Bakery cafés in Bogotá

What to order at a Bogotá panadería

The almojábana is a round cheese bun made with corn flour, a substitute for the wheat of the Spanish original. Its recipe is thought to have reached Colombia through Soacha, near the Salto del Tequendama, in the 19th century, and in 2014 it was declared intangible cultural heritage of Cundinamarca, the department around the capital.⁶ Typical recipes start from cuajada (fresh curd) and salty cheese.⁷

TasteAtlas's October 2025 ranking of the world's breads put pandebono, a cheese bread, fourth and the almojábana 31st.⁷ For something sweet, the roscón is a ring of soft bread filled with bocadillo (guava paste) or arequipe (milk caramel) and dusted with sugar, best on the day it is baked.⁸

Chocolate santafereño, with cheese

Chocolate santafereño takes its name from Santa Fe de Bogotá, one of the city's old names, and is traditionally made with water rather than milk. It is heated in an olleta, an aluminum pot, and frothed with a molinillo, a wooden beater spun between the palms. A piece of doble crema or Paipa cheese goes into the cup and is fished out once it softens, with an almojábana, a buñuelo (a fried cheese-dough ball) or a pandebono alongside.⁵

Prices depend on the room. In July 2026, Colombia.com put a chocolate with cheese at COP 12,000–16,000 in the restaurant beside the Catedral Primada that has served it since 1816; it comes with milk or water.⁴ Flavors of Bogotá sends hot-chocolate drinkers to Distrito Chocolate at Carrera 2A #17-60 in La Candelaria.⁵ It has a second café on Calle 70A in Quinta Camacho.

Pastelería Florida on Carrera Séptima

José Granés, a Spanish pastry cook who left Spain as Franco advanced, set up the Florida on Carrera Séptima at Calle 20.² He designed it as a tearoom. Eduardo Martínez, its first employee, created the house chocolate, kept to the same recipe since 1945, and bought the business in 1970. In October 2020 it turned 84, having moved in 2002 into a three-story house that seated about 250 people before the pandemic.¹

It now opens daily 06:00–22:00 at Carrera 7 #21-46, unusually long hours for a bakery café. In May 2025, its breakfast menu of tamales, caldo (broth), eggs, chocolate and biscuits ran COP 8,000–30,000.³

Where the bakery cafés are

South Bogotá leads by a wide margin, followed by La Candelaria & Centro, then Salitre & Engativá and Suba. More than half of the southern ones carry cafetería (café) in their names, from Panaderia La Fontana at Calle 33 Sur #37 to Pasteleria Latina on Carrera 24F.

For early starts, Croissaneria by Gisselle in Salitre & Engativá opens weekdays 06:00–15:00, and Panadería de la cuarta in La Candelaria opens daily 06:30–21:00. Panadería Gurus in Engativá serves daily until 22:00, and Pasteleria Gustitortas in Suba opens daily 09:00–21:00.

In the north, Árbol del Pan in Quinta Camacho opens Tuesday to Friday 08:00–19:30 and has Wi-Fi. Mesa Salvaje, at Diagonal 55 #4-14 in Chapinero, adds vegan baking and brunch.