Restaurant Interno, is a restaurant in la Cárcel de Mujeres de San Diego, Cartagena’s women’s prison. Interno’s cooks have been trained by professional chefs, and the waitresses have also received training. The project was created with the motto: “Segundas oportunidades.” Here the inmates are given a second chance and will soon be better able to reintegrate into society. Through training and experience gained, the cooks often have jobs even before they leave prison. With the proceeds from the restaurant, living conditions in prison are improved.

Dinner
From the moment we walked into Restaurante Interno, the atmosphere was nice; serene, an atmospheric setting and quiet Spanish-language music. Because of this ambiance, we almost forgot we were in a prison. Until we saw the bars in front of the kitchen! It was a strange idea to eat in a prison, but it was also nice that we could make a small contribution to improving the living conditions of the women.

Star chefs
We chose an appetizer of Ceviche in coconut milk, a main course of -Cartagena-style steak with coconut rice and a dessert with 3 preparations of coconut. We could indeed tell that the cooks were trained by Michelin “star chefs,” because the food was beautifully prepared and tasted delicious.

The lady in the service was friendly, but somewhat shy, so it did not come to a chat. Because the food was served in quick succession, we were outside again with an hour to spare. In retrospect, we thought it would have been helpful to say we wanted to take it easy.

Exit
So we didn’t take the exit at Interno, but took a cab back to Getsemaní. Here we had a drink at the cozy Plaza de Trinidad, to end the evening nicely.