Bogota Blogger

Another great restaurant in Zona G, near my apartment, is Armadillo. It’s on Carrera 5 at Calle 70A, and is also located in an old brick mansion. They’ve also preserved some of the inside, including a fireplace and a really grand old wooden winding staircase.

The decor is very warm, inviting, there are antique painted cabinets and chests around the room that the waiters use to keep silver and supplies in, a huge two-story wine rack behind the bar, and a loft-type second floor.  Wood everywhere. And little twinkly lights in the ceiling that feel like stars and add to the warm feeling that begins with the firelplace.

The menu I guess is nouvelle cuisine, with a good assortment of seafood, pasta, meat, and some really creative salads. All the dishes are named after California towns, like Bay Side, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, etc. The most creative salad, though, which was one of my reasons for going there, was no longer on the menu when I went with a couple friends about two weeks ago. It had fried beets on it, beaten very thin before frying like a patacon. Hopefully it will be back on the menu at some point.

The waiters wear Oxford cloth shirts and ties, so they look really good, and the room is very spacious, with lots of wood and a big roaring fire and wooden windows looking out onto the street. To me it feels for some reason like I’m in a restaurant in London on a crisp fall evening. And this is one of those places where three or four different waiters are hovering nearby all the time, ready to jump whenever you need attention. It’s one of the best restaurants that I’ve found in Bogota for service that’s the right mixture of friendly and formal. Oh, and they have an English language version of their menu, which is handy.

Though I’ve always gotten a seat without ever having a reservation, it does seem to have filedl up, or close to it, almost every time I’ve been there. Overall I like it as a place that’s on the nicer side without being stuffy, with interesting food (and good variety).  Prices are moderate, I suppose–not really cheap but decent for what you are getting. You can have an appetizer, entree, wine, water, and maybe dessert for about $50,000 per person (but I usually get the pasta, so skip the appetizer). Also, it’s one of the most romantic restaurants in the neighborhood.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Restaurants/Cafes/Bars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.