Columbia Restaurant — Restaurant in Saint Augustine

Update--Another great meal! Added more pictures.

Tried the Spanish Bean Soup this time, which was rich and hearty but a tad salty. We also had the Gazpacho Andalucia which I heard was great. Update--another wonderful meal here! Everything was spot on from service to presentation to food and drink. Highly recommended. We were very interested in trying this restaurant, so when my father-in-law offered to take my wife anywhere she wanted to go for her birthday the choice was easy. They take reservations which is probably a good idea to do.

You can't beat this location. Park in the city parking garage for an easy walk down St George St. where The Columbia is located. Come early, stay late, or both--so much to see and do in this area!

The restaurant itself is beautifully decorated. The outside fountain area is gorgeous. Consider taking some selfies while waiting for your table!

Dining here is as much about the experience as the meal. The Sangria de Cava and 1905 salad were prepared tableside by our attentive server and served individually, and both were very good. We could have easily downed a few more pitchers at our table but stuck to the one, which provides about 4 decent sized servings. The fresh fruit and Torres Brandy really shine through, and let me warn you they go down REAL easy.

They are renowned for their 1905 salad, which seems to be a simple assembly of fresh ingredients using their own special dressing. We all enjoyed the salad very much and loved the tableside preparation. Would I consider it a must have? No, but you should try it at least once. Next time I will try their soup instead.

The main dishes were all very good, but I will admit I was underwhelmed by the paella. They warn you on the menu that this dish takes extra time to prepare, so maybe that got my hopes up a little too high. The rice was just a bit too salty, and there was more chicken than seafood. For the price point I was expecting more shrimp and scallops. I think there were chunks of pork mixed in with the chicken but other than a chewier texture the taste didn't impress me, and it was a bit dry. The 3 shrimp, 3 small scallops, 3 mussels, 1 clam, and a more appealing count of tender calamari were all delicious. The hearts of palm were also a nice touch. Rice was very good with the mixed flavors other than the salt content. Portion was enough for me to take some home for lunch the next day. They plate it at tableside from the pan which was nice but less impressive than the salad and sangria. Overall, I would not order this again but would definitely try something else. There are many tasty dishes on the menu.

The Cannelloni de Langosta were a big hit, full of lobster meat and loaded with a decadent sauce. Stuffed shrimp were very good, and the Palomilla was enjoyed. My daughter had the Cakes de Cangrejo from the tapas menu and really enjoyed the bold passionfruit aioli sauce that comes with it.

When I made the reservations they ask if we're celebrating anything so of course I said my wife's birthday, and they did not disappoint! They brought her a complimentary flan and three servers sang a very loud birthday song, totally embarrassing her as I had hoped. (She forgave me when she tasted the flan).

But what really stole the show was the White Chocolate Bread Pudding...OMG! This is a must have, served piping hot with that wonderful bread they serve and an utterly amazing rum sauce. Talk about ending with a strong finish!

Final notes, the music was delightful, the ambiance lovely, service excellent, and the food very good. A great place to celebrate a special event, or try the lunch menu for smaller servings (and a lower price tag) and also the authentic cubano sandwich, which I really need to have. There is also a shop where you can purchase their painted in spain sangria pitchers and other nice items, coffee, their own spices and hot sauce (which I meant to ask for with my paella and forgot), and more. We...

