have different specialties/jobs (especially at this level of restaurant). However, one of my favorite things about eating at a restaurant like this is being able to develop a relationship with a team of one, two, or even three dedicated servers that can guide you through your meal. Here the servers felt more like high school bullies than new friends.

At El Cielo (and maybe the language barrier contributes to this…which is understandable, and maybe a source of a bit of sympathy for this place) you’d be lucky to find one kind server. At least for me, it seemed like the servers were more interested in standing in the kitchen staring at and gossiping about their customers than actually getting to know them. Seriously, at this supposed caliber of restaurant I’d hope that at least the people you meet are nice. Unfortunately here, that is not the case.

Honestly I hate writing any review that isn’t 5 stars and super supportive of a business…as an entrepreneur myself I know how hard it is to start and run a business (and I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult it is to run a restaurant). However, at ~$200+ USD per cover there is a certain standard that I’m sure customers (or at least I) expect the service to provide. Unfortunately, El Cielo is nowhere near that bar.

The extent of my disappointment with El Cielo is hard to quantify…but a refund of my ~$400+ USD...