The best restaurants Colombia

An excellent choice for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Traditional dishes from the Boyacá and very pleasant prices.

Market cuisine prepared by chef Alejandro Gutiérrez, a biologist by profession, who is very committed to the responsible use of resources and the work of small producers. The dishes are more or less elaborate, but the flavors are always refined, at reasonable prices. Attention, the menu is often rather limited compared to the restaurants of Colombia in general, but here one chooses only products of season. The setting is quite informal, you feel good. The original coffee is a delight, as are the teas and infusions.

Doña Elvira is almost a legend in Bogotá. Since 1934, it has been serving a delicious chicken stew(sancocho de gallina), as well as many other traditional Colombian dishes, especially of the Cundi-Boyacense gastronomy. Ancestral recipes handed down from generation to generation, to the delight of the regulars. Hearty, unpretentious and authentic dishes, served only for lunch, at very reasonable prices. Typical family atmosphere. Smiling service, fast and good advice (in Spanish).

Mike McMurdo, a Michelin-starred chef with his New York restaurant Anthos, first set up a Mexican restaurant before opening Ouzo in 2011, giving the city a great culinary showcase. The Scottish, Irish, Californian and Chinese blood that runs through Mike's veins transpires on the plate with a Mediterranean twist. Grilled octopus; fried calamari with mango; duck breast with grilled squash; beef filet with red wine and corozo sauce and papas criollas... Well installed in front of the park of Los Novios, in the shade of the trees, we are rather at ease!

Our preferred address. Well placed, with a balcony overlooking the sports field and the river a little further. There is a good value for money and good value for money.

In a warm setting, with an open patio, Wok is a popular address for eating Asian dishes made from regional products. A nice and long menu, where you can order a good Amazonian fruit juice while waiting to decide. This local chain is involved in several social and environmental projects, and has about 20 other locations in Bogotá, including next to the Museo Nacional, in Parque de la 93 and in Zona T. Good value for money for a change from traditional Colombian cuisine.

Good Italian cuisine in a welcoming setting. Pasta, pizza and hot fingers sandwiches.

Small French restaurant without pretention, set up by Cédric, a Sétois, former restorer... in archaeology! Change of life and restoration, with this convivial place, with a refined decoration, with a terrace giving on a quiet street of Manila. Onion soup, melted camembert, tuna tartar, beef carpaccio, chicken in red wine, lamb mice, or a good burger for the unconditional. For dessert, crème brûlée, chocolate fondant or lemon pie. Dishes made with fresh quality products. A nice French culinary break.

Generous portions and typical dishes including paisa paisa, ajiaco and five different sancochos. Popular. Sometimes noisy.

A good Lebanese restaurant offering oriental specialities, such as hummus, plats, taboulés and falafels dishes. Good value for money.

A sober restaurant offering refined traditional Colombian cuisine, with regional dishes of the country's coast or interior.

Located in the Vía Jardín, in the Provenza neighborhood, the OCI.Mde restaurant offers a warm contemporary setting, with a pleasant terrace, to enjoy fusion cuisine made with local ingredients. The chef Laura Londoño has acquired solid experience working in two restaurants with five Michelin stars. She offers inventive and tasty dishes, some of which (beef or pork) require long hours of cooking. One of the best restaurants in Medellín. Prices accordingly and reservations recommended.

A tasty Korean cuisine and an adorable welcome from Young Im Kim, a great traveler who has set up her little restaurant with her partner Camilo, originally from Villa de Leyva. A small warm room facing the open kitchen, and flavors rare in these parts, very appreciable to vary the menus. A nice menu of dishes at very reasonable prices. Lots of options for vegetarians and vegans. Remember to reserve a table in advance, it fills up quickly.

Impeccable service in a painted wood room reminiscent of a cruise ship, decorated with models of sailing boats. You can admire the beautiful view of the valley of Medellín. It is quite expensive, but the dishes are very good, especially the fish. This is a formal atmosphere, a good tone.

The meat is first choice and the wine list is pleasant. Beautiful view of the city, and shows and concerts often take place.

Excellent traditional Colombian cuisine.

Pretty chic, to the image of the neighborhood. Four different atmospheres… a map with Spanish accents. Book at home. One of the best tables in town.

There is literature alongside the literature, a stone's throw from the University of Antioquia. Choice of salads. Café appreciated by local university Bohemia.

Oriental fusion cuisine, says the prospectus… we must not exaggerate. But dishes are well served, prices are soft, and the whole thing is doing the right thing. Interesting panoramic view.

One of the best restaurants in the city. Quite kitschy frame. Shrimp specialities and other seafood delicacies.

Family framework: Swimming pool, bungalows, sports activities. The table is correct. Los Manguitos also makes a hotel, counting $ 120 000 for a double room with breakfast.

In the direction of the ruins, just after the Hotel Yalconia, here is a good table. Treat yourself to meat, fish and salads. We love the balcony on the back, with a nice view. Service is a bit slow but the wait is rewarded.

