SusanB's Profile
Bogata, Colombia, rec's
Here's an excerpt from my trip report (posted on travel websites). We only spent 4 nights in Bogota in late February and really enjoyed our stay there. We stayed in La Candelaria (at the Casa Deco hotel), which worked out well for us. I had some problems with the altitude, and there are so many sights near the hotel. I appreciated being able to go back to the hotel and 'recover' a bit during the day.
Anyway, here goes:
We found the food in Bogota to be very good. La Candelaria is dead on Sunday night, so when we arrived, we asked for advice on where to eat and ended up in an Italian restaurant around the corner from the hotel. Food was great (I had vegetarian lasagna with pesto) and we were hungry. The owner is quite a character.
We ate 1 lunch at La Puerta Falsa, a restaurant that dates from the 1800’s. We each ordered the hot chocolate completo – it comes with buttered bread, a roll and cheese – apparently you’re supposed to dip the cheese into the hot chocolate. We also shared the biggest tamal I’ve ever seen. The whole meal came to 15,000 COP (under $8.50 for the 2 of us).
Another evening, we picked up arepas at a little local hole in the wall kind of place. Cheap and delicious, washed down with a big bottle of Colombiano soda.
We did splash out on a couple of our meals. One night we took a taxi to 69 Oyster Bar where we had made a reservation. This was probably my favourite meal of the trip. We started off with a half dozen oyster shooters (I had never eaten raw oysters, but the chef insisted) and then a salad ‘tower’ of eggplant, tomato and cheese. I ordered grouper wrapped in bacon, with black rice and some veggies. John ordered tuna with a balsamic reduction and crispy yucca straws. We shared the chocolate and orange mousse. Cost (including a martini and glass or 2 of wine for me, mineral water for John and 2 coffees) came to $130. The chef there is so friendly, so enthusiastic about the food, and it is terrific. There was a couple of Bogotanos sitting next to us, and we got into a conversation with them – it was just a wonderful evening.
One afternoon, we took a very long taxi ride up to Usaquen. Usaquen was a village at one time, but now that area is part of the city. The main square is still there, and surrounding it are a lot of restaurants and bars. We thought that we had reservations at 80 Sillas (I had made them over the web), but they didn’t seem to have them. 80 Sillas means 80 seats, and that’s what they have, and fortunately we were able to get in. Rather than each ordering an appetizer and a main, we ordered just apps – 2 different ceviches, fish cakes and mushrooms baked in a cream and white wine sauce with cheese. The bread provided by the restaurant is a pita bread, with a hummus type spread. We also split a chocolate mousse with pistachio nut topping and had 2 cafes con leche. All of the dishes were excellent and when we left, we were both very full. 88 Sillas had been recommended by a Colombian friend of mine, plus it was one that John had discovered in his research. It came to about $62 for both of us (including a couple of beers for me).
The taxi ride back was again very long – probably much longer than it should have been because John asked the driver to take us to Parque Simon Bolivar, instead of Plaza Simon Bolivar .......... at least taxis are cheap and we ended up with a bit of a tour of the city!
We also had lunch up on Monserrate. It was surprisingly good. I say ‘surprisingly’ because the mountain is a huge tourist attraction and we weren’t expecting much. But we ordered ceviche (again), a plate of Colombian appetizers and a salad with a whole egg, lots of avocado and good greens. It was all quite good. We also had a dessert – a mild, kind of cream cheese, with uchuva on it and some arequipe (caramel sauce) on the side. It was really tasty.
Our final dinner was at a well known restaurant called Leo Cocina y Cava. I had made a reservation through the web before we came to Colombia. After our experience with 80 Sillas, I decided I should call to confirm. They didn’t understand my Spanish and only 1 person there spoke English, but I thought that it was clear. Anyway, we got to the restaurant and they had reservation for someone called Sara but I’m still not sure if that was supposed to be Susan or someone else. At any rate, we did get a table and it was well worth it. We shared an appetizer of cariminolas (like croquettes) with smoked rabbit, served with sour cream and a pepper sauce. For my entree, I had the sea bass fillet in a snail stew, served with black coconut rice, cooked in a banana leaf. John had the roasted goat leg, marinated in beer, coriander and spices, with a puree of peas and what tasted like sweet potato. He said that it was his favourite entree on the whole trip. I had a fabulous cocktail to start, and also a couple of very good glasses of white wine. Dessert was a banana cake with coconut ice cream, some chocolate sauce and toasted coconut. I think the bill was around $130. Service was quite good, although as I mentioned before, only 1 person there speaks English. They have an English menu, but we only had the Spanish version when we were there. (Luckily we had looked at their website before.)
