Critiques badly needed

OK… Here’s the dilema. I’m redesigning a site for a restaurant back here in Puerto Rico. Their actual site at the moment is www.mofongocriollo.com . Visit that address to see what they have. Now, go to [URL=“http://www.carloslugo.com/Mofongo Criollo”]www.carloslugo.com/Mofongo Criollo to see my design. A complete 360 degrees turn around concept. Even the logo was redesigned by hand. The problem is that a few people told me I needed to work on the colors??? Mostly in the background. I wanted it to reflect a real subtle, easy to the eye concept. All the contrary to the pain for the eye they have. The restaurant is placed inside a top name hotel (a Sheraton). In my personal opinion I like my design, not as an egocentric, but more as a client to be.

So, I rely on your imparcial comments to really know what’s the perspective of a neutral observer.

By the way my design is simply a layout. No interactivity yet. It’s in english, but don’t pay attention to the text contents, since they’re not the final ones. Just judge the design.

Thanks in advance for your comments.