Hotel Camino Real — Restaurant in Popayán

Came to the restaurant of Camino Real after reading about it in Lonely Planet and receiving a Rec from a Colombian friend in Cali.

I’m short: incredibly Disappointing! The food wasn’t good, the service wasn’t good, and the ambiance was stuffy and outdated.

The restaurant was empty except for three tables at 7:30pm on a Wednesday. The decor is going for a traditional/antique vibe with tons of interesting eclectic pieces serving as decorations (old irons, old posters, etc) but with the emptiness and stuffiness of the staff, it didn’t feel charming, but instead fell flat and outdated.

We ordered two different menus, each with a price of 60,000 COP. This was my most expensive meal in my three weeks in Colombia, and the worst. My courses included: the shrimp ravioli, asparagus salad, palate cleansing lulo “sherbet”, beef in wine sauce, cheese plate, and apple dessert.

I don’t eat much seafood, but the ravioli were actually made from the shrimp being butterflies open and stuffed with mint/onion and the plate was smothered with a butter sauce. The shrimp tasted tough and over cooked and I couldn’t taste anything but butter. The asparagus salad was a bed of ice berg, pickled white asparagus and an acidic unknown dressing. I do not like pickled asparagus or white asparagus very much, so it was a miss for me and flavorless. My dining partner’s second course was a trout that tasted very fishy and was underwhelming as well. My course didn’t seem up to par with her “main dish” next course, even though her tasting menu was the same price. The beef with wine sauce was nice, though the meat was a bit undercooked. I ordered medium rAre, but my meat was quite red throughout. The same was true for the pepper steak dish ordered by my dining companion. The steak was served with a side salad - the same iceberg lettuce, acidic unknown dressing, mango and green beans. Bland and boring. The other side was a small boiled potato with some herbs on top. Again, bland and boring.

Our desserts were no less disappointing. My dining companion ordered the Eduardo santos, a traditional dessert made with condensed milk and various fruits. It came out frozen like a Mexican-style popsicle and was difficult to eat, but not bad. The apple dessert I ordered was not only disgustingly sweet (it is made with puff pastries from the region that are coated intensely in sugar), but the apples that came on top didn’t even have the skin cut off and were flavored with a cinnamon that tasted like red hots. Not what you want in a dessert!

The restaurant didn’t offer us a drink Menú - the waiter said it “isn’t complete”. They also don’t serve wine by the glass. At a restaurant that has won culinary awards?! Strange.

Finally, our waiter was attentive, but never once asked us if we were enjoying our meal or how the food was. Very strange since he was peering at us in the empty restaurant for the majority of our meal.

Overall, I recommend you don’t waste your money here. You can eat so much better in Colombia and for much cheaper. There’s a reason they won their culinary awards 30...

It is a unique and very special small family hotel right in middle of the center of old colonial Popayan. The moment you enter the hotel you get a sense of history. The building was a monastery built in the 16th century. In 1983, the building had to go an extensive reconstruction following a severe earthquake, which destroyed the tower of the building, luckily without any body damage. When we arrived, they put us in a very nice and large room point toward the central square of Popayan. As this room was very noisy, they gave us an inside room which was smaller and quiet. |The best part in this hotel is the beautiful eclectic decoration from last two centuries, which gives a feeling of living in another era. We just love it. |Breakfast was basic, but all stuff was extremely welcoming, and they served us other things than their regular fixed breakfast (eggs, delicious fruits and bread) after asking. |We stayed in the hotel for 3 days in October. Two of these days were weekend - holiday days when all the shops in center are close, and only in our last day, we had the chance to experience the amazingly colorful ordinary weekday in old center of Popayan. This city center has been active for periods of ups and downs during more than four centuries. Don't miss it! The hotel is located just in the middle of all the happening. Therefore, if you prepared to give up some luxury of modern high-class hotel for a very special atmosphere, we very highly...

The hotel is good for one night stay....and we made the mistake to get frozen by staying 2 nights here.|Positive: very clean, some rooms are nice, colonial building.|Negative: in the fotos the hotel seems better than in the reality. Some rooms are really small and because I've insisted I get a large room. During the night in the room is getting very cold, they said they couldn't offer some warm water for preparing a tea, the water from the shower is almost cold...so there is no way to warm just to sleep (and forget where you are). The breakfast is basic (basic coffee, juice, eggs,bread). In the first day we received also butter and jam, in the second they didn't...