Buenos Aires for a 22 yr old starving American
I'm wondering about some of the puertas cerradas. We really enjoyed the ones that we went in, and the food was wonderful. Prices were great as well.
Theee best crispy beef in the GTA
I had the crispy ginger beef at the Spadina Gardens (on Dundas at Bay) - a guilty pleasure, but I have to admit that it wasn't as good the stuff I had in Calgary. Now, however, I'm loving the spicy tofu with peanuts at the Spadina Gardens. It is my absolutely favourite.
cartagena columbia
We were there in February for a week. I didn't post a 'food' trip report here, but I'm doing a cut & paste from my trip report on a couple of travel sites. As you can tell, we did splurge a couple of times (it was our 25th anniversary), but we also had a number of meals that were $30 or under. B/fast was included at the place where we were staying. Hope this helps.
Food in Cartagena is very good, and while it may be more expensive than other areas in the country, we didn’t find it outrageously expensive. Like other places, you can go high end and spend a lot or you can spend very little. (I should mention that my husband does not drink, so that probably helps to keep prices down!)
We celebrated our 25th anniversary on Feb 7 at 8-18, a lovely restaurant in the old city. It was a fabulous dinner. I started with a special daiquiri – I don’t know what the fruit was, but it was excellent. I ordered the seafood soup in coconut milk and John ordered the grouper carpaccio, both excellent, although I think I preferred the carpaccio. It was so fresh and tart! For my main, I ordered a risotto with blue cheese and squid. The waiter literally gave me the thumbs up on that choice and John ordered the oxtail in a red wine sauce with mashed potatoes (probably the most popular choice on the menu). Both meals were very rich, very delicious. We finished the meal with a molten chocolate cake & ice cream – definitely one of the better ones and a sambuca for me, cafe con leche for John. (They were out of 2 of the 4 desserts.) Total bill came to about $130 – pricey, but definitely not out of line for what we had.
Twice we had ceviche at El Boliche Cebecheria, a small restaurant in Getsamani (where we were staying). The ceviche was fabulous – we each ordered a separate dish and shared – the flavours were amazing and they were served with thin plantain chips. The chef makes the ceviche to order, and it’s so fresh and delicious. I can’t remember the prices, but it was very reasonable.
Twice we had dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant (Di Silvio Trattoria) that I would highly recommend. It’s in Getsamani and is located just off Plaza Trinidad. Their pizzas are amazing – super thin crisp crust and the toppings are wonderful. (Example, when we ordered a Hawaiian pizza, the pineapple was caramelized before it was put on the pizza.) We ordered a spaghetti carbonara one evening, and it was as good as the one I make (and I think I make a pretty good version of it). Desserts are served in little shot glasses – perfect size after dinner. We ordered a pasta, a pizza and a couple of drinks and it came to about $30. It’s a neighbourhood restaurant, and I wish it was in my neighbourhood!
We also had lunch twice at Crepes & Waffles, a Colombian chain. Both times, we each ordered the salad bar (which is quite a good deal with quinoa, white beans, egg, etc. as well as various vegetables) and a crepe. Prices are really reasonable (under $30 for the 2 of us). We ate in 2 different Crepes & Waffles and it seems to be entirely staffed by women (as far as we could tell) – apparently it is their policy to hire women in need.
One day, we had lunch at La Mulata, a restaurant in el centro. It was packed with locals. John ordered the seafood rice, which had my first choice, but I ended up ordering the chicken dish. Both meals came with soup. His dish was really tasty, mine was ... well, unexpected. It was a huge chicken breast, cut in half and pounded a little thinner. There were mozzarella cheese melted on it (ok), but it also came with a little bit of salad, some French fries and a hotdog (wiener). It was the wiener that seemed odd to me! I could only eat maybe ½ the meal – it was way too much food. We both ordered the limonada de coco (delicious). Again the bill was very reasonable.
