The Columbia Restaurant, St. Augustine, FL

Columbia Restaurant in the historic district of St. Augustine was recommended to us by several people so we made a reservations for our one night in town.  It is a very large facility but it is set up and decorated so that it feels more intimate than you would think.  I like the Spanish décor and they have a lovely gift shop that also sells hand-painted ceramic dishes and accessories. 

The menu is large and there are a lot of interesting optiops.  You will certainly have no problem finding something to order, though it may be more difficult to narrow down your choices. We found the wait-staff to be very helpful in that regard.  The service was excellent.  We started with the appetizer croquetas de pollo, made with chicken and Cuban cracker crumbs and served with a hot sauce, and the appetizer special of the night, a lightly battered and fried chicken breast topped with blue cheese.   

For the main course I ordered a Pollo Relleno which was battered and stuffed with chorizo served with yellow rice.  Mike ordered Boliche Criollo - roasted eye of beef stuffed with chorizo.  Both of our dishes came luke warm and dried out.  It was obvious that they had been ordered too soon and sat under a heat lamp.  The flavor was good but the execution and timing ruined them.

We were very disappointed in the main course but we knew it was not the fault of the chef or the waitress, it was the person running the orders in the kitchen.  For this reason we would definitely give the restaurant another opportunity when we return to St Augustine.