Retire Early
Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler

In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age
of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this
financially independent lifestyle, they invite you
to take advantage of their wisdom and experience. |
|
Lunch at
Exquisite Hotel
Movich Cartagena de Indias
Cartagena, Colombia
Billy and Akaisha Kaderli
We were running out of days on our visit to
Cartagena, and we still wanted to have a fine dining lunch experience
before we left.
We considered several upscale hotels in
the Walled City.
Let me just say, that with Billy being a
trained French Chef, we are accustomed to eating well at home. If we go out
and spend "good money" on a meal, we want it to be unique, or at least
memorable. We
were looking for something different.
We didn't want to spend $100USD for a
steak, grilled lobster or a pork chop. We could get that any day of the week
at Chez Billy.
What were we going to do? Where should we go?

Movich Cartagena de Indias
Since this was the day before we were to
leave
Colombia and return to
Mexico, we had
already gone to a number of restaurants and
rooftop bars by now.
Sure, there were several upscale hotels
which had restaurants that we hadn't visited yet. And we checked out their
menus and prices online to help us make a choice.
But remember, Billy has stuffed a chicken
breast in more ways than you can count. And he has sauced and grilled both
steak and pork with wines, creams, pestos, mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes.
You name it.
What a dilemma.

The Lobby at Hotel Movich Cartagena de
Indias
Sometimes what we like to do is order
several appetizers and share them. This gives us a variety of flavors and
expands our dining experience.
So my mind went back to the
Hotel Movich Rooftop Bar where we
had that
superb octopus Carpaccio and the various bruchettas. There were lots of
things left to be tried on that menu... Let's go back there!
Excellent.

The entrance to
Alyzia Restaurant
On the first floor of Movich is the
Alyzia Restaurant which caters to the guests staying in the hotel.
We walked in and asked the waiter if we
could see both the lunch menu and the Rooftop Bar menu. Alyzia Restaurant
offers Mediterranean and Caribbean cuisine.
Look at this beautiful entranceway with
fishing net-style curtains, and hanging rattan globes inside the dining room
for lights.
Lovely.

Inside Alyzia Restaurant
Several banquettes with tables were on
one side of the dining room and four-top tables on the other.
The neutral tones gave it an elegant
feel.

The menu
The regular lunch menu had nice
varieties, but we passed over the pastas, and the steaks with potatoes.
It felt like 100 degrees outside and we
wanted something more distinctive and lighter, like seafood. No sauces, no
creams, no butter.
Looking again at the Rooftop Bar Menu, we
decided on a grilled seafood platter. We held the idea of ordering a Caesar
Salad if we were still hungry after the platter.

Magnificent Seafood Platter
Wow.
After ordering, we waited a short while
when the waiter brought us this amazing platter filled with fresh robalo white
fish, octopus, shrimp, squid, mussels, grilled Portobello mushrooms, tiny
red tomatoes, sweet red onion and zucchini.
At one end of the oblong platter was a
pile of potato wedges, which were actually quite good.

A closer look
My first bite was out of this world.
Anyone can ruin seafood by overcooking
it.
All of these pieces have different
cooking times and nothing was rubbery, tasteless or mushy.
The Chef knew exactly what he was doing
and the proof was in the plate.
The octopus had a crunchy taste of fire,
but was juicy and tender inside. The shrimp popped with freshness, and the
squid was baby-tender.
Under the pile we found the robalo, which
had a savory crunch to the outside and was perfectly moist inside.
The potatoes, which could easily have
been generically tasteless, were also delicious unto themselves.

Served with three sauces and fresh
bread with dipping oil
Our three dipping sauce choices were an
avocado sauce, a mushroom mayonnaise sauce and an olive oil/green herb sauce.
We eagerly dug in and after eating and
eating and eating... we still had much left over. It was at this point that
we were grateful for not ordering the Caesar Salad!
We ended up taking a good portion of this
plate home to put into our hotel room refrigerator.

Fresh coconut ice cream snowball with
fresh strawberry filling
There was no room.
We couldn't eat another bite.
Forget about dessert... We couldn't
possibly fit in anything heavy like a Ganache au Chocolate or a Creme
Caramel...
No, no thank you.
Then our waiter said, "You will love
this, I promise."
If you have never had fresh coconut ice
cream made in the tropics, this is a must-order.
Cold, light, refreshing,... and the
tartness of the chunky fresh strawberry syrup in the center was a great
contrast. The thin swash of chocolate with crumbled vanilla cookies kind of
reset the palate for the next bite.
The whole meal was simply spectacular.

Our bill
The bill for our lunch with tax and tip
included came to 150,000COP or about $47USD.
Unbelievable, don't you think?
We definitely recommend Alyzia restaurant
at Hotel Movich.
Upstairs you can enjoy the pool for the
day so long as you order a drink or food, and be sure to visit Hotel Movich
Rooftop Bar as well.
Hotel Movich
Cartagena De Indias
Centro Histórico, Calle de Vélez Danies
No. 4 – 39 Cartagena Hotel, Colombia
Phone: +57 5 6642995 OR
+57 (1) 521 5050
Website:
https://www.movichhotels.com/es/
Email:
atencionalcliente@movichhotels.com
There are 6 locations
in Colombia and Ecuador
Rooms are priced around $250USD per night
For more information on
Colombia, with photos, stories and videos,
click
here
For more on
Retirement Topics,
click here and
here and don't forget to signup for
our free Newsletter.



Retire
Early Lifestyle appeals to a different
kind of person – the person who prizes their
independence, values their time, and who doesn’t
want to mindlessly follow the crowd.
HOME
Book Store
Retire Early Lifestyle Blog
About Billy & Akaisha
Kaderli
Press
Contact
20 Questions
Preferred
Links
Retirement
Country Info
Retiree
Interviews
Commentary
REL
Videos
|