El Cielo is a Colombian restaurant located in the city of Medellin which was founded on 2006, and it provides the customer with modern, and innovative Colombian cuisine. Its big success has allowed head chef Juan Manuel Barrientos to expand this idea to other important cities such as Bogota (Capital of Colombia) and the american city of Miami. By maintaining traditional flavors and ingredients, and finding creative ways to provide the customer with such the restaurant has won multiple both national and international gastronomy recognitions. The restaurant has been included in three separate occasions (2013, 2014, and 2015) on “Latin America 50 Best Restaurant” list, has won many other recognitions, and the chef himself has received all kinds of prices such as being selected on the top 5 chefs of Colombia for his work.

The restaurant is open only for lunch and dinner, from 12pm to 3pm, closing and opening again in 7pm all the way to 12am. Their main focus is to provide the best dinner experience for the costumer, and that is why they provide service till so late from Monday to Saturday. They open a lunch schedules for many businesses lunches that are held in the city at that time, and this restaurant is perfect for such. Given that they are not open for so long, and have many customers, in order to visit the place you must call for a reservation probably in a day of advancement. First time I went I called on noon to go have dinner there, and they were out of tables for the day, they were all booked, so I had to reserve to the day before. The receptionist is extremely respectful with the costumer, she did not interrupt me, and told me all about about how the restaurant worked, what food they provided and warned me about how dinning here could take longer time, than it usually takes to eat at other places.

One day later after having called for a reservation I visited the restaurant. El Cielo is located in a tourist neighborhood of Medellin called “la 10” or “zona rosa”, therefore you will find many restaurant here and there is high traffic. Given that there many shops and eating places, so there are few parking places and many cars in need of them. I would recommend going in taxi or Uber if possible to avoid searching for a parking lot for a long time, and probably having to walk a few block. The restaurant has a suttil entrance with the name of the restaurant on it. There is a person the door who opens the door for the customer, and asked them for their name to check in the reservation book. After, when they see your name, they lead you to your table. You are accommodated and immediately brought glasses and a waiter bring water with petals on it, that gives it a better flavor.

When I was seated down on my table, few minutes later the waiter came to provide us with the menu and the wine list. The restaurant has an extremely luxuriant wine collection, which consist of many boutique wines with limited production of such. The prices vary, some are really expensive, and some not so much, but the quality remains in all of them.The wine list from this restaurant when compared to the wine list of neighboring italian restaurant “il Castello” is clearly superior. In el cielo they have greater variety and better quality wines, even though italian restaurants are suppose to be strong in this area. They have greater superiority and  The menu is even more impressive than the wine list. There are few different packages of dishes provided to the clients, because the menus are already selected. Clients car order one unique plate, or a package of many different dishes. The menu gives detailed descriptions of all the food that will be provided. When you are ready to order the waiter will ask you if you have any allergies or disgust of ny type of food to avoid inconveniences. This is an example of the well service provided. Waiters are respectful and professional with the customers, and will come by as soon as you call them.

The food is something astonishing. It does take long to arrive because there is long preparation for each dish, given that they are detailed on making the food visually appealing and of great flavor. You can taste traditional flavors of local food on the dishes but the chef finds the way to play with them and make them different. For example there is a plate which has beans that reminded me of the  beans from the “bandeja paisa” from Sancho Paisa. The presentation of the food is so professional, and the plates, cups, and silverware are all of a same set and style to make it even better. This is something similar to the restaurant Bourdo, in which they also pay great attention to the presentation of the dish, which makes it look as something super extravagant. The prices for the food are high but worth it, given that the food preparation is done and cooked according to your demands. This type of food won’t be seen anywhere else in the world, because either they provide typical colombian food or fancy food from other places on the world, but a mixture of fancy colombian food is not seen anywhere else.

The waiters won’t rush their clients to leave the premises as soon as they finish, you have the chance to stay and chat for a while and when  you’re ready to leave you just call for the check. Over all from beginning to end, the service provided is great, which is why I decided to leave a good tip. This has been a restaurant which was worth my time and my money.