Leo, as in Leonor Espinoza, the country's most prestigious chef. An economist, visual artist and true anthropologist of Colombian cuisine, she offers high quality dishes, combining ancestral knowledge with contemporary values. Her new restaurant, inaugurated in 2021, is the best Colombian establishment among the 50 best restaurants in Latin America (14th in 2021), with an eight or thirteen-course menu. Laura, his daughter, an outstanding sommelier, also has her own room. A culinary journey to the heart of Colombian gastronomy awaits you!

This bamboo restaurant offers typical dishes that are calent. Very low price menu at noon. Fast service.

Excellent meat restaurant (Argentina, but also Colombian) in the pleasant decoration. Small or large serving depending on your appetite. Fine wine list.

On deck (fans) or inside (air conditioning), an excellent table for a kitchen with Arabic influences: falafel, historical for small snacks (evening only), but also sheep, fish… Meats are delicious: Try ribs (Canadian lamb ribs), a feast!

Pleasant vegetarian restaurant on two floors. Prices are all soft.

A good restaurant, offering typical dishes at reasonable prices. Beef, pork, fish, pasta, etc. The service is attentive.

At La Perse market, people come especially for typical breakfasts and lunches from all regions of the country. The hygienic conditions are good, the portions are copious, the welcome is warm and the quality-price-experience ratio is unbeatable! At Luz Dary's, nicknamed "Mamá Luz", they prepare the best ajiaco santafereño in Bogotá. When leaving the market, avoid venturing further up the Perseverencia neighborhood, which is not very safe.

In the Prado district, a family restaurant of Caribbean cuisine, prepared with the traditional recipes kept by mom. Good fish, seafood and meat dishes, but also burgers and simple dishes to share with friends (or with your mom). The setting is pleasant in a well renovated colonial house, with high ceilings and a patio in the back perfect for a cocktail in the shade of the medlar tree. Warm welcome and efficient service. Also a small play area for the children, mom thought of everything!

Right in the center, a small popular restaurant always crowded that locals will recommend if you want to eat typical and cheap. Indeed, in the room at the end of the corridor, locals and tourists are mixed together. They serve typical local cuisine (bandeja paisa, trout, etc.), with a Colombian menu of the day (soup, main course and fruit juice or lemonade), very correct for the price. The service is rather fast and smiling. A good plan not to ruin yourself at breakfast or lunch.

On Sound Bay beach, Donde Francesca is a restaurant that doesn't look like much, but the food is generally good and the view over the lagoon is unobstructed. Try the octopus carpaccio, the shrimp ceviche, or the scampi with three flavors. Nice service but rather slow, even compared to the standard of the island, but one is not in a hurry in such a setting, the feet in the sand. One can wait with a fruit juice or a fresh cocktail.

In the village center, this pizzeria has been (almost) unanimously acclaimed for a few years, as much for its quality - with a thin dough (but too thin for some) and fresh and well-chosen ingredients - as for its generous portions and reasonable prices. You can eat there during the day, but the atmosphere is nicer in the evening, in the small garden lit by candlelight. Nice and efficient service. You can order and have it delivered to your hotel.

At the end of the touristy part of the Malecón, a restaurant that has become a classic in Mompox. Walter, the Austrian chef, offers delicious Mediterranean cuisine in his workshop house, with good wood-fired pizzas that everyone loves, homemade pasta, gazpacho, salads (lobster with pesto, for example), and Austrian and Swiss specialties... We dine on large wooden tables, in a pretty patio with soft lights. The service is friendly and nice. The prices remain reasonable. A good address.

One of the oldest restaurants in the capital, in operation since 1902. A must to discover the traditional Colombian cuisine, in a rustic setting, from another time. You can come for a cuchuco con espinazo (pork stew with barley and beans), a mazamorra chiquita (rib soup with cow's tripe), a tamal to drink with a hot chocolate, empanadas (the best in the capital, they say!), or simply delicious pandeyucas

This is undoubtedly the best restaurant in San Andrés. Ideal for a romantic dinner above the waves. The setting is nice, in an old fisherman's hut at the end of a pier. Caribbean decoration at the same time elegant and cordial and then of course an excellent kitchen of the sea, with crabs, spiny lobster, or fish fillets of the great days. A coconut tart for dessert is a perfect choice. Reservations are essential (several days in advance in high season). Make an effort to dress up, it's quite chic.

A vegetarian restaurant without much charm, but which attracts a lot of locals, because it offers a healthy and tasty home cooking for a very low price. You can choose seven small dishes (to be noted on a piece of paper) with in bulk, vegetable soup, quinoa, integral rice, tofu, potatoes with peanut sauce, fruit cake, fruit juice... Beware, the restaurant is a victim of its success, and the choice is reduced after lunch time.

On the beach, a friendly bar-resto set up by Joël, a friendly Basque, whose flag you can't miss! You can eat there with your feet in the sand, typical sea food, but also Basque specialities (axoa from Espelette, xipirons à la basquaise, Biarritz ham...). There are also pizzas, burgers, pasta and homemade bread. And for your thirst: Ricard and home-made beer, served on draught. A corner of the Basque Country in Colombia.

