Where to Eat in Cartagena: 13 Favorite Restaurants

Looking for ideas of where to eat in Cartagena? I’ve got some great recommendations for you!

Cartagena has some really delicious restaurants, shops, street food, and rooftop bars, and enjoying the local cuisine is one of the best things to do in the city.

While you can find a lot of traditional Colombian food here, you will also see a heavy emphasis on dishes like coconut rice, fresh fish, and ceviche.

There are also more restaurants that have a more international flavor in Cartagena.

This wide variety of Colombian, coastal, and international flavors makes Cartagena a delicious city to eat your way through!

13 Best Restaurants and Places to Eat in Cartagena, Colombia

These were our favorite places to eat in Cartagena. Some of these are more traditional restaurants, others include dessert shops, candy passageways, street food, and food experiences. All are part of the delicious culinary experience of Cartagena!

1. Dinner at a Cooking Class

Cooking classes are quickly becoming one of my favorite activities to do in a new country, and this class was so fun! It was set in the kitchen of a local restaurant, but in a separate, smaller kitchen dedicated to the cooking class.

Together with the chef, you prepare a full meal over the course of two hours. When we went, we made coconut rice (including making the coconut milk from scratch!), patacones, empanadas, sugar cane juice, and a whole red snapper.

The instructors were really fun and playful, the instructions and tips were really interesting, and it was fun to learn and see the process of how to make these very traditional Colombian foods. The time passed quickly!

Once the meal is prepared, you sit down together in the restaurant to eat it, and I kid you not when I say it was one of THE most delicious meals of our entire time in Cartegena.

The rice was flavorful, the fish was so tender and flaky and moist, the patacones were crispy, the empanadas were savory, and the sugar cane lemonade was some of the best we had here in Colombia.

I loved this cooking class – it was truly one of my favorite experiences in Cartagena.

👉Check rates and availability here

2. Pollo Tropical

On the outskirts of the old city is this no-frills yet obviously local favorite restaurant. Prices were an exceptionally good value and they served a variety of traditionally cooked meats. The food was great and I highly recommend this place for lunch.

Address: Calle 32 #8A-29

3. La Santa Guadalupe

This restaurant is right on the edge of the city, overlooking the wall, the water, and the sunset. For sure go up to the rooftop bar and seating area for the best views.

This is definitely a more expensive restaurant in Colombia, but the food, atmosphere, and views were all great. I loved my skirt-steak tacos and Matthew’s ribs were very tender.

Even with the higher prices, our total bill came to 150,000 (35 USD), which isn’t bad at all by American standards.

Address: Playa de la Artilleria #36-38 2

4. Cartagena Food Tour

Matthew and I love food tours and often do them in new cities that we visit – it’s such a fun and insightful way to learn about the culture of the city, try some of the best food the city has to offer, and hang out with a local.

On this food tour in Cartagena, you’ll spend 2-3 hours with a small group wandering around the old town, learning about the history of the food and the city, while sampling a wide, variety of foods.

You’ll stop in places that are well off the tourist track as you sample fruits, juices, coffee, arepa e huevo, ceviche, patacon con suero, and many, many more. Definitely come hungry!

👉Check prices and availability for this food tour here

5. Movich Hotel

This is THE most popular rooftop bar in Cartagena, with a great view over the old town and looking out to Bocagrande.

In the past, you could buy a day pass to spend swimming on the roof, but they no longer offer that option. If you want use of the pool and views during the day, you’ll need to actually stay at the hotel – you can check out hotel details here!

However, starting at 4pm you can walk in for dinner and drinks on the rooftop. Drinks were delicious and our dinner was so tender and flavorful (we got the Caribbean beef with risotto).

The staff was incredibly helpful and polite, spoke excellent English, and the views, even after sundown, were gorgeous.

Address: Calle de Vélez Danies #4–39

6. Crepes and Waffles

This restaurant is a Colombian restaurant chain, and it really surprised us – we ordered several items that were all to die for. Pictured above is a savory crepe, but our sweet arequipe waffle and crepe with peaches was plate-licking delicious too.

This restaurant also has a beautiful rooftop area, with views over domes and spires of the churches of Cartagena. The rooftop is only open during the dinner hour, but if you come for lunch you can sneak up for quick pic.

Despite being located in a really nice building, prices were very reasonable.

Address: Place de San Pedro Claver #4 #31-24

7. Firos Pizza

This small pizza shack is delicious and clearly popular with the local crowd.

While you can buy whole pizzas, most people just grab a slicle of whatever type is out. Usually there are 1-3 pizzas available to choose from. It’s an exceptional deal, with a slice of pizza plus a small soda costing 6500 pesos (about 1.50 USD at time of writing).

