Restaurante El Carmen Visited 5/29/2014 3.5 Forks

Restaurante El Carmen  Calle 106 # 89 - 52 Las Flores , 057 Barranquilla

We ended up at Restaurante El Carmen kind of by accident.  We were on our 4+ hour journey from Cartagena to Tayrona and our driver asked us if we wanted to stop for lunch at some point.  We did and he said that if we wanted to have seafood that we should stop in Barranquilla, which is kind of half way between Cartagena and Tayrona.  It's definitely more of the "real" Colombia and void of any tourists at all.  Apparently it's also where Shakira was from, so who knew?

To be honest, if you need directions here I would have no idea what to tell you.  Once our driver got off the main road, we took a bunch of small dirt roads until we ended up by the water and saw several open air restaurants.  I was pretty happy that our driver directed here because we would have otherwise never have found this place.  It was pretty cute and like your typical beach hut restaurant with multiple levels and not a window in sight.  We originally sat upstairs to sit near the water but it got to be so windy that we had to move closer in.  The menu here is your typical Colombia/Caribbean fare which is fish, rice and plantains.  I opted for the whole red snapper (fried) and served with salad, dirty coconut rice and plantains.   Allison got the same type of food but instead of the whole fish she got the grilled fillet version.  Luckily for us, there was this woman who was walking around the restaurant with giant avocados - I actually originally thought they were something else so I kind of brushed her off at first, but once I realized what she was saying, I jumped on the opportunity ($1.50 for 1 avocado - which you can see in the background of the picture below).

I am a huge lover of fish in the whole form and this fish was no different.  It was actually a pretty big fish (for one person) and the skin of deep fried to give it a salty crispy outside but the meat inside was nice and tender.  The salad was kind of lame with some shredded lettuce and tomato, so I'm glad we had the avocado to add to it.  The fried plantains were you typically fried goodness.  While I did enjoy the rice and the hint of coconut in it, I've had better coconut rice elsewhere.  But overall, it's a lovely seaside meal and if you need a break during the 4 hour drive, it's a nice place to stop for a meal and to get a sense of the real Colombia.  They definitely don't speak any English here given it's remote location, so definitely be prepared to do a lot of pointing and nodding.  Total bill:  $63 for 4 people.