ZOE Restaurant – my kind of eating

Just before going into Carrefour for some products we can not find in “our own” supermarket, a strong hunger feeling lead us to the third floor of Centro Comercial (Mall) Santa Ana. Here you will find my favorite:  WOK, but also Crepes & Waffles, El Corral and some others that are less famous.

This day we decided to try something new and walked into ZOE, a fresh looking place with the kitchen in the middle of the guests. As it was a very beautifull day with blue skies and sunshine we took a table at the windows and enjoyed the view of the city while waiting for our limonada natural (lemonade).

ZOE serves salads, sandwiches, wraps and I think I remember some heavier plates also. We choose the smoked salmon wrap and a fallafel wrap, which both turned out excellent. After finishing with the fried yuka (kind of patato) that the plate came with, a waiter drove up with a little car with some deserts. We choose the capuchino flan which was nice and fluffy and good of taste. All in all we really were impressed with the place, the decoration is modern and of great style and the food was up to par with WOK, which means a lot in my book.

ZOE, calle 110, 9a-70, 3rd floor, tel: 6124581

Btw. the pictures are not the best as there are taken with my phone…

My favorite restaurant in Bogota! WOK WOK WOK WOK

I am not an easy eater and most dishes are completely disregarded by my tongue, but WOK is something else. Every time we have a craving, are happy and even when we are sad about something, we go to this Asian oriented restaurant where they play nice lounge music and serve the best food in the city. Comfort food at its best!

Of course I should have written about this place a long time ago, but I always forget to take a camera so do not have any pictures. Luckily Google sometimes helps so thanks for the pics my friends!

WOK at Gran Estacion (have not been there)

WOK has a very extensive menu that is actually a small magazine nowadays. They have the best and most creative sushi I have eaten on any side of the world and if you go you need to try at least the spring rolls, gyozas, some of the rice paper wraps and the coco juice! For about 50.000COP (20USD) we always have a great meal and feel great when walking out again.

There are several WOK´s around town. The ones I know are at Parque 93 and Avenida 19 with about 120. Please try it out and let me know what you think!

WOK on poles at Av.19-120

El Holandes – Colanda food

My parents in law found a Dutch restaurant some time ago and of course we had to try and see what kind of typical plates were there to be found.

El Holandes – Villa el Rosal is just outside Bogota on the highway to Medellin, from the city about 40minutes to get there. If you are a little familiar with the Dutch culture, you will easily recognize the place as it has a big windmill on the roof and the Dutch flag hanging outside (next to the Colombian of course).

In the entrance of the restaurant you will find a shed with many orchids. The Dutch owner (already living in Colombia for more than 40years) has won many awards with these flowers and offers them for sale there. Speaking of the owner, he is very inviting and friendly and for me easily recognizable as Dutch.

The menu includes several Dutch plates like bitterballen en kroketten (both a meat snack with a hard crust around them), but of course they serve also traditional Colombian plates with meat, potatoes etc.

We ordered the typical Dutch things and I must say that they were pretty good. The mustard that came with the kroketten was delicious and spicy, just as it should be.

I do not remember the prices that well, but I think we paid about 100.000COP (45USD) for one main plate, three starters, drinks and one desert. We will be back soon hopefully!

El Holandes
Kilometro 18.5 – Autopista Bogota-Medellin,
Tel: 1-8240988, Cel: 3108592262

Indigo drinks

Last weekend we went to have some drinks before going clubbing. In Parque 93 there are several nice places so we headed there to check some out. We only made it to one as time was flying and we were enjoying the first place we chose. Indigo is an Oriental-American restaurant/bar but I only noticed that first part when we left and took a delivery menu on our way.

We were only looking for some good drinks and stayed outside at the roofed terrace, enjoying a nice wine (8500COP, 5USD) and wodka-redbull (22.000COP, 14USD). Seems that bars in Colombia are not that known with this excellent mix, so I had to perform the trick myself and for some reason still got charged more than I imagine normal.

The service in Indigo is up to standard with most service in Colombia I have experienced so far: really high. I have never in any other country in the world seen so many good waiters, honestly friendly and fast in their ways.

Indigo was a very pleasant start of the weekend and for sure we will check out their food one day too. Ah and they have domicilio (delivery) as well.

Indigo
Carrera 11a, 93b-27
tel: 6915006

Noura – Lounge / Restaurant

This Friday I was hanging in the house with some muscle ache of working this day as a cotero (truck loader, sorry do not know a better translation). Not willing to move more than a few meters, but very hungry, we decided to go get some food and a drink and if possible a nice soft sofa to hang on.

Remembering this great looking building on the corner of Calle 94, Carrera 13 which said to be a lounge – restaurant, we took a sweater and headed out. We entered Noura greeted by several waiters and lead up the stairs to the restaurant part of the place. I made it clear that we just wanted a drink but the owner (or manager) mentioned that there was a show starting so it would be nice to sit upstairs.

We ordered a Grape Mojito and a Whiskey Sour (both about 11.000COP, 7USD). The last one was not on the menu and I love places where they just try to get you what you desire anyway. Many places will not even try. Both the Mojito and Whiskey were excellent and the performance of a Flamenco style guitar player/singer sounded great.

