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The city, curated
Where to eat, where to drink, where to get lost on a Tuesday. Nineteen places in Medellín chosen by the people who live here — not by an algorithm.
01
Inside The Cut or a step away. You don’t have to go far to eat well.
Casa Peppe is part of The Cut’s ecosystem and sits inside the hotel. Its proposal turns on Italian cooking without pretension: fresh pasta, oven pizza and a menu built to be ordered from more than once.
If you’re staying here, you don’t have to go far for a very good meal. And if you come only for the restaurant, it’s worth it too.
@casapeppe.mdePergamino is many people’s favourite coffee in the city, and for good reason: it’s hard to get a bad cup here. You’ll find it inside The Cut, so you don’t have to go far to start the day right.
After years building one of Medellín’s best-known coffee brands, Pergamino has come to understand the city’s coffee culture without losing its own.
If you’re into cold brew, try the orange or the guándolo.
@pergaminocafeOne of Bogotá’s favourite burgers found its place in Medellín. Bubu is part of The Cut’s ecosystem and has become one of those options always worth going back to.
The idea is simple: burgers made properly, wagyu beef, ingredients that work together, and fries that get the same attention as the rest of the plate. No excess, no impossible combinations — the focus here is doing the essentials well.
@bubu.burger02
Medellín’s table today: chef-driven cooking, good produce, people who know what they’re doing.
A restaurant modelled on a mid-century apartment, built to feel like someone’s home. The right place for a date, dinner with friends, or simply a good conversation around chef-driven food, good music and the right room.
Order the miso roast beef, the kimchi potatoes and the matcha lemonade.
@primerpiso101A small, calm and above all welcoming room. Ideal for a date where the conversation leads, with no need for spectacle. The kitchen runs on chef Jhon Zárate’s authorship and a respect for where each ingredient comes from.
Called by many locals one of the best restaurants in the city, Sambombi is a Medellín essential.
Tip: book ahead. Order the tuna toast and, without question, the flan for dessert.
@sambombi.bistroIn Manila, a few steps from the hotel, Bocabajo belongs to what we think is one of the most interesting restaurant groups in the city. A new project that opened this year and understands something important: here the flavours come first, not the stage.
The experience feels more intimate, more honest and far more focused on what eating well actually means. This one is ideal for lunch.
@esbocabajoA restaurant where the menu keeps changing because they cook with whatever is alive, fresh and available. They work with small producers, organic ingredients and responsible Pacific fishing, which makes every visit different.
The idea is simple: honest food, made to be shared around the table. No pretension, but an enormous sensitivity to where each ingredient comes from.
@colaechuchaZombra, chef Pablo Naranjo’s new restaurant, proposes a far more emotional, free and creative kitchen, where Colombian flavours meet influences from elsewhere in the world.
The experience feels intimate and carefully built, without tipping into pretension. Each plate seems to tell a different story, working from the produce, from memory and from constant exploration.
Rather than following the traditional rules of fine dining, Zombra understands eating well through sensitivity, detail and surprise.
@zombra.mde03
Cocktails, vinyl and cantina. To start the night, or to let it run long.
If you’re after a bar with serious cocktails, Susurro is probably the place.
But it doesn’t stop there. It’s also a great spot for dinner, and for understanding why it’s one of the coolest rooms in the city right now. If you go, order the mussels and the olives.
And to drink? Vermouth is always a good idea. Ask for the cocktail built around that aromatic liqueur and let them surprise you. Susurro feels exactly like Medellín today: good music, good drinks and people who know where to go.
@susurro.susurroDowntown Medellín holds one of those places that still feel half-secret to anyone visiting the city.
An old house with mosaic floors, candelabra made from wine bottles, and an atmosphere that makes you stay longer than you planned. It mixes food, music and the feeling of finding something that isn’t in every guide.
Check their social media before you go — they often run alternative music nights and one-off programmes during the week.
If you go, order the papas criollas, the panino and one of their flavoured sodas.
@persona.salaOne of the coolest café-bars in the city. Good music, good coffee and, above all, good company.
If you go, order a Furia Refrescante and thank us later. A local’s secret: try a Thursday — live salsa nights transform the place completely.
@cafedragon.mdeIn the mood for music on vinyl?
If you’re willing to spend a little more, Mala is probably the place. A bar with hypnotic architecture, low light, good music and an energy that makes it hard to stand still.
Ideal for going with friends, ordering a drink and ending up dancing more than you planned. A local’s secret: they also do coffee.
@mala.audiobarThe name says it: “Siete Pulgadas”, like the classic 7-inch records. A small, dark, intimate listening bar where the music genuinely leads.
The right place for a night of synthesisers, eighties records and vinyl sets that feel carefully curated.
One of the OGs of Medellín’s vinyl-bar culture, and essential if what you want is atmosphere, drinks and a room that seems stopped in another decade.
@sietepulgadasbarGood music, vinyl, cocktails and a crowd that always feels alive. Mad Records mixes the spirit of a listening bar with live music nights and sets that turn into all-night plans.
The room has a warm, well-curated aesthetic, with lighting details that stand out — including the iconic ring of light with moving letters that has become part of the place.
@madrecordscafemedA room for música popular, despecho and the songs of the pueblo the way they’re meant to be heard: aguardiente on the table and a good picada to share.
This new Medellín project revives the classic spirit of the Antioquian cantina — serenades, national liquor, and nights that always end with someone singing a song at the top of their lungs.
@cantina.cantina04
Art, specialty coffee, design and perfume. The city beyond the plate.
This new gallery in Medellín, in Perpetuo Socorro right in the centre of the city, has become one of the most interesting cultural spaces for discovering new local and national talent.
Base proposes a different way of inhabiting art: closer, more experimental, more connected to the city. Between exhibitions, gatherings and curatorial projects, the space works today as a platform for new creative perspectives and for a generation of artists redefining Medellín’s cultural scene.
It’s also part of the creative ecosystem of Perpetuo Socorro, a district that in recent years has consolidated as one of the city’s cultural and artistic epicentres.
@base.espacioLooking for genuinely good specialty coffee? Clus Clus is a required stop in Medellín.
The space brings together a curation of coffees from around the world and a focus on surfacing more complex processes, flavours and profiles. All of it inside a minimal, calm, very well-designed room.
@clusclus.cafeteriaFar more than a shop, Makeno was one of the first concept stores in Medellín to understand design as a way of living. A space where fashion, objects, furniture, jewellery and curated pieces from some of Colombia’s most interesting emerging designers live together.
Today Makeno remains one of the key places for understanding Medellín’s contemporary creative and design scene.
@makeno.coThe Colombian perfumery you shouldn’t walk past. NNT Lab makes author fragrances inspired by different cities, memories and landscapes of Colombia, turning each one into a sensory reading of the country.
More than a shop, the space feels like an experience built around scent, design and local identity. Ideal for finding different aromas, stepping away from traditional perfume, and taking home a piece of Colombia.
Beyond the fragrances, NNT Lab has become one of the most interesting local brands for anyone after design, narrative and objects made with intention.
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