Culto Pacific redraws Bogotà¡'s culinary map from Chocà³
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Loading... - Veronica Condori
- 09 Sep 2022
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The restaurant Culto Pacific in Bogotá’s historic La Candelaria is a newcomer to the zone’s eclectic gastro scene, offering a casual, yet refined venue for both residents and visitors. Nestled on a side street above the bustling crowds visiting La Candelaria’s most famous landmarks, the new National Arts Center and Botero Museum, Culto Pacific pays tribute to the biodiversity of Colombia’s Pacific coast, as interpreted by partner Natalia Esquenazi and chef-auteur Daniel Mejía.
With its high ceiling, brick and mortar frame, the wood table dining room includes a walk-up bakery counter and offers guests views of the indoor courtyard of the Morph Group’s latest hospitality venture and long-stay apartments. Culto Pacific must be included in a visit to a historic district that is redrawing its post-pandemic culinary map.
The restaurant offers two distinct menus, one for casual or comfort dining and the other for a more complex gourmet experience. In both cases, it uses the freshest ingredients harvested in the departments of Nariño, Cauca, Valle del Cauca and Chocó, which in the hands of Daniel Mejía, a rising star in Bogotá’s crowded gastro scene, delivers balanced, creative and innovative dishes. Mejía lives up to the responsibility of interpreting one of Colombia’s most bountiful regions in terms of foods and food heritage without compromising authenticity.
So if you’re ready to embark on a gastronomic adventure that restores your faith in La Candelaria’s potential to expand beyond the confines of the pedestrian or típico, prepare yourself for an extended and relaxed experience, as the menu was created to be enjoyed for either lunch or dinner. This is one of the restaurant’s many praiseworthy attributes: it charts its own culinary course. It’s also uncompromising. Bold. Unpretentious.
There are six starters on the menu, best shared, and representative of the Pacific’s variety of seafood, fruits and seasonings. Ranging between COP$24,500 and COP$31,800 per plate, we order the Bocados del Pacífico, served in palm-sized green plantain baskets, and three beautiful choices that include cubed Tuna in a chontaduro sauce; cassava tartar with creamy coastal cheese, and artisanal veal sausage in a Pacific sofrito, or onion/tomato stir-fry.
The first appetizer left us wanting more, and our second selection is the coconut and cheese croquettes filled with Pacific crab. This dish is best paired with white wine, and the house offers a comprehensive selection from South American estate wineries. Read More...
