Colombian Food in Bogota
The Colombian food we ate was a lot better than I remember from my first visit.
I think the amount of restaurants has increased significantly with the competition, also helping to increase overall quality.
If you plan to visit Colombia and enjoy eating tasty food, use these resources to find good places to eat.
- https://bogota.restorando.com.co/
- they also have an app and you can make reservations
- https://www.degusta.com.co
- another review site with app with which you can make reservations
The above references are similar to Yelp, but in Spanish. Each of the sites definitely gives you a more accurate feel of the food and what to expect, at least from a Colombian perspective.
If you can’t read Spanish you can use Google Translate to translate it on your computer or smartphone using the browser. Alternatively, you also have Yelp, Tripadvisor, and Google Maps! (Yes Gmaps has reviews too!!)
We did a good job sticking to Colombian cuisine while we were there. We had some hits and some misses as outlined below in my notes. Let me know if you have any questions!
Restaurant Recommendations for Bogota
- La Herencia–recommended
- our first meal in Colombia, traditional Colombian food. We had ajiaco (chicken stew) and bandeja paisa (a dish with lots of meat and carbs from the countryside). The restaurant prepared a special happy birthday banner at our table with balloons and served a complimentary piece of flan with a candle for my birthday! talk about going above and beyond!
- Salvo Patria – recommended
- another contemporary take on traditional Colombian cuisine, the dishes were executed well and strong bold flavors. we had porchetta and octopus as mains, and the octopus was perfectly done soft and well seasoned. the dessert milhoja was also top notch!
- Masa – recommended
- a busy lunch time cafe that seemed popular with young people and families, we had a good pistachio pastry and coffee here
- Central Cevicheria– recommended
- fresh Colombian / fusion style ceviche. To start they serve complimentary arepas with salsa. We had a seafood cocktail and a tuna ceviche the fish was fresh and tasty!
- Factor Cacao– recommended
- an artisan chocolate shop that specializes in truffles and fruit infused chocolates, they had at least 20 different flavors. we got 3 of the fruity ones and all were quite good
- Orso Heladeria – recommended
- Colombian style ice cream, with unique flavors, we only got to go once and will absolutely go back next time were in town
- El Mejor Ajiaco del Mundo– recommend
- if you are in the area, this street literally has 6 or 7 ajiaco shops right next to each other. you need to look at the address # to find this one. If you can wait, I’d recommend La Herencia as the flavor and sides were better there!
- Paloquemao Market – recommended
- the biggest market in Bogota carries all kinds of produce, meat, seafood and everything you might ever need. we bought some fruit and also had a chance to try roasted pork and seafood stew at two of the stalls, definitely a highlight of our visit!
- La Biferia – recommended
- Colombia is known to have good beef and steaks, we saved our steak meal toward the end of the visit. I wanted to go to a restaurant that specialized in veal but it was located a but far away and wasn’t convinient so we didnt make it.
- The steak we had here had good flavor and was perfectly cooked. They have all kinds of cuts available at reasonable prices, if you are craving meat I would check this place out. They have multiple locations.
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The below are places that I wouldn’t recommend for eating in Bogota
- Minimal– not recommended
- this is supposed to be a modern take on Carribean inspired Colombian cuisine and it didn’t really fly.
- we ordered a pork dish and tuna for our mains, and had an appetizer of ‘sushi’ made with plantains and avocado. the food was expensive for what we got, without depth, complexity or anything really memorable 🙁 .
- Maison Kayser– not recommended
- the dessert and coffee we had was passable, but the baguette we bought was old and stale! they must not get high turnover here 🙁
- Phillipe– not recommended, (not pictured)
- we got two pastries here to go, Milhoja and a strawberry tart. when we got back to the hotel room and were about to eat it, we noticed one of the strawberries had white mold on it! yuck!
click to enlarge!
Let me know if you have any questions and thanks for stopping by!
Lots of information and great post! Thanks for sharing !!
thanks Ellie!
Great tips. That’s a bummer seeing white mold on the strawberries. We won’t be eating there thank you.
yes, next time i need to pay more attention to which pieces they choose from the display!
In our part of Connecticut there are many Peruvians. I haven’t found a Colombian restaurant, but you have piqued my curiosity so I will be on the lookout.
hope you get a chance to try it! there aren’t too many places here in LA either and since i knew that when i went down there i made sure to bring bag some beans and corn meal to make it at home. i’ll see if i can get the taste right and if i do, share it on my site 🙂
That would be fun to see.