La Cevichería Cartagena Restaurant Review: Worth the Hype

La Cevichería has long been one of Cartagena’s most popular and well known restaurants.

It became especially well known after Anthony Bourdain featured it in an episode of No Reservations. Ever since, it’s been a mainstay as a recommended restaurant to try on a visit to Cartagena.

And I have to say, I completely agree!

Susana and I have been to La Cevichería in Cartagena many times. It was definitely on our short list of top options when looking to treat ourselves to some tasty seafood during my 11 years living in Cartagena.

I’ve written this review of La Cevichería Cartagena based primarily on our most recent visit during a return trip to Cartagena in 2024, but I’ll be drawing on our many other visits too.

So read on to learn all about what to expect, what to try, and why you should consider visiting La Cevichería Restaurant during your visit to Cartagena.

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La Cevichería Cartagena Review Overview

As I mentioned above, La Cevichería blew up in popularity after Bourdain’s visit.

Not only did Bourdain eat at La Cevichería, but he also toured the Bazurto Market with the restaurant’s chef, getting a crash course in fresh local ingredients and Cartagena’s rich culinary heritage blending Spanish, African, and indigenous influences.

You can read about his visit on La Cevichería’s website. If you want to get the full Bourdain experience, consider booking a tour to Bazurto to complement your visit to La Cevichería. You can also check out my other recommendations for the best tours to do in Cartagena.

Also, as I mentioned above, we consider this among our favorite restaurants in Cartagena, and we’ve eaten here many times.

Everything we’ve ever gotten here has been great!

As the name suggests, La Cevichería Cartagena’s menu specializes in ceviche, and the ceviche here is certainly among the best if not the best in Cartagena.

However, La Cevicheria’s menu also is pretty extensive and it has a lot of cooked seafood dishes too. So, don’t shy away from visiting if you’re not a fan of ceviche.

You can see a full La Cevichería menu on their website by the way.

In particular, we always thought the seafood rices and paellas here were standouts, and ordering a ceviche as an appetizer and a paella can work really well for sharing. Honestly though, order a ceviche for to share even if you’re getting two cooked entrees too!

I will say, this is one of the pricier places in Cartagena though.

Due to their status as a universally recommended place to go in Cartagena and the Bourdain claim to fame, they are definitely able to charge a premium.

That being said, even if they are honestly a bit overpriced, I don’t think they are overrated. So, I tend to think the premium price is worth it, mostly because the food is actually excellent.

You can get a solid ceviche at just about any Cartagena seafood restaurant though, and even a great one for cheaper at one of our favorite hidden gems named La Laguna Azul if you’re traveling on a tighter budget.

Another good hidden gem for seafood is La Vieja Guardia, we always enjoyed the ceviche and everything else at La Mulata, which is very reasonably priced too. Buena Vida Marisquería is probably my top seafood recommendation in Cartagena and is a bit better a value than La Cevichería in my opinion.

Still, it’s absolutely worth treating yourself at Cartagena’s La Cevichería while on vacation too!

Be aware that at peak lunch and dinner time, there can often be a wait, and they don’t do reservations. However, if you can do mid-afternoon for a late lunch/early dinner, it’s often not too crowded and there is little or no wait.

Also, be aware that the outside tables are great, but street vendors do often approach and street performers also come by and will ask for tips.

So, if you’d rather not deal with them, opt to sit inside.

Below, I’ll talk about what we ordered on our most recent visit in June 2024.

What We Ordered at Cartagena’s La Cevichería

We actually ended up here on Father’s Day, my first official Father’s Day actually, after trying to go to La Vieja Guardia and Lunático, places I wanted to try. When they were closed, opting for an old favorite was an easy choice!

We were three adults, Susana, her mom, and myself, plus our daughter Aaliyah, not quite ready for ceviche.

We ordered the largest portion of the Ceviche combinado, which has fish, shrimp, and calamari in a sauce that includes lime and coconut. You can get this in 3 sizes, medium, super, and the mega we got.

We also got 2 cooked entrees: the octopus, or pulpo, in peanut sauce and the Real Suprema Isla de Bastimiento Panamá, which has shrimp, calamari, and clams in a coconut curry sauce.

The ceviche was, as expected, delicious.

I especially loved the touch of the grated coconut on top. Another thing I’ve always loved about the ceviches here is they serve them in a bowl full of the juicy marinade, so you really just get so much flavor.