I am very disappointed with my most recent experience at the St. Augustine Columbia. We made a reservation (Four of us) about 2 weeks prior to our reservation on 04/25/25 @6:45pm. My party arrived about 5-10 minutes early and was told that they were still getting the table together (No biggie, we were early and we didn't mind enjoying the garden area). We were not sat until around 7pm in the grand dining room with pictures of the royal owners lining the wall. The atmosphere is beautiful, just like the original one in my home town. We did not meet our server until about 10-15 minutes after we were seated, nor were we greeted with water (or an apology for the wait). My group had a ghost tour set up for 8:20pm and started to become uneasy about making it there on time since the service seemed a bit slow. There were a lot of large parties dining that night due to high school prom season; however, I did not expect to be there until 8:30 pm and to have to push back my next event. Our waitress was odd, to say the least, she was kind and smiled; however, she was slow and seemed off put by us watching her make the sangria we ordered. The sangria tasted amazing, but our waitress got finished with her script about how the sangria was made and she become uncomfortable that we continued to watch her make it. To try and get our eyes off of her she snarkily stated "I got you guys some bread, it is on your plates!" We took the hint, exchanged eye contact, and began to nibble our bread. We noticed the tables that were sat behind us and had a different server had already received their meals and have completed them by the time we got any food. Once our food arrived, I realized I should probably use a steak knife to cut my steak strip.... big mistake. I decided I was going to eat faster by the time I got my knife back. Once the majority of my party finished eating, half of us needed to leave and get prepared for our night time adventure so the others stayed behind to pay for the bills. It had gotten to be 8:15 at this point and we were ready to speak with a manager. Once we paid, we went to the front and asked to speak with a manager, specifically speak to the one that walked by our table three times and asked surrounding tables how their meal was but purposefully ignored our table. Once we told her who we had as our server she knew what we were about to say??? Kind of odd that you knew she was not going to provide good service but you continued to ignore our table and not jump in to help your employee. The manager proceeded to admit they are in the process of onboarding her and even informed us about a medical condition?!?!?! I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THAT WOMAN'S BUSINESS PLEASE DO NOT SHARE YOUR ASSOCIATE'S BUSINESS TO PATRONS!!!!!!! After getting too much information about our waitress, we were asked if we had already paid. We did. We were then given a lousy "Oh darn... I wish I would have known... that is too bad. Have a Good Night!" Wow... no refund offered, no gift card, nothing on the house. Just a slap in the face to us that frequent the original and know that this would not fly there. I hope this is used as an example for staff training and...

Beautiful atmosphere, very kind service, but idk guys, most of the food wasn't anything to really write home about. Pretty overhyped and I'm not sure it warrants a second try...

Seating & Parking: My partner and I made a reservation at 6:30 and arrived around 6:35. There were a couple of spaces in the parking lot behind the restaurant, so we didn't experience any struggles there. Maybe within 5 minutes of speaking to a host, we were seated quickly, despite how packed it already was.

Food: For our appetizer, we ordered the Ybor City Devil Crab Croquettes. I actually really enjoyed these; the flavor is pretty simple but really served the crab flavor and texture I was looking for when I ordered this. Given the cost of crabmeat and how tasty these were, I can justify 4 pieces being $15. At the very least, it was worth one try.

For my entree, I chose the La Completa Cubana because it gave me three things: roast pork a la Cubana, boliche criollo (roasted eye round of beef in gravy), and an Empanada de Picadillo, along with a small side of yuca + plantains with black beans and yellow rice. The Boliche Criollo was pretty underwhelming, lacking any type of compelling flavor even with the help of gravy. The roast pork was nice and tender but that's all I can really say about it. And I won't dog the empanada for having fillings I don't like, but if you're not a fan of olives and olive juice, then I do not recommend that you try the empanada. If you LOVE that, then by all means, try it out because that's all I could taste in it. I honestly was impressed by how crispy the outside was but how WET and saturated the inside was. Kind of magical in that aspect. Perhaps the only thing I was a fan of was the fried garlic they cooked the yuca in. This plate was a bit disappointing, given that it cost $30.

I added a side salad to my entree for $9 to sample their famous 1905 salad. Y'all. This was just akin to an Olive Garden salad, just with better ham and 80% more cheese. It wasn't bad at all, but I really don't know what the hype was about since this was a very regular salad. Ham, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, olives, and their dressing, which tasted pretty similar to an Italian dressing.

My partner ordered a Filet Steak Salteado and it also offered no compelling flavors. The meat itself didn't even have anything to offer in terms of added joy. It was just sauteed meat and veggies that tasted like a regular person (like me) made it at home on a whim. Certainly not worth the $28 price tag.

Service: Was wonderful, despite how packed it was. Our server was attentive and even helped pack our leftovers. He came in to check in with us twice and...