Los Galenos, Blends Elegance & Technique

Location: TV 23 No 93-23

At Los Galenos, dining feels like stepping into a quiet dialogue between technique and memory. Their name Galenos references Galen of Pergamon, an ancient Greek physician whose work shaped medicine for centuries — so the restaurant plays on the concept of culinary science and precision. 

This philosophy marks an evolution from earlier descriptions of the restaurant as “international cuisine with Mediterranean and Peruvian accents” toward something more rooted in local ecosystem, seasonality, and visual storytelling. In their branding, Galenos emphasizes sustainability, local sourcing, and conscience in cooking. 

Perched above the city in one of Bogotá’s sleekest towers, it has built a reputation as a culinary laboratory where local ingredients meet global technique. From recent press coverage, Los Galenos is positioning its new 7-step degustation menu as an exploration of biodiversity and color, orchestrated by Chef Andrés Robayo. 

In practice, the restaurant blends sophistication and identity: it aims not just to “do fine dining in Bogotá,” but to make the plates reflect the variety of Colombian nature — as landscapes translated to taste and hue. This is no longer just technique for its own sake: there is narrative, place, and intention.

At the Table

What definitely may take the guest’s main focus is the panoramic view of Bogotá from the 8th floor, in fact you may have already seen the restaurant from afar when driving by NQS and wondering how it would be to dine here. 

Well, now that we have, we can tell you that aside from the beautiful skyline, service is polished: wine lists (the cava is curated to dialogue with the kitchen) are presented confidently. Staff don’t overplay the theatrical; they let the plates speak. That restraint helps soften moments when dishes falter.

Bread and amuse bouche set a tone: subtle, with care. They don’t shout “look at me,” but you feel the kitchen wants you to notice the fine touches: microherbs, delicate gels, or a whisper of citrus.

Behind Each Dish

Biodiversity Palette

The new tasting menu is presented as a color palette: each dish is linked to a primary color, related to local ingredients and ecosystems. This is more than just a gimmick: it is a concept linked to identity. You are not only eating, but also “seeing” Colombia’s ecological diversity in edible form.

Sustainability + Locality

Galenos explicitly aligns itself with sustainability: it prioritizes local, seasonal, and fair trade ingredients and minimizes waste. The restaurant alternates its main menus according to the season and changes the tasting menu perhaps twice a year. The aim is to ensure that creativity does not overshadow the quality of the raw ingredients, because if a local tuber or native leaf is of poor quality, no presentation can save it.

Technique at the service of the idea

Instead of relying on flashy molecular tricks, the cuisine seems to moderate its technique: gels, foams, and deconstructed elements appear, but they are used to create contrasting textures, visual effects, or overlapping flavors, not for show. The new menu is described as a combination of local traditions and contemporary methods.

Galenos is evolving from “haute fusion cuisine” to “gastronomy with a sense of place and ecology.”

The Seven Acts

The degustation begins softly, with a leek and truffle tartlet, earthy and aromatic, marking the “brown” or “marrón” of the natural palette. It’s delicate, almost too polite, but the warmth of the truffle perfumes the moment. A thoughtful amuse-bouche that whispers instead of announces.

Then came “red” — langosta with pomelo and frambuesa. It’s a striking plate, full of life. The lobster is perfectly cooked, tender and sweet; the acidity of the grapefruit and the brightness of raspberry create a layered, mouth-filling freshness. It’s the kind of dish that feels alive — both tropical and technical, coastal and urban at once.

The violet course followed, arguably the boldest: a pumpkin and vainilla wonton, surrounded by roasted eggplant and peaches. Sweet and savory fold into one another; the vanilla note is daring but well-measured, and the textures balance better than they read on paper. It’s the sort of risk that justifies coming here.

Our green course, the cordero encostrado en hierbas, showcased Robayo’s experience. The lamb was rosy, tender, encrusted in aromatic herbs from their own rooftop garden, served with a light foam of manzana de agua. A dish of contrasts: grounding and refreshing, traditional yet bright.

The white plate, built around fish and coconut, was elegant but muted — a confit of fennel, a hint of lemongrass foam. It cleansed the palate beautifully, though part of us wished for more salt, more definition. The concept was clear; the seasoning, less so.

By the ocre stage, the dinner felt almost meditative. A sweet-salty reflection of maize in different textures — creamy, crisp, roasted — bridging the savory world with dessert. It’s Colombia in its most ancestral hue: simple, warm, and quietly emotional.

Finally, dessert arrived like a small celebration of balance: a trilogy of chocolate, each from different Colombian regions, arranged in three textures — mousse, crumble, and ganache. Rich but not heavy, elegant in temperature and proportion. It reminded us that when Los Galenos focuses on flavor over philosophy, it excels effortlessly.

Some Inconsistencies

In a restaurant that aspires to art, small slips do feel sharper. Luckily, these slips are completely fixable and didn’t overstep the experience but since it’s one of the city’s most known restaurants they are hard to pass by.

One of us ordered the steak pimienta (pepper steak), and she asked for medium. What arrived was overcooked and tough. We returned it, and the replacement — though more tender — still clustered closer to medium-well than true medium. In a kitchen promising precision and color narratives, failing a simple protein cut feels more glaring.

Portion balance: a few dishes came across as too minimal, leaving us wanting more before the next course arrived.

Regarding timing and pacing: some of the core courses stalled; intervals felt longer than necessary, especially under expectation of flow in a degustation.

How it was handled

The floor staff is attentive and calm. When we raised our steak concern, they handled it gracefully — apologies, prompt replacement, no defensiveness. That is essential, a well-known restaurant must not only deliver in service and expectations but recover when some base details aren’t met.

That said, clarity in communicating concepts and cooking levels could improve. Some guests may not grasp the color palette concept unless the server frames it; in a few cases, we found ourselves asking for context or meaning behind a dish. At fine-dining tier, storytelling helps bridge expectation and perception.

Best for Special Dates

If you come to Galenos for a birthday, anniversary, proposal, or special dinner, the atmosphere is richly supportive of such moments. It feels intimate, thoughtful, and dressed for the occasion. The new menu gives you talking points — “this is red, this is green, this is violet” — which can enliven conversation.

But if your priority is flawless technical consistency — “give me a perfect medium steak every time” — the restaurant still has work to do. The ambition is high; the execution sometimes wobbles.

Exclusivity All Over

Los Galenos is at an inflection point. It’s moving from “fine dining fusion” toward a more mature vision: gastronomy as an expression of biodiversity, color, and place. The leadership of Chef Andrés Robayo in crafting color-driven degustation pushes the restaurant into imaginative territory. The heritage of Chef Leonardo Marín and the institution’s past is still present, giving it a foundation.

In our experience, the restaurant delivered meaningful highs (desserts, ambiance, plating, concept) and painful lows (protein execution, dry elements, pacing). But for a place that’s asking diners to invest in concept, the margin for technical error narrows.