By the way, the hot sauce here, called Cocodrillo en llamas, or Alligator in Flames, is terrific.

It has a great flavor and is very spicy. I always make sure to ask them to bring us a bottle, and I’ll probably go back by and buy a bottle or two to take home before we leave (and probably get some more ceviche too!).

That mega size of ceviche was quite large too.

Honestly, if you just want a ceviche lunch for 2, it would probably be enough food unless you were really hungry. It and the two entrees definitely left the three of us very satisfied.

Speaking of the entrees, the octopus was delicious!

It was well presented with a bed of coconut rice, a layer of chopped avocado and tomatoes, and a generous portion of chopped octopus on top. The octopus had a great flavor of soy sauce and peanut, and the mixture of flavors when taking a bite of all 3 layers together was terrific.

I had been craving a good pulpo, and this hit the spot.

The Real Suprema Isla de Bastimiento Panamá was also good.

This is actually one of Susana’s favorite dishes there and one we’ve ordered a number of times before. The coconut curry sauce was tasty but not spicy.

I’ve always liked how they serve this in a bowl that looks like a boat. It had a pretty generous portion of the shrimp and calamari, with some clams too, but since it doesn’t come with rice or any other side, you probably would not want to order this alone unless you’re not very hungry.

Honestly, in that case, I’d probably recommend a ceviche over it, but it is tasty.

For drinks, I got a mojito, Susana got a limonada de coco, and her mom got a corozo juice.

Honestly, I’d encourage you to get one of these three drinks!

The mojitos here have always been among my favorites in Cartagena, although I’m sure their other cocktails are good too.

Limonada de coco and corozo juice are two local favorites, and, in my opinion, virtual must tries during your time in Cartagena. La Cevichería is one of the best places to try both too. Limonada de coco is a creamy coconut limeade, and corozo juice best compares to the taste of black cherry or more tart cranberry juice.

I should add here too that service was great as usual too.

Update: Another Two Visits to La Cevichería This Trip

I actually came back by La Cevichería on my own one day while I was doing some other things in the Walled City.

This time I ordered the octopus sandwich called the “Pulp Fiction Burger” (clever name) still trying to get my pulpo fix. It was very good.

The octopus was tasty, I liked the grilled red bell peppers, and the bread was great. I probably would have been happier with just letting the taste of the pulpo shine instead of the barbecue sauce, although the sauce tasted fine.

I had a limonada de coco too and can confirm it is in fact very good.

We came back one other night too with my mom. This night, my mom shared the same ceviche combinado with coconut and lime as well as a coctel with shrimp, calamari, and octopus(!), which was good.

I had a corozo juice, and can confirm it is in fact very good too.

Susana had a shrimp sandwich that she enjoyed too.

We sat outside this visit. There were at least 3 different street performers that came by in the hour or so while we were there, so keep in mind that tip above and if you have some spare change or small bills you can tip them if you like (or don’t if you don’t). We did tip the Michael Jackson impersonator because he was pretty funny.

So, as you can see from 3 visits in 6 weeks, we definitely like La Cevichería!

La Cevichería Cartagena Restaurant Review Final Verdict

In conclusion, we were as pleased as ever with La Cevichería and happy an old favorite still lives up to its fame and our memories of it.

I definitely still recommend it as one of the places to include on your list of restaurants to try on a visit.

You could get a small ceviche and cocktail as a snack and chance to cool off while exploring Cartagena, or get a ceviche as an appetizer and any of the tasty entrees or rices for a larger meal. The paellas are terrific for sharing, and I did see a guy at a table near us order a pretty nice looking sandwich too!

So, there should be something here for just about everyone who likes seafood, and while it does come at a bit of a premium price, I think you’ll really enjoy it. Plus, you’ll get to tell everyone you ate at a place Anthony Bourdain visited while in Cartagena.

La Cevichería is located just off the Plaza San Diego in Cartagena’s Walled City across from the Hotel Santa Clara’s Bar named El Coro.

It is open 7 days a week from 1:00 to 10:30 pm.

Once again, you can see a full menu on their website and also check out their Instagram to see how tasty the food looks!

I hope you found this review of La Cevichería in Cartagena helpful.

If you do go, I’d love for you to share your experience, what you ordered, and what you thought in the comments below.

Most importantly, I hope you enjoy it as much as we have so many times!

Cheers and Happy Exploring Eating!