Restaurante Brutal — Restaurant in Medellín

I have to write this in English otherwise my Spanish might not portray what I need to say. I will start by saying there are far worse things than a bad meal but this experience was BRUTAL. I was really looking forward to great steak especially after reading the positive reviews. First off the place is immaculate and a real nice place, so nice I took some photos and sent them to my wife.But you go to restaurants to eat not just enjoy the surroundings. I ordered a Gin and Tonic which was great. By now you are probably wondering, “then why 1 star?”. The food. I ordered their ribeye and asked for it to be medium. The first time it came it was rare at best, literally cold in the center, not just undercooked but cold in the center. I sent it back and when dug in the second time it was medium rare at the best. The meat was still dark purple. By now I was actually getting a little upset. The waiter asked to take it back yet again but when you have a nice cut of meat how many times are you going to send it out and bring it back? I think having to cook a steak 3 times to get it right is asking too much from your guest. In addition it was a 90000 (25USD)peso steak, which in Colombia is quite a lot. The manager on duty came by and asked if she should take it back for a 3rd attempt to get it right, and I said no. So rather than apologizing she just said “ok shall I take your plate and maybe 1/3 ,if that, had been eaten, even that 1/3 I was just trying to eat so I didn’t have to send it back. I never send food back. This is literally the first utime and I am 50 years old.She didn’t even offer an apology or a credit or even a desert. That was best anyway because I just wanted that BRUTAL experience to end. In the end I drunk half my gin and tonic and payed 135000 pesos for the experience. Not cheap in Colombia for one person. Anyway as I mentioned there are things way worse than a BRUTAL restaurant experience. The server was nice , the drink was good, the manager had zero people skills and I think it was the owner standing next to the bar just watching and knew something was wrong but did nothing. May not have been the owner just the way he was standing at the bar and chatting with tables(except mine) seemed to be. Well life goes and but that is my experience...

Update: we have visited probably 10 times since they first opened. Sad to say that it is going in the wrong direction, the service is friendly and they really try but last time they forgot my starter, got the sides wrong and forgot to serve my coffee(it was on the bill). However, the food is the real problem. The quality of the meat is still good but the menu is terrible, extremely boring dishes and lack of flavor and they are now trying to incorporate traditional colombian food in the menu, big mistake.

A falling star.

Really good. Very close to five stars, if only the seafood ceviche starter had some more flavor it would be a perfect five. The mains are great, especially the pork and the drinks are very balanced and nice looking. Definitely going back.

I went back last night to try some more dishes. The drinks are perfect but the score is still a 4(international, locally its a five no doubt)

The pork starter is meaty with nice fat and nice crackling skin. The beef starter is very nice with slices of cold beef and a peppery tapenade. Both five points. The ribs are made from really high quality pork but they are dry and not so good. The beef medallions are nice but could use more sauce/butter. Carrot cake for desert is nicely presented with caramelized carrot. The pork knuckle is still the best dish and the service is not bad but not on par with the food, no explanations of the food or dishes, no questions about our experience. Fine tune some of the dishes and get the servers som education and this could be top 3...

"1" Star, the main reason for this low score it was because I requested something easy on my main plate and it was declined. The Chicharrón entrance it was just fine. Then when I requested the “Fortachones Langostinos", for personal reasons I asked to cut the shrimp tails, and then when I got the plate all tails were there. I understand that I can cut them, but it was a simple request. I wasn’t asking for something out of their Menu. The shrimp was eatable of course, and the sauce was excellent fortunately.

I don’t expect a response from the owner, manager or whatever from there, and I don’t care about apologies or the reasons from the chef or your recipes, a simple request is a simple request, save your time and please clean that washroom if you don’t mind… you deserve this "1" Star because of that washroom and because of those...