The service was very good! The servers kept checking up on us regularly. They offered free popcorn as an appetizer. The portion sizes were very good for its price! Free lollipops also came with the bill. I would recommend this place if you want to be filled. The music also reminds me of old telenovela and vibes are good in general! We went on a Friday evening and wasn't too packed! read more

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This review focuses on the food we had delivered. We decided to enjoy a nice Colombian breakfast, starting with one of my favorite dishes: bandeja paisa. This dish was truly a masterpiece and could easily feed a small village. It is the ultimate buffet on a plate, featuring pork belly, beans, rice, sausage, steak, avocado, plantain, egg, and an arepa. After consuming this meal, we were left in a food coma for hours. We also ordered their churrasco, which was another generous portion. It included rice, avocado, fries, eggs, and steak topped with a flavorful sauce. To wash it all down, we enjoyed a natural drink. Blackberry drink with milk. read more

We have lived within walking distance of this place for almost a decade and finally checked it out this week, we love it! The food was unlike anything we've ever tried, we are definitely converts to South American cuisine now! Our service was excellent (thanks Chelsea!) and the place has such a cozy feel, it deserves "neighborhood institution" status! read more

Food was good, I ordered a bandeja Paisa. I little bit different from the normal typical one. But flavor was good. Carne or beef was a little dry. Chorizo was dry. Chicharrón was really good. The rice and beans has a good flavor. The mango juice was good. The Service was ok ! Average I will say. The ambiance of the restaurante was clean and music was good to have in the background. Overall. I will recommend to visit this restaurant and give a try. read more

One of my favorite authentic South American restaurants in my area I don't even eat cow meat but I love the Churrasco plate I also love the Encocado de pescado read more

If you're in Northeast, and hankering for some South American food and timber Rose is too busy, this might be a good place to stop. It does not have a ton of vegetarian and vegan options, but I was still able to find enough to eat. My friend and I split a number of different dishes and I enjoyed everything, but nothing stood out. It's some place. I would stop at if I'm nearby, but not something I would necessarily seek out. read more

Outstanding food and huge portions. Chelsea, our server was so very kind and attentive. I highly recommend a visit.

Yes, I forgot to feed my camera first. It is best to not have eaten anything on the day you visit this restaurant. The portions are HUGE! You will get several days' meals out of one entree. We started the meal with the Empanadas de Carne. These things are ridiculously good. The crisp outside gives way to a filling that is perfectly spiced and hints of the flavor of tamales. The hot sauce that accompanies it is HOT! We wanted to slather it on everything. We really love when salsas are actually hot. The lower rating is only because the seafood was overcooked in the Arroz Marinero. This dish has just about everything except shark in it. It was still tasty despite the seafood cooking issue. My friend got the Chaulafan, which is also huge. He didn't state that there were any issues with his meal. We both had Jamaica to drink, which was as delicious as expected. The service was friendly and helpful. We will be back again. read more

Very good food very authentic had the seafood dish very good and fresh the only thing I did not like was the service and they tried to over charge me but thankfully that was solved will definitely return. read more

At first blush I thought it was a bit pricey but the portions are very generous and they didn't skimp on the meat. Mine had chicken, beef, sausage and pork. I finished the plantain and vegetables well before I finished the meat. read more

Love the food here. Me and my wife have been coming here for over 6 years. The services is good. Plenty of parking front and back. The "Aguas" are great. read more

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We were the only non Hispanic people in the restaurant so you know it's an authentic place. The food was Ecuadorian and our waitress couldn't tell us what was in the specials (in English at least) so she sent over another server. I couldn't find many veggies and the dishes she said were popular looked big and heavy so my boyfriend and I shared a plate and an appetizer. The appetizer was corn and cheese and pretty bland. The main dish was a fried egg and beans and rice and sausage and avocado and I believe tripe. Decent food, kept me full for a long time. The booth we sat at had a ripped up seat, a bit rundown in its decor. The food came out hot and quickly. read more

The service was good but the food was just okay. With so many options available, I wouldn't go back.

Never had food like this. Wanted to try something different. Reviews were really good. No complaints. I had the fish in coconut sauce. Super yummy. Kid had fries with steak and peppers on top. Hubby had carne with beans and rice. Plantains were perfect. Quiet, small atmosphere. read more

La Colonia Restaurant - We are so hungry - Colombian Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota

Great Authentic Colombian food. Always stop by when I'm in the Twin Cities. If you like Empanadas definitely stop here best in Twin City's.