Another evening, we had dinner at D’Arte, which is on the corner of our street and is owned by Edgardo Carmona, the artist responsible for many of the wonderful and amusing metal sculptures in the city. A bonus was that there was live music scheduled for later in the evening. Truth be told, I wasn’t all that hungry, but I ordered the tuna with the coconut rice. The tuna was covered with sesame seeds and was perfectly cooked, nice and pink in the centre. The rice was to die for! John had the shrimps with the same rice. Service was erratic. Our waiter reminded me of a co-worker of mine – he looks efficient and busy, but seems out of it somehow. After dinner I ordered a brandy. He came back 15 minutes later to tell me that they had no brandy. So I ordered sambuca. He brought me a glass of ice with a shot of what turned out to be vodka. Ugh. But it was still a pleasant evening and it only came to $50 for the 2 of us. The artist, btw, was present at the restaurant – very friendly guy and I wish we had gotten to talk to him. He had a couple of posters displayed of past exhibitions in France. The art in the restaurant is all music based. He also had some art that was done on tiles, some of it with metal . I wished I had $ to buy. (And room in my luggage allowance).
Another lunch was at a restaurant called Krioyo. They have a lovely patio area, but we sat inside where it was cooler. I ordered an avocado salad with shrimp & crab and John ordered a Serrano ham sandwich. My salad had too much dressing on it, but it was really delicious and definitely enough. John was thrilled with his sandwich. Interesting art on the walls, fairly good service, a nice place that I’d recommend.
When we had lunch with a couple of fellow travellers, we went to La Cevicheria, made famous by Anthony Bourdain. I found the ceviche quite expensive, especially compared to ‘our’ cevicheria in the neighbourhood. I didn’t order ceviche, but I ordered a vegetarian sandwich. I was expecting slices of grilled eggplant and peppers on pita bread, according to the description on the menu. What I got was more like baba ganoush – quite pleasant, but not what I was looking for. (Note - we did meet someone later who raved about the ceviche there.)
Our final dinner in Cartagena was at La Vitrola. The food and service were excellent. I started with a warm tomato, grilled cheese and Serrano ham appetizer. John had beef carpaccio. Both were excellent, but I’d say mine ‘won’. For our mains, John chose fish in a tamarind sauce and I chose a seafood rice. Dessert though was the highpoint – we shared a piece of coconut cake with vanilla ice cream. Sounds simple, but it was fabulous. Cost came to about $125. There was also a band playing Cuban style music – pleasant enough and not too loud. The restaurant was quite busy with locals.
Cartagena has a number of places where you can have ice cream, and one of them looks like a genuine ice cream parlour. The choices were incredible and over a couple of visits, we had zapote, tamarindo, uchuva, lolu and maracuyi ice cream. I think that uchuva was my favourite, but they were all delicious.
Folia Grill: pork gyros is not your typical gyros...its ridiculously amazing
Interesting to see the people who like / don 't like Louis or Messini. We like Messini, but didn't particularly like Louis. Maybe we'll try Folia sometime.
Anson Mills grits
I actually emailed the company last year to see if they could tell me where to buy them. They got back to me and told me that they weren't sold in Canada yet. Maybe that's changed - I hope so.
Recs for Sanata Marta Colombia, Arequipa and Lima
We just got back from Santa Marta. We were only there for 3 nights, and didn't do a lot of serious eating there, but we did enjoy Agave Azul in Santa Marta. I know it's Mexican and not Colombian, but we really enjoyed our dinner there. I had pescado blanco with those little yellow potatoes (roasted) that they grow in Colombia, served on a tomato & avocado salad. Delicious! Also had a great sandwich at a place called Delicentro Bavaro - local place, very basic, but the sandwiches are good (and huge). We ordered a cubano and split it between the 2 of us. For 12,000 COP, it was a deal.
St Martin (and a touch of Anquilla) food report
We also ate at Ti Bouchon, and really enjoyed it. We were staying in the area, and chose that for our last night - great choice!
Recommendations in Colombia
Thanks Ringo Gato. We'll be in Cartagena for a week before moving on to Santa Marta, so we will probably find ourselves in the Bocagrande area at some point. I love carpaccio and raw seafood!
Recommendations in Colombia
Thanks so much for the reply. We're really looking forward to our trip.
