Restaurante Mar Y Fuego Jardines Metropolitano Santiago — Restaurant in Santiago de los Caballeros

Long review, sorry, but necessary * This placed came well recommended by friends, but I'm not sure if it was oversold to the point I was expecting nothing short of excellence... Well it was not! First.... THE DRINK: I always get hard liquor served neat, I think ice of juices mixture takes away the whole experience. Unfortunately an "unintended" mix started my visit to this place in bad note. As soon as I tasted my Brugal Leyenda 5to. Centenario, I noticed a strong flavor of anis, to what I immediately complained to the server and who appeared to be the manager. They told me that it was a normal flavor to what I said "Absolutely Not". I didn't want to accuse them of tampering so I asked if there was the possibility that the cup was dirty... ofcourse they went all defensive and said "No". They offer to change my drink and I said I didn't want it if it came from the same bottle. Later they came with a new shot and explained that the bartender apparently used a measure cup that had been used for Sanbuca, which explained the anis flavor. -1 🌟

THE FOOD: Ordered a grilled salmon and it came looking very "lonely". It was just there on a large plate next to a weird looking mashed potatoes in a bowl. The first clue towards how it tasted, came when the server asked me if I wanted any sauce with it, that, after she had already brought it to my table. Now, in order to give a fair review, I never add anything to the dishes I order, because I want to taste exactly what the chef intended for me. So I refused the sauce. Boy was I wrong, that thing tasted like a piece of paper from a non-flavored notebook... yes! It was that bad... AND DRY!! -2 🌟 s Place looked clean but the drink issue negates their cleanness in my opinion. -1 🌟 To be fair, and leave a window for a second chance, I asked if the chef was in, and they confessed to me that the cook was by himself in the kitchen.

It will not be any time soon, but I might give it another try as long as...

The food was delicious but the service wasnt great. We ordered a drink but before they were able to put the order through we had changed our mind and told the waitress. However, when they brought the drinks out they included the drink we canceled and insisted that we didnt inform them.

Also, when our main course arrived, I started eating my soup and was well into enjoying it before they brought my side order of rice.

And we decided to order another dish and talking to another waitress that was waiting our table, one of the other waiters grabbed her hand while we are talking about an order and she walked away.

My aunt when we got to the car immediately got sick so bad that we had to pull over the side of the road so she could vomit.

What a weird experience we had today of all days being that we took her out for mothers day and got...

Service was Excellent! So attentive and helpful.

We were a party of 4 with 1 person being a vegetarian.

This place is all about the meats and was hard to find something that did not have a little meat... but the manager helped us and had the cook whip up something from things our friend liked.

They gave us a small Platter of bread with mayo (mayo was really tasty!)

Order: Arenque Aliñado (delish!) Empanada Queso Chorizo Al Vino (it was OK) Rollitos de Maduros (rolled up Maduro with 2 types of cheese and prosciutto WOW must try!!!) Cocido Whole Fish 🐟 (delicious flavor but the size of the fish made the flesh tough) Eggplant Carpaccio (this was put together for the vegetarian but this was the closest thing I...