Wanted to try something new while visiting the area for a conference, and LanColonia delivered. Our very helpful server provided recommendations and answered our questions. We ended up trying cheese empanadas, llapingachos, bandeja paisa, secode carne, and cocktails. Favorites were empanadas and secode carne, but all were tasty! The bandeja paisa was a nice "variety platter"--a great choice if you're looking to sample several things. Very pleasant atmosphere. Would definitely bring the kids without hesitation! read more

La Colonia Restaurant - Bandeja Paisa - Colombian Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota

We had a fantastic time and meal here tonight. I loved the Coumbian drink our server suggested. Chickenen with rice and plantains was really tasty , especially with the spicy red sauce added. Friendly and helpful servers. We'll be back! read more

Just happened to be sorta in the area so tried something different. Food was interesting and not just usual fare. Service was great. My fried plantain was a bit mushy but everything was tasty. There was a vent for a/c on the floor that was a bit annoying as far as blowing cold air on me and it wasn't a very warm day. read more

La Colonia Restaurant - Yum Coconut sauce with cod and shrimp! - Colombian Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota

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Come here for the weekend specials. They had some soups that were not on the regular menu, which struck me as meat-heavy the first time I visited a few years ago. Since my first visit they've brightened up the dining room with colorful paintings, and even though we arrived just before five on a Saturday there was already a crowd of people gathering at a big table. I felt like I was dropping in on a family living room, and thoroughly enjoyed my visit. We started out with tortilla chips and green sauce that had plenty of kick. The horchata was hearty and sweet, and put out the fire nicely. I ordered caldo de res, a generous portion of beef stew cooked with a large yucca dumpling and a vegetable assortment of carrots, cabbage, and onions. The stew included both corned beef and regular beef, just enough for my taste. Served with lime wedges and a big portion of rice, it was very filling and enough to take home for another meal. My spouse ordered encocado de pescado, a hearty coconut cod stew. He appreciated the many flavors bursting through, especially the coconut base. I thought it was a little salty but still delicious. The fried sweet plantations were a nice complement to the stew. The service was friendly and attentive. It feels like a family business, where you can sense the hard work that went into it, and pride in the results. They have a big parking lot, another plus. We'll definitely be back on another weekend for more! read more

Service was great, very attentive. Food was fantastic, steak was cooked perfectly and the sauce was great. Good spot for lunch.

Being a corporate chef, I know I'm already spoiled but Spanish food is my home food, it's my heritage food. The server herself was nice and kind to use but the food itself was very bland for being constantly rated good quality food. Churrasco was very chewy(over cooked) and under seasoned, rice tasted like it was sitting in a pot over night, beans were under seasoned, sausage was sour, pork was also undercooked. The service itself was a rating of 4, they were very nice enough to compensate for the food but overall food experience it's a solid 2. read more

This place is by far one of the best place I've sat at and ate it's a family atmosphere with joy and is super kid friendly, service is outstanding. 5 out of 5 thank you read more

La Colonia Restaurant - The best drink ever - Colombian Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota

La Colonia was so promising that I speed-walked down Central to get to it, and it takes a lot of motivation to get me to move that fast let me tell you. First impression: an authentic Ecuadorian/Colombian restaurant with a lot to offer! But maybe I just ordered the wrong things?... I'm a sucker for ceviche, so the "Ceviche Mixto" (with shrimp and white fish) was a no-brainer. Unfortunately, it was pretty bland and watery. I had to add lots of lime, hot sauce, and salt to boost the flavor, but I did appreciate the generous serving size and chunks of seafood. My entree was the "Sobrebarriga a la Criolla": flank steak in a homemade sauce with rice, beans, potato, yucca, and plantain. I enjoyed the tomato-based sauce, but my steak was tough and gamey. There was also a very dark discoloration running through/inside it, and with my experience with wild game it looked like a big broken blood vessel, which wasn't super appetizing. However, the rice and beans and other fixings were addicting! Service was kind and friendly at first, but then pretty slow. I finished my water early into the meal and it didn't get filled to the end. TL;DR: The Ceviche and Sobrebarriga had their pros and cons, so I would order something else during my next visit. read more

