Leo Cocina y Cava - Bogotá

Wow is everything I can say. My experience here started a little rocky, and I'm usually not a person to complain in restaurants, but I happened to say something, someone I thought was one of the bar deals that looked at this point... so great concern about me, gave me more food and drink than I could have imagined. It turned out that she was the daughter of the cook, and all I can say is this: the class and grace with which they treated me is incomparable to any experience I have ever had, not to mention food and drinks were absolutely excellent. I ate almost every bite and drank every drop of everything she put before me. What a great way to end my last night in Bogota, when I return in September, I will bring with me a large group of friends. Run, don't go to the best restaurant in all Bogota!

So, just seen The menu, I was a bit taken back on foot in this dining room huge, far away tables, minimal decoration! But tonight was a pleasure, an exploration and especially delicious. The staff is overly formal, like the presentation of...all, but they are involved when you open the door for them so. You'll eat things you never imagined. The highlight of the meal for me was the salted caramel dessert from the gelatin of a cow hoof wonderfully sweet and salty, but with a defined beef undertone bleeding my mind! Accompanying drinks were infused from wine to house Vermouth to Chicha. Astronomically expensive from a Bogota standard, but not more than a good night in Toronto. Just WOW!

5 of us have special meal for our last night in Colombia after 5 weeks tours in Sth America. The building inside is really nice, trendy as expected. Main waiter was very good, many explain the really tiny taste plate coming one to a...time, 3 waiters on the table is very theatrical, up to black gloves and tweezers! But the worse I've ever had, and the bill!! $3,243,834 COP. I didn't want to sue our last night. But if you know food and if it's complex, stay well away

We had read Sarah’s review so went with a little trepidation. How different was our experience. We had the 7 course paired tasting which was out of this world and our service was magic !!!!! Every morsel was delicious and the accompanying wines digestives...superb. Our waiter Yerson Aldi was knowledgeable, attentive and actually we have to compliment the whole team. Never did we feel rushed ….., only looked after with meticulous attention. I have to say huge congrats Leo. A superlative degustation. Compliments to chiefs and sommelier. Simply stunning

We were excited to go to Leo during our trip to Bogota. We’ve been to numerous Michelin restaurants in various countries and Leo offered something quite interesting for us in terms of a culinary tour of Colombia. I really get what Leo are trying to...do. The world doesn’t need yet another French cuisine style place. A restaurant offering purely local ingredients, many unknown, presented in a beautiful tasting menu touring the country the premise is great. We opted for the 13 course tasting menu. The first course had 4 small bites and a couple of them were nice and a couple really not so, and this is how the meal progresses for us. There was a lot of play on temperatures and textures, nothing new in Michelin high end restaurants but fundamentally the dishes at Leo were largely just not that nice tasting. There was nothing wow, nothing that made me say “oh I want that again”. The last few courses included a square of meat in a green broth I don’t know what it was because we didn’t get given a menu to refer to and I couldn’t remember all the names and a few squares of fish in a pot that were smoked from burning leaves below. Both of those dishes were chewy and really not very nice. I tried both and left them. The meat in particularly was just too tough. At no point did any of the waiting staff ask why we were leaving so much food. Maybe it’s a regular thing? The meal progresses quickly, as soon as you’ve finished one course the next is on its way. I found it rushed. After that fish course I was feeling full up but I hadn’t really enjoyed 80% of what I’d eaten. The flavours largely just didn’t work. It’s disappointing to eat food and not feel a wow, or want to scrape a plate or lick a spoon because you’ve enjoyed something that you’ve never had before. The worst part for us was then asking for the bill and the waiter asking us how much service, percentage wise, did we want to include and him standing there till we’d replied. I always add service to a bill but it almost felt like we were being pressured into it and after an uninspiring meal it just felt off. We were given our coats after paying and I had to open the door myself, it sort of felt like they were done with us. I was disappointed with our experience. Food can be highly creative or very simple, but it has to taste good and the meal we had at Leo just didn’t.