Como es? Luxe feeling water-side restaurant specialising in seafood
Donde es? Centro de Convenciones Cartagena de Indias, ph 6544205
Cuanto es? Treat [entrees ~25,000COP mains 35,000-55,000 desserts ~15,000COP
Cerca a? Convention Centre
For those times you want to have a special meal (especially seafood), in special surrounds, with special service, Marea by Rausch is a tops selection.
Found within the Convention Centre, the restaurant has a killer location right beside the water of the Bahia de Animas with enviable views of the historic centre and the impressive San Pedro de Claver dome. I also love the interior design. The colour-scheme is all teales and aquamarines with walls filled with an intricate-looking fish patterned wall paper. Except it's not wallpaper. Those fish were actually all drawn onto the wall by hand using a Sharpie pen. Cool, huh? The white and silver accents (chairs, chandeliers) keeps things fresh and seaside resort-y but still luxe and special. Cue photo.
Donde es? Centro de Convenciones Cartagena de Indias, ph 6544205
Cuanto es? Treat [entrees ~25,000COP mains 35,000-55,000 desserts ~15,000COP
Cerca a? Convention Centre
For those times you want to have a special meal (especially seafood), in special surrounds, with special service, Marea by Rausch is a tops selection.
Found within the Convention Centre, the restaurant has a killer location right beside the water of the Bahia de Animas with enviable views of the historic centre and the impressive San Pedro de Claver dome. I also love the interior design. The colour-scheme is all teales and aquamarines with walls filled with an intricate-looking fish patterned wall paper. Except it's not wallpaper. Those fish were actually all drawn onto the wall by hand using a Sharpie pen. Cool, huh? The white and silver accents (chairs, chandeliers) keeps things fresh and seaside resort-y but still luxe and special. Cue photo.
Can you see the fish?! All drawn by hand with a sharpie! Not a bad view of San Pedro de Claver Cathedral either.
Ok, so right, the food. It's really good. I've found a lot of restaurants in Cartagena have a tendency to overcook seafood. Actually, food generally.. but especially seafood. Not so here. In fact many of the best dishes are raw - tiradito, ceviche, tatare, carpaccio etc which is completely to my tastes.
I also think the prices are really reasonable given the quality. I'll whack up some photos now of some of the plates I tried with the prices.
To the left is the tuna tartare. Really tasty with toasted sesame seed oil. Those giant yellow things are crisp fried ripe plantains. Yum. So this costs 24,900 COP (google is telling me that's about US$13.50). On the right is the octopus carpaccio. Those little coloured dollops are 1. black olive sauce 2. green olive sauce 3. artichoke puree. This was also super fresh tasting. It cost the same price at the tuna tartare.
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For mains I was able to try a mixed seafood rice stew called a Caldoso (top image). The flavours of this were nice and robust, although the calamari was maybe overcooked just a tad. The dish is totally packed with seafood and costs 39,000COP (US$21.35). The other main we sampled was the traditional Cartagena plate: mojarra frita (37,900COP/ US$20.75). This is the dish that is most representative of Cartagena and you will see variations of it served in every restaurant and on every stretch of sand. So how does Marea make it special whilst still keeping it traditional? Well for starters the produce is mega fresh, the execution is excellent and the flavours and balanced well. But the thing that really blew my mind was the fact that they serve this whole fried fish, magically, without bones! It's like the fish of the future! Just cut in, carve it up and enjoy. I'm not sure if this is a common thing or not, but I was definitely impressed.
So the "Rausch" in the restaurant name, Marea by Rausch, refers to the Rausch Brothers, Colombian celebrity chefs who are just as famous for their top-ranking Criterion Restaurant in Bogota, as they are for "selling out" and creating some menu items for McDonalds. Anyway, they make a great pair because one brother is all about the savoury and the other specialises in pastry and desserts. As a result, the meals at Marea are accompanied by really, really nice bread. And the desserts are spectacular. Look!
Check out my happy face! Rausch sure know how to do dessert.
So the special dessert sampler platter for 2 is yours for 22,900COP (US$12.54) and the deep dark chocolatey awesomeness of the fondant (oh yeah.. that middle was perfectly runny and gooey) is 16,900COP/US$9.25. Actually, I think it might be really nice to come back to Marea sometime with a pack of girlfriends and calorific intentions and just split dessert.
Service is really good and professional at Rausch, but the times I've been, English wasn't really spoken and the English menu wasn't ready. Not sure if that's a major point for other people but thought it was worth mentioning.
Ambience: the times I've been, the restaurant has been fairly empty. Again, this doesn't really bother me, but if you feel a restaurant needs to buzz to feel right.. this one is more chilled elegance.
Hmm.. I think I kindof got carried away here - apologies for the essay of a description! Overall: Marea by Rausch is really good and highly recommended for a special treat.
Service is really good and professional at Rausch, but the times I've been, English wasn't really spoken and the English menu wasn't ready. Not sure if that's a major point for other people but thought it was worth mentioning.
Ambience: the times I've been, the restaurant has been fairly empty. Again, this doesn't really bother me, but if you feel a restaurant needs to buzz to feel right.. this one is more chilled elegance.
Hmm.. I think I kindof got carried away here - apologies for the essay of a description! Overall: Marea by Rausch is really good and highly recommended for a special treat.
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