La Causa — Restaurant in Medellín

What happened to us today at La Causa was very shady and uncomfortable. It began as an honest mistake on the restaurant's part, but it all ended in a bit of deception. We feel very bad about the whole experience, especially for the blatant dishonesty.

The two of us had ordered a lot of food for the table, which included the Causa Perú. Unfortunately, the seaweed salad inside the Causa Perú had clearly gone bad. It had a very intense smell of acetone nail polish that permeated the dish. We both eat seaweed salad often and understood that something was wrong. I brought it to the restaurant's attention and, after a quick investigation, they recognized the problem and apologized profusely. They offered to remake the dish or take it off our bill. We were a bit turned off by the dish at this point, so we elected to have it removed from the bill. Great, no problem here.

The waiter realized that the kitchen had actually created a replacement Causa Perú for us anyways but assured us that this entire dish would still remain off the bill. We took a few bites of the replacement and it was great: the new seaweed salad tasted perfectly normal. The waiter also offered two free desserts, one for each of us, as an additional compensation at the end of our meal. We weren't planning on getting dessert, but we accepted the kind offer.

Even though the restaurant had given us a dish with a rotten ingredient, they seemed to try hard to fix the situation and make us happy. We were initially very grateful. However, when we received the bill, nothing was actually removed from the bill. We were still charged for the Causa Perú and the dessert that we would not have ordered otherwise. And for some reason, it was a new waiter who brought us the bill and he insisted that it was all correct. They ultimately did nothing to make things right.

They had initially won our support by being so gracious, but it was all for absolutely nothing. They lied about comping anything, causing us to feel cheated and taken advantage of. Our bill was 300k, but it should have been around 250k. It would have been a small difference, but it's the gesture that would have mattered.

Our night started very hopeful and continued to be hopeful throughout the meal, until we received our final bill. We now need to contend with the small bites of rotten seaweed salad still in our stomachs that we paid...

My cousin had recommended this place. LA CAUS, October 14, 2023. She'd visited 6 weeks earlier. I was skeptical here. I was in Colombia eating PERUVIAN food. Did not make sense to me i wanted to enjoy and taste Colombian gastronomy. I was not disappointed one bit. From the moment you arrived, the staff was exceptional, friendly, professional, and courteous. The place was modern, plants at the entrance decorated it. Nice music, not too loud where you can't have a conversation. I ordered my usual margarita, tasty, and lemon didn't overpower the tequila. Ordered the traditional PISCO drink. Also had a Cuba Libre made with Cuban Havana Club run (legit), and of course, how can you visit Colombia and not enjoy AGUARDIENTE blue cap for me. The "Guaro" as it's known nationally comes in 3 different colored caps (that I know) red (has sugar), blue ( no sugar), and green ( dry). We shared the Causa ceviche, which had shrimp, octopus, whitefish, red onions, white broth, delicious, tender, and fresh. They offer different sushi rolls. They offer vegetarian options for their dishes. We ordered the Nikkei which resembles a personal white pizza called without the bacon, and the rest was thin slices of octopus, Nikkei sauce (a Japanese/ Peruvian fusion) coriander yogurt sauce, and parmesan cheese. A very delicate, like soft cottage cheese but not lumpy, you can scoop it with a chip. Added the INSURGENTE made of Takani Tuna nicely cooked, a bright red color for your attention, surrounded by quinoa strings and carrots. We finished it off with the TATAKI de SOLOMITO (sirloin) tender chunks or cubes of sirloin cooked to perfection, not chewy, and delicate to the palate mixed with vegetables, excellent choice mouth watering. Overall, it was an excellent experience. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Stop by when you visit Medellin, and you will...

I don’t understand why this restaurant got all these good reviews.. The food was so so and the service was poor. A restaurant with this price point in El poblado, we would expect the servers to know some English. Anyhow, we learnt the person didn’t know any English, so we pointed at the items that we wanted on our English menu, guess what, she still messed up - I ordered lemonade mint and she gave me coctel herbal sin alc instead. I was so confused why my drink was so sour… Whatsoever, I told her she gave me the wrong drink when we saw the bill (we used google translate to communicate with her and she understood us), Lemonade mint is around 8,000 cop and coctel herbal sin alc is 16,900, an establishment like La Causa should make a refund for the drink no? No refund, what was even more ridiculous was we got no apologies from the lady and she insisted she made no mistake. Shame on her!

If La Causa offers English menu to tourists , then its staff should be familiar with the menu! They can be no ingles, but at least remember the items, is that too much to ask??!!

This restaurant has no pride and they think they can rip off their tourist customers whichever way they want. Do yourself a favor, stay away from...