Capital Antioqueña

Capital Antioqueña is a traditional Antioquian kitchen a short walk from Segundo Parque de Laureles, and it knows exactly what it is there to do. The menu is deliberately short — bandeja paisa, cazuela de frijoles, mondongo, chicharrón and grilled cuts — because those are the plates the region built its cooking on, and the kitchen would rather do them properly than pad the card out with things nobody came for.

The bandeja paisa, the cazuela de frijoles and the chicharrón are the heart of it. This is homestyle cooking rather than a chef's reinterpretation of it: a full Antioquian plate, served without fuss, the way it is eaten in the department it comes from.

The kitchen runs from breakfast through dinner, with longer hours on weekends, so it works for an early plate before the day starts as much as it does for a long weekend lunch that turns into the afternoon.

If you have been eating in El Poblado and want the real regional thing away from the tourist strip, this is the walk to make. Laureles, a neighbourhood park around the corner, and a table where the food is the whole point.