Restaurante La Matriarca — Restaurant in Medellín

I wanted to love this place…and the only thing I could find to love was the Sangria, my company, and the light fixture decorations. I take full responsibility that I do not speak fluent Spanish, so I take a lot of ownership of our meals not being ordered well, but when you offer an English menu and then the server writes down your order from the English menu (verbatim) I assumed it would be correct. My waiter rushed through our order, acting like he understood everything, then hustled off. I tried to stop him and ask follow up questions but he did not understand or even try to. To start, I ordered a steak which comes with side options, and when I showed him my order, he wrote down “filet top sirloin” and then walked away. I was not asked how I wanted it cooked or what side dish I would want. I figured I didn’t read the order correctly and just decided to see what the meal had to offer. When my steak did arrive, it was full of fat, and extremely chewy. The chef did come to our table at some point and ask if everything was OK, and I did tell him I had not been asked my side or how I liked my steak in which he gave me a new side, but the ultimate reason for the one star is because at the end of the night when I went to pay, they had charged me for a steak that was 50% more than what I had ordered. I was going to pay for my steak without complaint but not 30,000 over what my poor steak was! When I showed the server he got the manager who took off the difference, but did so in a way that in my opinion was very poor customer service. He never acknowledged the fact that over 60% of my steak was pure fat gristle that I did not eat, nor the fact that the server put in a steak order that was much more expensive. I will mention briefly that the language barrier (that I will take ownership for) caused us to get a different ceviche than we wanted for a starter but we ate without complaint. All in all the only saving grace was the friendly bartenders who made our sangria, and my lovely best friend who I laughed the night away with! The manager was very unprofessional and ruined my experience at La Matriarca. Over priced, underwhelmed, food...

GOOD: The atmosphere is lively, nicely decorared, and there is great live music. The assistant waiters elevate the experience, and the bathrooms are probably the best you'll find in any Colombian restaurant. Also, the jugos (coco and maracuya) are really tasty, not overly sweet, and large. BAD: Their prices on our receipt were higher than the menu prices .

BAD: = WAITER: My 1st time there was excellent but this time our waiter was not at all attentive and he treated us like we were a waste of his time because we weren't ordering bottles of wine and jars of sangria like his other tables and of course the tip is included so he didn't want to be bothered with us. When he was about to run my card he asked me something in Spanish and when I was getting a translation from my partner, he ran my card before allowing me to respond if he should run it as debit or credit further demonstrating his bad attitude.

BAD = STROBE LIGHT: It was turned on when the live music started and it was sooo blinding we had to position ourselves with our backs to it. Even then, it was barely tolerable.

BAD = PORK CHOP: It was undercooked all around the bone and had no seasoning at all. The rest of the food was just ok... besides the empanadas which were really good but tiny & overpriced for...

I have been many times in the past, used to be amazing food, very very tasty, but the service has always lacked basic reactivity and proactivity. Unfortunately, this time, the calamari were over fried and tasteless, the Picada was 60% potatoe and the Tbone (expensive) was super dry and each mouthful was like eating a sponge full of animal fat. The service was the worst I have experienced as far as I can remember: missing items when waiter brings food, by the time the missing items were brought 20 minutes later the food was cold ... Forget to bring things, almost have to jump up to catch waiters attention, and the check had to be corrected once for a mistake, then again for another mistake on second version (both times because we were overcharged). It would have been nice to be offered anything in compensation or a discount or some sort. It is a shame as thebingredients are very good quality (slightly badly prepared), atmosphere and place are very nice and besides all the negative aspects the staff is friendly, but just too many bad aspects to enjoy the meal and have a positive experience ... Many aspects must be improved before this place can be recommendable for having an...