Vida by Aviva — Restaurant in Sololá

FYI... 5 Americans got Salmonella while eating dinner here. Avoid vegetables at all cost. This sad story tooked place on May 14th

So we rented a house near by and the last night before the party went back to the states, we decided to go out and eat at a restaurant in San Marcos. We selected this restaurant based on the good reviews they had here and wanted to have a good meal.

We took the hippy highway all the way to the pier and then walked around 3 minutes to the right to arrive to this restaurant.

After arriving, we went to the second story and got a few tables together. It took a while for us to get the menus. Once we got them, we confirmed the closing time (we got there around 7:30-8pm, since it was raining and that delayed our escapade).

The waiter recommended the ribs (only one person got it). My wife choose the the coconut shrimp, three of us got the stake (2 rosemary butter and 1 got the other option), 1 pasta with veggies and mushrooms and the other 2 got a sandwich.

The food was good, nothing extraordinary. We all have drinks and a decent time, sharing stories and enjoying the family time.

Everyone got veggies (either as a side or as a main ingridient on their meal) but me. Thank God, been a French fries lover saved my gut.

In over 3 decades I have not seen such a massive digestive attack. The restaurant should be closed, I cannot believe they are still on business. It was a horrendous night for all the visitors. We left the restaurant I'll reckon around 10pm, by midnight the first signs of food poisoning started (some took pepto), some other though they had a bit too much food. Around 2AM, the outbreak started and it kept them awake pretty much the whole night with vomits and diarrhea (sometimes both at the same time).

Lucky me, I was sleeping while everyone else died slowly (they had an early pick up 6AM) as they had flights that afternoon. One of the members of the party had to reschuled the flight cause he could hold it on the water transportation. Causing him to buy a new flight, north of $500.

I'll reach out to the authorities in the city tñ, and asked them to perform an inspection on the place and take the necessary precautions to avoid this situation to ever occur again.

Thank you for reading and stay safe.

Please avoid uncooked vegetables. PD. I couldn't upload pictures, cause I went kayaking with my phone and it died. I'll see if anyone else has some pics and upload...

This is the very first bad review I have ever written. Across different countries and over 20 restaurants in Guatemala I have never given 1 star. This place had terrible customer service, the sandwich served had rotten lettuce and tasted very very bad and when trying to return it they argued with us because the sandwich had a bite in it? It was a 30 minute ordeal before the manager came out and after arguing with her about French fries which we didn’t eat from the plate they finally took it off the bill. This was just an addition to the 150ml strawberry daiquiri that was 99% lime and the 1/2 foam draft beers. I would honestly never complain about food ever but the reaction from the staff and arguing with customers is crazy to me. 200Q for one sandwich, 2 beers half full and one tiny daiquiri is not worth it. No thanks to this place, try out the Garden which is amazing or Tul Y Sol...

Vomiting blood & a week in the hospital.

We ate here our second day in Guatemala, first meal in Atitlán, and our entire trip has been ruined. Days in the medical center at San Pablo, followed by a nightmarish ambulance transfer to a hospital outside of Panajachel for a 4th kind of antibiotics. Doctors there concluded from blood & stool tests it was a bacterial infection from contaminated shellfish. The surf n turf burger is the only shellfish we'd eaten.

Do not eat here. Our non-refundable flights & reservations for Costa Rica next week? Wasted. The most we got to see of Atitlán was during the ambulance ride to Panajachel. So violently ill that we now have to cut our trip short and book flights home as soon as we're well...