2 Best Restaurants in Medellín, Colombia

This cheap and cheerful spot is a Poblado breakfast institution that offers American and local classics---anything arepa and egg based---with a decent cup of coffee. Spend a lengthy breakfast or brunch at a table on the raised wooden deck; the daily set-lunch menu is one of the neighborhood's best bargains, with a selection of mains, soup of the day, and a side salad for around 20,000 pesos.

This colorful restaurant is an ode to owner Anna María Morillo's grandmother and the cuisine of the northern coast around Barranquilla and Cartagena. Stop here for your morning arepa con huevo (egg) made from freshly ground corn and served with homemade suero costeño (a local crème fraîche). There are a handful of tables on the sidewalk; inside there's a lively mural of a Cartagena street, and brightly colored bar stools are tucked up to the counter where you can stop for a freshly squeezed juice. Try posta negra, the Cartagena classic of slow-cooked beef in a local cola sauce or some spot-on renditions of Caribbean fish dishes, like red snapper in coconut milk.