The pizza was very good, with a thin crust that was both crispy and chewy, and toppings that tasted fresh. There are some stools and counters for sitting inside, or you can take away.

We loved the taste and value of this spot and came back several times during our 3 days in Cartagena.

Address: Calle 36 #7-151

8. Pandequeso Bakery

This little bakery had a wide variety of sweet and savory bread products. While we really liked the churros con arequipe (donuts filled with dulce de leche), our favorite thing there was the panquesitos.

These little mini rolls were literally 3 cents (in USD) per roll, and were perfectly soft and chewy, with a hint of sweetness and a hint of cheese. We loved these so much we went back several times!

Address: Calle 34 #5-58

9. La Esquina Del Pandebono

At this pastry shop, you can buy pastels, empanadas, and bunuelos, with a variety of sweet and savory fillings. The pastries are flaky, with good prices and a wide selection of fillings. 

Address: Calle San Agustin #35 – 78

10. Gelateria Paradiso

Cartagena is so insanely hot that it’s practically required to eat ice cream every day. There are many gelaterias around Cartagena, which is a welcome reprieve from the hot sun. We particularly liked this one for the cute interior and the yummy flavors.

Address: Calle 36 #4-57 local 5

11. La Paletteria

This shop offers high quality popsicles, or “palettes,” in a wide variety of flavors, including many tropical fruits. (I enjoyed the Guanabana flavor).

Extra bonus: the AC is very strong inside!

Address: Calle 35 #03-86 local 2

12. Street Food Snacks and Drinks

All over the old city there are carts and stands selling freshly squeezed juices, a variety of fresh, tropical fruit, and hot snacks like empanadas and pastels. These snacks and drinks tend to be very inexpensive and are a great pick-me-up mid-afternoon!

In Cartagena, one of the most common fruits we saw was mamoncilla (aka Spanish limes). These fruits have a leathery exterior shell, which you can crack easily with your teeth and pull apart. The interior is sort of gummy and gooey, with a large pit – you kind of just have to suck the fruit off the pit.

I loved mamoncillas – they were sweet with a bit of tartness, and such a fun and unique texture.

12. Portal de Los Dulces

Portal de Los Dulces isn’t a restaurant, but it’s a fun, covered passageway filled with candy stands. There are around 15 different stands, all carrying traditional Colombian candies. While there is some variety between the stalls, they generally all sell the same type of treats.

There are 3 main different types of candy to try here.

Coconut candies: This includes smaller chocolate coconut balls, or larger coconut clusters in a variety of flavors (e.g. guava coconut clusters, or arequipe coconut clusters)

Tamarind Balls: Tamarind balls are chewy, rolled in sugar, and come in either small or large sizes. The tamarind has a strong and distinctive taste. It wasn’t bad, but it was very different!

Tamarind isn’t generally my first choice for a candy flavor, but I still really liked being able to try it.

Milk Wheels: These traditional cookies look almost like shortbread, although they are much softer, almost like an old-time chewy candy. The candies are made primarily of milk and sugar, and were obviously very popular with locals.

This is a really fun place to sample some new, traditionally Colombian treats you may have never tasted before.

Helpful Information for Eating and Dining Out in Cartagena

✔️A 10% gratuity is often automatically added to your bill. If it’s not, leaving a 10% tip on your own is polite.

✔️Tap water is safe to drink in Colombia.

✔️If you order water at a restaurant, you will be brought bottled water to drink, not tap water.

✔️Colombian food is generally not very spicy at all. I have a moderately low spicy tolerance, and didn’t really have a problem in Colombia.

✔️If you don’t speak Spanish, I would highly recommend you download the Google Translate app and use its camera feature to read menus. You can hover the camera over the menu and the translated text in English will show up on top of the Spanish words. It’s really handy!

✔️Food is generally very inexpensive in Colombia, but Cartagena does have some of the highest prices in the whole country. We spent between 10-40 USD total for a sit-down meal and drinks for two people – although this varied quite a bit in Cartagena.

We spent quite a bit more at fancier restaurants, while smaller, more traditional restaurants were much closer to the 10-20 USD range.

✔️Street food and snacks are very inexpensive. Fruit is often around 50 cents USD, and pastry items are also around a dollar or less.

✔️Many restaurants, especially more traditional places, will offer a menu del dia (dish of the day) at lunch. This dish is generally a really great value and well-prepared – we’ve been happy with all the menu del dias we’ve had in Colombia.

Where to Eat in Cartagena – The Wrap Up

There are a lot of unique and delicious foods to eat in Cartagena, and I hope this gives you a good picture of what’s in store. Between restaurants, experiences, desserts and street food – there’s something here for everyone.