We did not get to try the food menu (changed from Arab to Mediterranean recently) as we already ate and after a few song we decide to move to the lounge downstairs as we wanted to hang back a little.

Noura was not very alive this night and we were trying to figure out why. Possibly the waiters are a little over present or maybe it is the food(?), but for us this would be the perfect place to hang out on a Friday night and have some drinks. This might be the best looking and most comfortable place in Bogota. The lounge area has amazingly relaxing sofas and the drinks were really excellent. I have never seen a Grape, Mango or Strawberry Mojito and both me and my wife thought they were the best ever!

If they put some real lounge music for that downstairs area, we will be occupying the sofas often and I am sure that more people will come to start the weekend. Maybe they should just make the whole place a lounge, as this might be what is missing in the offer in Bogota.

Darpapaya – Latasia food

Being two and a half years married is a good reason to celebrate, so we did…

As the restaurant I had planed to go to, decided not to be open at a Sunday afternoon (!!!), I had to impress my wife with my “backup” plan. Going to Zona G is than always a good option as here you will find probably the best restaurants of Bogota all together in a few blocks.

After passing most of them (as they seemed too boring), we saw a nice looking restaurant and crossed the street to go in. For some reason we passed it however and noticed a place across the street called: Darpapaya. Directly translated it means “give opportunity” a strange name for a restaurant, but it intrigued us enough to step inside and check the menu. When the waiter said the place serves Latin-Asian fusion, we had to try it out.  The table next to the window was reserved (and several others actually) so we took place on the terrace which in the end did not turn out to be as cold as we expected.

The staff was pretty friendly and the menu made our mouths water instantly. We like to always share and taste different plates and most of the time the entrees are the best. This time we chose a carpaccio of salmon with a mayonaise sauce of wasabi and a ceviche of mixed fish to start off. A ceviche is one of my favorite starters and the Peruvian version is famous in Colombia and is served with a amazingly good sauce. This carpaccio and ceviche were far from the standard ones and tasted simply amazing.

For the main course we took the bife …. (forgot the second part). It is a plate with some chunky pieces of tender beef, served with a peanut sauce, a fried ball of criolla patato with cheese and some green beans. Also this plate was superb! So good actually that we had to try the deserts. The cheesecake of grapes was a great finisher.

As you can tell we really liked the place and even though it is a little on the expensive side (we paid 81.000COP, 50USD), for a nice occasion I can really really recommend it.

Darpapaya
Calle 69ª No. 4-78 Bogotá, Colombia
Reserve/delivery: 5415013
www.darpapaya.com

Gaudi – Spanish Restaurant

It might seem that we only go to foreign restaurants but honestly it is just a coincidence. Before starting the blog we have gone to many places with Colombian food but I do not have any pictures and don’t remember what we ate there so I will have to review them at a later point.

Yesterday we went to La Macarena, a neighborhood close to the center of Bogota, with some very nice streets with good restaurants. We decided to try out the Tapas of Gaudi a nice place with the designs of Gaudi heavily incorporated in the decoration. I was hoping not to receive the Spanish service that I have experienced so far in my life as Spanish waiters might be the worst ever.

Luckily the waiters were fine and the food great. We had the typical tapas plates like:bread with tomato, octopus, patatas bravas (potato with spicy sauce), Jamon Serrano, some meat and olives. To wash all this down we had a jar of Sangria of Cava, the Spanish champagne. Ah and I must not forget that we also ordered a plate of Paella but I left that for the others as it is not my favorite.

In total we paid 120.000COP (about 70USD) for 6 plates of Tapas, the paella and drinks. Not cheap but a reasonable price for good food in a great looking place and nice atmosphere.

You can find Gaudi at: Carrera 4a, 27-54, La Macarena Bogota. Tel: 3427183

Chez Therese – Belgium food

Right after the toll booth going over the mountain from Bogota to La Calera you will find a very colorful restaurant which unmistakeably is Belgium. Last Sunday we decided to try out the food after driving past this place already on several occasions.

Right after the earthquake we were not 100% comfortable on the second floor, as the restaurant sort of hangs on the side of the mountain. To actually get the most out of the atmosphere of the place I suggest to try and get one of the tables on the first floor. The service was not that the fastest in town and I personally did not like the free entree but the rest of the food definitely made up for that! We were not that hungry so we ordered cheese croquettes and beef with herb butter to share. Both turned out very well and of course we had to order the chocolate mousse for desert. A great finisher of a very nice lunch made by the owner herself!

Btw. besides eating there you can also take home fresh lettuce, jams, eggs, pate etc.

Chez Therese: Km 7 via La Calera – Patios, tel: 5224778

Kebab on Sunday

After some serious biking today, we had lunch in La Zona T.  , a more expensive part of Bogota with many restaurants and bars. Gyros & Kebab, which of course is an Arab restaurant, is a nice looking place with good food and certainly recommendable. We had the falafel (a little simple for the price) and a Kebab of beef with some drinks and spend about 35.000COP which is about 20USD. Overall a good place, with a very friendly owner and for sure some good water pipes for 10.000COP an hour??? Need to check that next time…

Gyros & Kebab, Cra. 13No. 82-28, tel: 6359324 (also delivery)