Buche Perico — Restaurant in Santo Domingo

I was excited to take my wife here for Valentines day. I made a reservation a week before. Getting there was easy but parking was rough so we were late about 20 minutes. When we arrived they told us they only hold the table for 15 minutes after the reservation time. They had us wait outside the empty restaurant for 30 minutes while they did whatever they did to make it look like they were trying to get us a table. Mind you, the restaurant is 90% empty. About half an hour later we were taken inside and seated. The atmosphere is nice and very comfy. There is an abundance of real plants and trees as well as a fountain with live fish. Sadly we were not able to eat there and here is why. Once seated it took someone about 15 minutes to even greet us. No water no bread no nothing. Finally someone came over and introduced themselves. The menu is a barcode. Extremely inconvenient as I don't want to be on my phone swiping through digital books. I was anticipating a good meal as I've read the menu online prior to arriving and was happy to try one of the many dishes they offer. Unfortunately for us they had a special menu for the night which had very limited suggestions. I'm talking about maybe 4 appetizers 3 main courses and 5 or so deserts. None of which my child can eat as she is picky and we were planning on ordering her pasta which they didn't have that night. My review is simply pertaining to atmosphere and customer service. Customer service is bad. Not terrible but bad as the restaurant was empty and we could have been seated right away. The menu change is fine as long as they had more options which they were limited and with a child it would be nice to have had the option of ordering off the regular menu. The atmosphere is nice and the restaurant is pleasing to the eyes. If only the regular menu was available I'd be happy to share my thought but that's not the case. I would not give this restaurant another chance or recommend that anyone visit this...

If I had to describe our dinner experience using only 2 words I'd say: MIND BLOWING. We chose this dinner last minute based off of Google Maps reviews, and all 4 of us could not stop raving at every bite and every new dish that we got delivered to our table. Here's the list of what 4 of us had for dinner:

Coconut Ceviche Passion Fruit Ceviche (2x) Octopus Tartare Sliced Dorado Fish Cod Croquettes w/ Coconut Quipe of Angus Beef Carnival Pastelitos Little Mofongo Pork Ribs Dulce de Leche con Guayaba y Majarete Maroteando La Guayaba (5x) Piña Titi (3x)

The restaurant is absolutely gorgeous, the view after walking in left me speechless. Service was top notch and the food was hands down incredible. All of us agreed this was a 20/10 experience. Today was our first day in Santo Domingo and the first impression left us wanting more. We're actually staying in Punta Cana and just came to visit for a day, but what we had in PC vs. Santo Domingo was like night and day. Santo Domingo has been incredible, we've been treated well and with care by everyone we crossed paths with and people here not only know how to take care of tourists, but made us feel so welcome we're already talking about returning to the DR in the future to stay only in Santo Domingo next time. Punta Cana left a lot to be desired and the people there could certainly benefit from learning a thing or 2 about how to take care of the ones who bring their hard earned $ to spend in this country so tourists will come back again in the future. I was born and raised in São Paulo (Brazil) and now live in Chicago (USA), two incredible cities for tourism and great food. Believe me when I say this: Buche Perico had one of the best food I've ever had at a restaurant, and I would not hesitate for a second to return again in the future and to recommend it to anyone visiting...

We made a reservation for 11:15 AM, fully aware that brunch ended at noon giving us what should have been ample time to enjoy the experience. Unfortunately, this restaurant made it clear that customer satisfaction is far from a priority.

Despite specifically requesting a patio table when booking, we were immediately told we had to sit on the balcony instead even though we could clearly see multiple empty patio tables. The excuse was that they were “saving them for larger parties.” As a party of two, we were treated as a lower priority. Only after insisting and with management approval, were we reluctantly given a patio table but not before wasting a significant chunk of our limited brunch time.

By the time we were seated, only about 20 minutes remained in the buffet, which was already picked over and barely stocked. Most items looked stale, dried out, or had been sitting for far too long and nothing was being replenished.

To make things worse, our table had no silverware, and we were completely ignored by staff for over 15 minutes. I had to get up and interrupt a group of servers chatting in a circle just to get basic cutlery. Our food had been sitting on the table that entire time and was cold by the time we could actually eat it. No one offered us drinks or checked in at any point it was like we didn’t exist.

The food quality was underwhelming, the service was nonexistent, and overall, it’s clear this is one of those restaurants where the aesthetics are far better than the actual experience. If you’re looking for decent food or basic hospitality, look elsewhere. We left incredibly dissatisfied and will not...