When something is really good, I'm compelled to write about it. So glad we stumbled across this place with the added bonus of having a coupon. Even without, I would certainly pay full price. The interior is not much to write home about, but who cares when the food tastes, looks and smells good. The place was fairly busy at lunch time. Cecilia, our server told us we could look at the lunch buffett and choose where we wanted to sit. J ended up ordering the lunch buffett which was said to be very good. From the looks of his plate, it looked quite good. The only suggestion would be to fill the items up a little more frequently. I ordered the Chaulafan which was excellent. A good number of shrimp in the dish along with little pieces of chicken, beef, pork, green peas and carrots. The habanero sauce was excellent and added just the right amount of kick to our food. Julio, the owner spent a fair amount of time explaining the menu offering up some wonderful suggestions. Cecilia, was as sweet as can be. We can always tell when people our passionate about something and for them, it really shows in their food. We enjoyed talking to them both. Will be back to try out the empanadas. Portions are quite large and the prices are very reasonable! read more

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This is our go to for Colombian comfort food for my husband's Colombian family. His favorite dish is the Bandeja Paisa, which is a huge plate of plantain, beans, rice, avocado, fried pork belly, sausage, and grilled steak. Their plantains are always perfectly ripened to sweet perfection. If you're a meat lover, La Colonia's Bandeja Paisa is great and very authentic Colombian meal. Its way too much meat for me, so I always get the Encocado de Pescado, which is basically rice with a fish coconut curry/stew, served with plantains and avocado. I love having avocado with each bit, so I also order an extra side of avocado. Their tres leches cake is delicious or go down the block to the Ecuadorian bakery for a treat! read more

Let me start of by saying, me and my husband are big fans of Chimborazo! So every time we go to some Colombian, Ecuadorian place we try to see if it will surpass Chimborazo. We both are vegetarians so our order in all Colombian restaurants is pretty much the same, and that also makes it easy to compare. At La Colonia we ordered the Inca cola, Llapingachos, Tostones, Plato Vegetariano and Tres Leches. I loved the Inca Cola, I thought it was really cool that they had it. The llapingachos was really good. But the winner of the evening was the Tres Leches! It was a really huge slice with a good amount of milk soaked in, absolutely loved it. The tostones were meh, we have had better. I guess where La Colonia misses out on Chimborazo is, their ambience. Its pretty dull and has a dive look to it. If that can be ignored, the food quality and taste are pretty much the same with Chimborazo. In fact the portion sizes are bigger here and its relatively cheaper too. This place is surely worth a shot, if you like South American food. read more

La Colonia Restaurant - Colombian Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota

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Wow, everything tasted amazing. A friend brought us here & raved about the food. I had the cod in a coconut sauce with rice. The queso empanadas are super good. Everything was hot, tasty and positively beautiful presentation. The staff was kind and helpful. I think this could be considered a hidden jem. Not sure i would have picked this place from looking at the storefront but I'm glad we did. We will definitely be coming back here in the future. It is a cozy home feel with the 3G's good food, good service, great feel. Super thumbs up. read more

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Great portions, decent prices. Food very tasty and delicious. I always eat here when I visit the cities. Highly recommended.

My partner and I are on a mission to eat at as many of the places along central as we can. We are also on a mission to try places we might have initially overlooked. This place fits both of those categories and I am so glad we went. I don't know what they what they do to their beans but it's magical. I can eat just the beans and rice and be a happy camper. That's not to say that any of the rest of their other food is lacking. It just means their beans are just that good. My partner had a flattened chicken that he loved. I had some beef cause it's whats for dinner! read more

This place was great! Food was excellent and service was very good!!! Ordered the Encocado de Pescado with fried sweet plantains!! read more

La Colonia Restaurant - Encocado De Pescado - Colombian Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota

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It's a matter of opinion, but Colombian food isn't the most exciting of cuisines for me. I think of it as pretty mild, standard comfort food (meat and potatoes)---but when it's done right it can be very satisfying. Think savory grilled meats and sides of rice, beans, plantains, eggs, homemade hot sauce and other meats. La Colonia is a lovely place to eat those things in NE, because those things come with some really hospitable service. If you like eating at places where they are truly happy to feed you, La Colonia is worth a shot. Jessica, our server, was one of the sweetest people ever. I think everyone in my group ordered La Bandeja Paisa (a giant platter of all kinds of things, easily splittable), but I decided to do the pollo rostizado (rotisserie chicken), which came with a HUGE brothy chicken soup as a first course, plus rice, beans, salad and---like all South American dishes I've ever had (including the ones in South America)---French fries. All of that was topped with a really big, juicy piece of rotisserie chicken. Needless to say, I had some serious leftovers and they were delicious too. We were such a large group on such a random weeknight that the server and owner both seemed so excited to be having us, especially when we let them know it was our first visit. They even thanked us with a couple of shareable desserts at the end of the night. Though I didn't have room for more than a bite, I appreciated the sentiment. read more

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I 100% agree with everything Salinee H. wrote. