Maraca — Restaurant in Santo Domingo

The restaurant is beautiful, no doubt about that. It’s a pity that the managers (not the waiters) were not as accommodating or pleasant. I visited in June 2023 with my family which included my mother and infant with the hopes of having a good time before we headed back home. The problems I had were as follows: After we were seated by the hostess, we decided to take a few pictures, returned to the table and had to find a waiter to give us a menu. We were not offered water or the typical service one gets at a restaurant, we were practically ignored and they weren’t short staffed. Fine, no worries. Eventually I ordered pork belly and mashed potatoes for my mother and got a recommendation to try the fish for myself. The pork belly came and also a purée sauce which I indicated that I didn’t want only to be met with a disgruntled manager telling me that I cannot send it back. I was confused and I sat there listening to him telling me that I cannot refuse the food. Clearly I pointed out that he cannot force me to eat it and he responded that I haven’t tried it so I cannot send it back. Eventually the fish came and he understood that I only meant that I didn’t want the purée and not the entire dish itself but it was the mere fact that he stood there and was arguing with me that was quite shocking but I let it pass. Not having been assigned a waiter or anything, I asked someone to remove the pork belly that I ordered to go as I was no longer in the mood for it (it was less than 10 minutes since I indicated that I wanted it) and I was met with ANOTHER MANAGER ARGUING WITH ME! Instead of professionally communicating with me what the policy was, he was condescending, demeaning, disrespectful and outright rude in how he was speaking to me. At no point did I raise my voice or behave out of order, I remained respectful and yet he was angry. In any event, I immediately asked for the bill and it was $6700 DOP which I paid for in FULL but I will never return to this place to spend any money at all. Beautiful scenery but nasty service, I would not recommend to the dogs of my enemies. Disgusting experience and way...

Discriminatory treatment of customers! We stopped at this restaurant for a late lunch, around 2:30 p.m. and as we walked in I noticed the hostess (Emily) gave us a disgusting look. She asked us if we had a reservation, which we did not, but went on to seat us. While the restaurant was not even half full, with plenty of room in the main dining room, and in their very nice courtyard, she seated us in the back of the restaurant, away from any other customers. The waiter came, started giving us the specials, and we went ahead and ordered, but after he brought us our drinks I asked him “why were we seated here, as if you were embarrassed to have us as customers?” His response confirmed my suspicion that something was not right, he “said, it wasn’t me, I have nothing to do with it.” So I asked him to check with the hostess. After he left, I noticed that he was avoiding our table, so again I called him over and asked him if he had talked to the hostess, and without looking me in the face he said that the hostess had seated us there because my friend was wearing a hair net. So I asked to speak to the manager, who came over and after I explained the situation he said "didn’t the hostess explain to you why?" Obviously not, but he did offer a very poor apology and nothing more. Had they explained to us at the door that they had a dress policy, we would have had the option to go somewhere else, or remove the hair net. But instead, they chose to treat us as people with some kind of contagious disease and place us in a corner away from everyone. At this point I was prepared to leave the place, but my friend talked me into staying. However, in spite of the food being fairly good, I did not enjoy my meal, and I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. There is a respectable way to treat customers, and this place obviously has no clue. The hostess simply made a judgement without giving us the option to adjust and we were treated in kind by everyone thereafter throughout our...

This gem wasn't hard to spot with its unique bold colors. Upon entry, I was immediately amazed with the interior design and decor. The first thing you see before you enter the dining area is a painting of a woman whose aura fills the room with culture and elegance.

Right there, I knew I was in for a top-notch experience. The dining area inside and out was modern/tropical art decor, which at first had me looking all around like a kid in a candy shop. When it came to the service, we were greeted by an awesome server who set the tone for a night of excellence. My Spanish is not the best, but he worked with me and even helped me brush it up.

We started with drinks, I got the Maraca punch, and it was probably the best drink I've had in recent memory... my wife tried the Johnnie passion fruit and pineapple spicy ( both excellent! ). We got apps to start, so we ordered the fried olives, salmon, and Chistorra sushi... It was so good we could have eaten the apps all night, but we knew we needed room for the mains and dessert. We then proceeded to order the Pumpkin Cream, Pumpkin Risotto, Crispy Fish Tacos, and Braised Asparagus.

I never knew Pumpkin could ever taste this good. Upon tasting the pumpkin cream... I closed my eyes and opened them back up, wondering if I was in heaven. The pumpkin risotto was amazing in its own way vs. the cream... 2 delicious ways to use pumpkin in a dish. The fish tacos were good but were not at the level of the other dishes as I felt the flavor bar was set so high by everything else.

We then decided on dessert and got the Coco Maraca pudding with toasted Coco shavings, OMG... we were full by the end of our meals, but we still tried to force down every bite as it was so delicious it felt like a crime to waste any of it. I highly recommend this establishment! It's not often I decide to write such long in-depth reviews. Visit this place and...