El Pescadero is the restaurant of the fishermen's cooperative, opened some forty years ago. In the open air, often with a pleasant sea breeze and a beautiful view of the blue sea, you can enjoy the day's catch, at light prices compared with other restaurants on the island. Fish soup, ceviche, casuel de mariscos and lobster are all tasty and the portions hearty. Try rondón, a local fried fish recipe. However, make sure you have plenty of time, as service can be a little slow!

The head of a large family, Doña Doris started to live from her cooking in 1985. Due to her success, she had to move her restaurant to the family home. She goes to the market every morning at 4:00 am to buy food for a menu that changes every day. The regulars don't hesitate to cross the city on Sundays to enjoy traditional dishes, such as beef tongue, carne posta, or mazamorra de maíz verde for dessert. A hearty and authentic local cuisine, in an ultra-colored and warm setting that honors the carnival.

A bar-restaurant with typical cuisine, perfect for a festive evening with friends and to feel the crazy quillero spirit. The decoration is spectacular, with a carnival and local culture theme, with the famous pico, the tiendita, the caiman, or the chiva, and lots of slogans and popular sayings written on the walls. A treat for the eyes and the atmosphere, perhaps more than for the food, which is decent, but quite expensive. Cucayo is a term from the coast that means rice that sticks to the bottom of the pan at the end of cooking.

Since 2007, this bar-restaurant has been steadily improving its quality, with meat and fish dishes with a French, Italian or Indian touch. Innovative recipes using fresh, healthy ingredients. House specialties include chicken curry with coconut milk, steak with pepper, baked fish fillet or seafood with coconut milk... The setting is simple and friendly, in the same spirit as the hostel. Enjoy cocktails upstairs, to take in the beautiful sunsets and sea breezes.

In a 19th century house with a contemporary decoration, an excellent restaurant of Peruvian and Colombian cuisine, with delicious seafood specialties (and some meat dishes), including the famous ceviches, a traditional dish found in many Latin American countries, with many variations, where the fish is "cooked" in a lime marinade. Here is the most famous recipe, the Peruvian one, elaborated in a classic or creative way. Reservations are recommended, as the name suggests, there are only 80 chairs.

In an old colonial house, a restaurant where you can eat well, with typical dishes (fried fish, ajiaco, sancocho...) at affordable prices. A good address for lunch. El Candelario comes back to life on Friday and Saturday nights, becoming one of the best places to go out in La Candelaria. You can sway to the rhythms of salsa, reggaetón, electro-cumbia, champeta, or the joyful rhythms of the Pacific. Sometimes concerts. Bomba Estéreo and Systema Solar, among others, have been there, before becoming successful.

A real favorite! In a pleasant setting, very good local and fusion cuisine, prepared with fresh local produce. The menu changes daily, with creative, carefully prepared dishes that rival each other in taste and originality. But Casa Cocotte is only the economic part of a more global project: to facilitate access to tourism-related jobs for the local population, including a restaurant-school and a language center. A wonderful initiative by Sophie, a Frenchwoman who decided to change her life and devote her talents to helping the local community.

Over the past two decades, Di Lucca has established its reputation as one of the most iconic Italian restaurants in the capital. There are now three Di Lucca's, this one is located next to the Andino shopping center. The interior decoration is original and the small terrace very pleasant to savor its scampi with tomato and to observe the life of this rather smart district. Delicious and generous pizzas, delicious pastas and risottos and reasonable prices for the area. Delivery service is also very efficient.

Small charming restaurant offering a simple and efficient menu of typical Colombian dishes. Hearty dishes for breakfast, with omelets and caldo de papa con pollo (chicken potato broth). For lunch, try the camarones (shrimp) salad, octopus ceviche, or chicken filet with good patacones. Well-prepared dishes, with vitamin-rich juices, local beer and South American wines. Good coffee too. Friendly reception and service. Arrive early at noon, as it is crowded and there are only a few tables.

This Mediterranean cuisine restaurant is located in a beautiful house that is part of the city's architectural heritage, one of the few preserved in the area. The interior is bright and cozy, with an elegant contemporary decor and a patio full of plants. The Spanish chef's menu offers a wide variety of dishes to share with friends as appetizers that can make a real meal, mini burgers dedicated to gourmets, and a tuna tartar with vongole pasta that has the reputation of being the best in Bogotá.

"The Cave". The great history and the small stories have made this bar-restaurant a place not to be missed in Barranquilla. Writers Gabriel García Marquez and Álvaro Cepeda Samudio, and painters Alejandro Obregón and Enrique Grau, as well as their friends from the Barranquilla Group, which brought together writers, journalists, painters and musicians, used to hang out here. The evenings are animated with salsa and son cubano concerts. On the menu, tasty Caribbean cuisine in a unique historical and artistic atmosphere.

At Esteban's, there's no doubt about it: they know how to marry Mediterranean and Colombian flavors! Since 2009, this friendly, colorful address has been cooking fresh produce grown by local farmers. For starters, opt for an antipasti plate, then try the generously topped pizzas - you'll be pleasantly surprised! The pastas, made on site, are also unanimously appreciated: pesto, Neapolitan or Mediterranean with a good dose of Parmesan. For a meal in a friendly, artisanal setting, with an open kitchen on a relaxing patio.