Di Lucca - Bogota, Colombia

Variety
Quality

When I first ate at Di Lucca , I felt it was easily the best Italian food I'd ever eaten. Along with San Giorgio Trattoria and La Comedia Divinia, Di Lucca is part of a trio of superb Italian fare. There is a wide variety of choices for vegetarians starting with the appetizers, a few soups, pizzas, risotto and of course - pastas.

Di Lucca's stuffed pastas are easily the biggest draw. My favorite is the Ricotta Spinach Capelletti in a 3-cheese sauce. If you are lucky enough to spot the feta ravioli - which isn't a regular - order it right away. Other great options include Pappardelle al Telefono, Spinach Gnocchi and Spinach/Ricotta Cannelloni. It is worth noting that Di Lucca lets one order combinations pastas. Pictured above is a half-n-half of Canelloni and Capelletti pastas.

Among the desserts, the only standout is the malbec ice-cream. The rest of the desserts are more or less standard fare - Tiramisu, gelato, creme-brulee and flan. Pictured here is the Caramel Flan - which didn't make a huge impression on me.

Suna - Bogota, Colombia

Variety
Quality

I chanced upon Suna while browsing the web for veggie-friendly restaurants in Bogota. It happened to be pretty close to the hotel where I stay in the elegant Rosales neighborhood. SuNa is indeed vegan and veggie friendly. I started off with the Mango/Carrot/Basil roll which was quite delicious. It's a tad big for one person and it was quite a challenge keeping it from unraveling.

For the main course, the vegetarian choices were fairly standard - whole grain pasta, veg/tofu stir-fry, veg lasagna, etc. I decided to go with the Arroz Bengali - somehow, I couldn't stop myself from ordering the lone Indian sounding dish. It turned out to be pretty average. I sure didn't find anything distinctly Indian about it .. let alone Bengali. It was a rice, lentil and roasted almond pulao very lightly seasoned and served with a ring of cucumber raita - it had echoes of mediterranean rice dishes I tasted elsewhere in Bogota. Strangely (for me at least), the plate was served hot off the oven. So everything on the plate, including the raita was piping hot. In Indian fried rice dishes like pulao or biriyani, the raita or yoghurt serves as a cool contrast to the heat of the fried rice. SuNa seems to have missed the trick here - and it was a strange experience eating fried rice with hot raita.

I almost skipped the dessert after the heavy meal but I went ahead and ordered the Flourless chocolate cake. Fortunately, it was the right call. This was among the best flourless chocolate cakes I ever ate. The texture wasn't odd, the sweetness not overpowering and the freshly cut raspberries serving as a perfect foil for the richness of the chocolate.

SuNa started and finished strong with a very weak middle. It is a reasonably expensive restaurant too. My meal cost me $25 including two freshly squeezed carrot-ginger juices. For that reason, I only give it 3 beets.

Wok - Bogota, Colombia

Veg Options
Taste

Wok was the first restaurant I dined at during my first visit to Bogota. Along with Crepes & Waffles, Wok is a massive presence in Bogota for a vegetarian. Like C&W, Wok is also a successful chain restaurant though not quite on the same scale. It menu has a distinct asian tilt - from soups to sushi to noodles.

When I first saw the menu - and this was my first visit to Colombia - my eyes popped out. The "menu" really looks like a magazine. It has about 20 pages. Once I laid my eyes on the "green pages" - featuring ONLY vegetarian dishes, whole pages of them - I was sold on Wok. This was going to be a frequent stop for me - and so it has been.

I usually start off with any of their page full of fantastic fresh fruit juice options - my favorites being Verde Vital (Green Apple, Pear, Baby Spinach), Purple Haze (Beets, Carrots, Apple), Mango Lassi (they have lassi!!!), Chocolate/Banana/Dates, Mango/Banana/Maracuya and the usual suspects - Guanabana and Copuazu milkshakes. During a typical meal, I'd have had 2-3 drinks. This can be followed by some great starters - though I always don't go for them to keep from stuffing myself completely. In addition to the reliable spring rolls, Wok has these delicious Tofu dumplings that I most recently discovered - Yasai Chili Gyoza. These are lightly fried dumplings stuffed with minced tofu and served with a Chili oil. I highly recommend these.

Wok has about six vegetarian soup options - miso, carrot, tom ka, tom yam and miso ramen. Both the miso and carrot soups are excellent and quite filling. I typically make a meal out of the carrot soup - which is well seasoned, thick and creamy. Be advised that the carrot soup has a strong coconut flavor - which can be off-putting to some.

I haven't yet started to cover the main course and I'm tired already. The choice at Wok is quite incredible. Among the maincourses are a staggering 13 options for noodles, fried rice and stir-fries. These include thai red/green/yellow curries, pad thai, indonesian/cambodian stir fry dishes and other variants of thai curries/noodles. In addition to these, Wok features "Raw Cuisine" - dishes cooked at temperatures not exceeding 43C. I personally enjoyed both the red and green curries prepared in this style. This new-age technique for cooking veggies is supposed to preserve the nutrients much better.

If you happen to be in the mood for sushi - you'll be thrilled. You have a staggering SIX vegetarian sushi choices - some of which come wrapped in soy paper if you happen to be put off by the sea weed roll. My favorites are the Veggie Roll (featuring mango, asparagus, cream cheese, avocado and sesame seeds) and Yasi Tempura roll (featuring tempura vegetables). The others - Shitake, tofu, kapa maki and salad rolls are equally good.

If these dizzing array of choices isn't enough, the dessert menu is still more impressive. In several visits, I've been so sated with the drinks and main courses/appetizers that I've rarely had dessert. Given my reputation, that borders on being considered shockingly absurd. Still, among the ones I've tasted, the banana tempura and "raw" banana&berry tarts were outstanding.

All said and done, this review only scratches the surface. I'd have to review each section of the menu in detail to truly describe the wonderful experience that is Wok. It is quite intriguing how the owners manage to run this restaurant with a menu as extensive as this - and the quality has never suffered in all my visits. I crave for a day when a restaurant chain like Wok or Crepes&Waffles will appear in the US.

San Giorgio - Bogota, Colombia

Veg Options
Taste