Best Cheap Eats in Bogotá, Colombia
Eating Well in Bogotá Without Spending Much
Bogotá is one of the best cities in South America to eat cheaply and well. The signature dish, ajiaco santafereño, is a thick soup built from three kinds of potato, corn, chicken, and the essential herb guascas, finished with cream, capers, and avocado. It costs only a couple of dollars almost anywhere and is the one dish every visitor should order.
Where to get it
La Puerta Falsa, open in La Candelaria since 1816, is Bogotá’s classic cheap eat: ajiaco, tamales santafereños, and chocolate santafereño (hot chocolate with cheese melted into it) for a few dollars a plate. It’s touristy by now but genuinely old and genuinely good.
Street food staples
- Arepas: Colombian arepas are thinner and sweeter than Venezuelan ones and are sold as a cheap side almost everywhere, plain or with cheese.
- Empanadas: fried, meat-filled, and sold hot from carts across the city for well under a dollar each.
- Changua: a Bogotá breakfast soup of milk, egg, and scallion, cheap and filling before a full day out.
- Obleas: thin wafers stacked with dulce de leche and other toppings, a classic street dessert.
- Fritanga: a mixed grill of meats sold by weight at street stalls, good for splitting.
- Fresh fruit juice: try lulo, feijoa, or guanábana; Paloquemao Market has the widest and cheapest selection of Colombia’s exotic fruit.
Coffee and drinks
Bogotá’s tinto (small black coffee) is sold on street corners for pocket change, alongside a growing specialty-coffee scene in Chapinero and Zona G if you want to spend a bit more. Chicha, a fermented-maize drink with roots in Muisca tradition, is worth trying around Chorro de Quevedo.
One splurge, if you’re going to make one
Bogotá also has genuinely world-class dining if you want to spend more once: El Chato in Chapinero Alto was ranked #1 in Latin America’s 50 Best for 2025, and Leo, chef Leonor Espinosa’s restaurant, ranked #23 the same year. Andrés Carne de Res (the original in Chía, or Andrés D.C. in the city) is a Colombian institution for grilled meat and a lively atmosphere, priced mid-range rather than cheap.
Budget tips
Bandeja paisa, the enormous rice-beans-meat-plantain platter often marketed to tourists, is actually a Medellín dish, not a Bogotá one; it’s available here but isn’t the local specialty. A tip of about 10% is often added automatically to the bill as “servicio voluntario,” and you’re free to decline it if service didn’t warrant it. Bogotá’s tap water is safe, so skip bottled water and save the money for another arepa.
Read more: for a full day of budget sightseeing to pair with these meals, see our guide to Bogotá’s hidden gems .