Candé Cartagena Restaurant Review

Restaurante Candé Cocina 100% Cartagenero is one of Cartagena’s better known and top recommended restaurants.

It has very good food and a neat vibe and decor. We’ve we’ve been to Candé a number of times since it opened and always enjoyed it.

So, I definitely recommend it as a good place to consider including on your list of restaurants to try in Cartagena.

Here, I’ll be writing a review on Restaurant Candé Cartagena based on our most recent visit during the summer of 2024, but I’ll sprinkle some notes from some of our previous experiences too.

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Candé Cartagena

I can’t remember if Candé opened just before or just after they completed the renovations of the former bull ring they turned into a shopping mall named La Serrezuela around the corner.

According to their website they’ve been open 11 years (I’m writing this in 2024, so that would be since 2012 or 2013).

I’m almost positive it wasn’t here in 2013 though. Maybe it was open in another location before moving here.

I believe Susana and I first ate here for an anniversary dinner probably in 2017 or 2018.

The location is definitely a lovely spot and part of its allure is the neat decoration and charm, which makes it good for a romantic dinner.

Apparently, this was two distinct structures and they along with the space between them were converted into the one restaurant.

The former courtyard in the middle is very neat and one of my favorite parts of Candé.

We’ve been a few other times as well ourselves, and I know we’ve had at least one friends’ birthday dinner here.

Actually, this was the first place we went out when restaurants were allowed to reopen after the Covid pandemic, enjoying an Amor y Amistad dinner here in September 2020. What a crazy time!

Every time we’ve been to Candé we’ve enjoyed it.

The food is good, the service is good, and it has a neat ambiance and vibe.

Old, often mismatched wooden chairs around the tables and decorations like huge burned down candles are nice touches that evoke a sort of old timey Cartagena feel.

Also, I love the big tree in the center of the now enclosed courtyard. Their bathroom is also a bit of a fascinating oddity, and looks almost like something out of the Great Gatsby.

There is usually some combination of live music and dance too.

In fact, during this most recent visit, we saw a brass group, a lady singing with a piano player, and some dancers.

So, Candé offers a neat experience and is a good fit for couples, families, and groups.

Candé Cartagena Menu

Candé Cartagena’s menu is pretty good and fairly large with enough variety here to please most people.

There’s a good sampling of traditional Colombian and Cartagena food on Candé’s menu. Cartagena is, of course, well known for its seafood, and we’ve usually gotten seafood dishes here.

They do serve an entire fried fish here. While I always felt like this is best on the beach, it’s a must try in Cartagena, and this wouldn’t be a bad place to try it if you don’t get it on the beach.

However, there are non seafood dishes like chicken and pork on the menu too, including a few quirkier local dishes like carnero (mutton) and conejo (rabbit) that you don’t see on that many menus catering to the tourist crowd.

By the way, read my post on traditional Cartagena dishes to try to learn more about foods you may want to try here or elsewhere during your trip.

Candé Restaurant Cartagena’s menu for drinks is pretty solid too, including a few specialty cocktails. They have a really large wine list too.

You can see their full menu on their website here.

Our Most Recent Experience at Candé Restaurant in Cartagena

This review is based on our most recent visit to Candé for lunch in the summer of 2024, during our first return trip to Cartagena since moving the states in early 2022.

We were really pleased that they were very accommodating of our at the time 9 month old daughter Aaliyah. They even had a neat, old school style, wooden high chair for her that fits in perfect with the overall decor and vibe of Candé.

I thought that was a nice touch.

To start, they brought us some complementary little rosquita donuts, which were interesting.

Rosquitas are round snacks made from yuca and cheese and are usually crunchy. These were soft and a little sweet and savory. It kind of reminded me of a buñuelo, just in donut form and with some powdered sugar.

I had a pretty decent, if a bit sweeter than I would have preferred, cocktail and Susana had one of their specialty mocktails to drink to start.

Something I noticed at several of the places we went on this trip is almost everywhere in Cartagena serves cocktails that are very sweet, even the ones that don’t necessarily sound like the sweetest ones on the menu.

I wish more places would have a bit more balance and at least an option or two that isn’t so sweet.

There’s lots of good appetizers on Candé’s menu, including chicharrón and a sampling of Cartagena street food like mini aprepas de huevo and carimañolas.

There are also a number of varieties of ceviche, including a sampler, that we’ve gotten in the past and enjoyed.

We debated ordering one of these options, but ultimately opted not to do an appetizer this time and save space for dessert, especially since we had already had the complimentary donuts.

For our main courses, I ordered the Mariscos Barú.

It’s a grilled seafood platter that comes with lobster, fish, shrimp, calamari, and mussels in a tasty garlic sauce (al ajillo) with coconut rice and patacones.

This was near the end of our trip, and so this was really hitting all the classic Cartagena seafood notes for me. Everything was good, although I think the fish was actually my favorite.

This was also Aaliyah’s first few bites of shrimp. She seemed to like it!

Susana ordered a rice called the Arroz Anfitrión on the chef’s recommended section of Candé’s menu. The items on that menu might change or rotate, but am not 100% sure about that.

It was a seafood rice with a creamy coconut sauce, and the couple bites I had were quite good.

I ordered a corozo juice and Susana ordered a corozo soda to go with our meals. Both were good, and I definitely recommend getting a corozo juice somewhere during your trip to Cartagena since it’s a local favorite.

With that extra space from resisting an appetizer, we ordered a pie de coco coconut pie. We had gotten this before, and I remembered it being pretty good.

It’s an interesting mini pie of coconut that’s more savory than sweet and comes with homemade corozo ice cream.

I actually think the ice cream and the little crunchy powder they serve it on is the highlight!

I also did have a coffee to end our meal, which was good.

Service was also good. Like many places in Cartagena, the time to get your check can be a bit slow. It also got really crowded while we were there.

I appreciate they give you a cute little box with your check in it and a few traditional Cartagena candies to take.

It’s an overall nice experience to go with very good food.

Candé Cartagena Verdict: Still Recommended

In conclusion, we were pleased again with this return to visit to Candé, and I’d still definitely recommend it as among the top Cartagena restaurants to try on a visit.

The food is really good, and it’s a neat place that offers a bit of an experience that isn’t that common in Cartagena.

I would recommend Buena Vida over it for seafood, a place like Carmen for fine dining, or a place like Celele for a truly unique experience.

However, the neat decor and live music and dance at Candé makes it a really good experience and worth including on your itinerary too.

Prices here, while not cheap, are also a bit more reasonable than those places, with the exception of Buena Vida which is priced similarly.

I definitely do recommend reservations. We went on a weekday afternoon, I want to say around 2 for a late lunch, and it wasn’t too busy, although like I said, it filled up not long after we got there.

We made a reservation but probably could have walked in at that time. Definitely for dinner and the weekend I’d highly recommend making a reservation. Really, even for lunch on the weekday, it’s not a bad idea if you want to be 100% sure you can eat there or not have a wait.

I should note as well that Candé does have a dress code.

It’s fairly relaxed, but you can’t show up dressed for the beach either.

For men, shorts and sandals are allowed during the day, but pants and shoes are required at night. When you make a reservation, it does include some information about the dress code in the confirmation email.

You can make reservations, see a menu, and learn more about the restaurants at Cande’s website.

I hope you found this review of Candé Restaurant in Cartagena informative. If you go, I hope you enjoy it too. Feel free to let me know what you thought n the comments!

Cheers and Happy Exploring!