Recommendations in Colombia
I haven't found too many posts re Colombia. We're going in early February and will be spending time in Cartagena, Bogota, Santa Marta and Villa de Leyva. If anyone has recommendations, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
Buenos Aires seafood, Italian & puertas cerradas (10 nights)
We also had little pizzas at a couple of jazz bars - Virasoro and Thelonius. Both were ok, and the music was great.
Buenos Aires seafood, Italian & puertas cerradas (10 nights)
We were in Buenos Aires 2 years ago. Very much enjoyed Casa Felix and Almacen Secreto (another puerto cerrado). Other places we liked were Mundano (in Palermo Soho near where we stayed) and Territorio (in San Telmo) - wonderful lunch there. Juana M was also great for lunch. In terms of pariladas, Lo de Jesus (in Palermo) was ok, but I actually preferred Cabrera.
Hammersmith's (Gerrard and Logan) - great brunch!
We were there today - really nice brunch, and the press coffee was excellent. A couple of people order the apple juice and said it was amazing.
The Inspired Cook on Queen East - Help!
I hadn't seen the note that they were closing - maybe I missed that on their window - all I saw was the for lease sign.
The Inspired Cook on Queen East - Help!
The store is open, but there's a sign that the space is for lease. It's really confusing.
Liberte Greek Yogurt
I love it. Maybe it's not 100% like Greek yogurt, but I love it.
Tonight Indian Delivery/Take Out - Leslieville (AND NOT AMAYA)
It's been a while, but we like Makkah as well.
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Makkah Restaurant
1020 Danforth Ave, Toronto, ON M4J1M2, CA
Tomasso's on Eastern Avenue
We live close to Tomasso's, and have picked up from there a few times. The antipasti plate is great, and I love the sandwiches.
Great Lakes Pumpkin Ale on tap?
What's it taste like? I find the idea kind of weird.
Over-rated Bonjour Brioche
Odd with the food. I do agree that the service can be disorganized, but I've found the food good. I used to go fairly regularly (a long time ago when they were newly open) but then it got way too busy. However, I had lunch there in July and all of us were really pleased with our choices.
Le Canard Mort
I went to a private party there a week or so ago and it was lovely. There were approx 40 women, we had a number of little apps with wine, then sat down for dinner. We had a selection of 2 apps (I had the soup - very tasty) and 3 mains. Many of us ordered the salmon, but there was also a mac & cheese for vegetarians and steak & frites. I think we were all happy with our choices. Dessert was a selection, quite nice.
I live just down the street from the restaurant and I'd go back.
Walking Distance From The Eaton Center?
I like Mercatto, which has taken over the space previously occupied by City Grill. I've had lunch there a few times and dinner the other night.
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Mercatto
15 Toronto Street, Toronto, ON M5C 2E3, CA
City Grill
220 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M5B2H1, CA
lunch in Leslieville/Beaches
I really like the patio at Lil Baci. That's the first place I thought of. Another place might be Hanoi Three Seasons - they have a patio.
Any great food on Frenchmen Street?
I third the Three Muses - great small dishes. We sat at the bar, made it easy to order a few dishes and drinks, and listened to wonderful music.
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Three Muses
536 Frenchmen St, New Orleans, LA 70116
Any great food on Frenchmen Street?
Third the Three Muses. Loved the small plates. We sat at the bar, great music and wonderful food and drink.
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Three Muses
536 Frenchmen St, New Orleans, LA 70116
Oliviers & Co olive oil
I have no idea what Olive & Olives is like, but they opened in my neighbourhood this week. Here's their website -
http://www.oliveolives.com/en/
Fundraisers planned for Boucherie's Zimet
Omigod, I was so upset to read this. We loved our dinner at Boucherie last month. I wish him well.
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Boucherie
8115 Jeannette St, New Orleans, LA 70118
2 Lunches
We loved our lunch at Coquette - the best drink I had in New Orleans was the Coquette Collins, plus the beignets were fabulous. The shrimp & grits were amazing as well. (I'd like to be able to replicate that recipe at home.) I'd go back anytime.
But I'm a 'novice' when it's comes to New Orleans. I'm sure others have more opinions.
Top Chef Canada (Spoilers for all Episodes)
I think it's the one in Kensington Market. We buy coffee beans there all the time. I should remember the street - it runs east / west and the store is on the north side.
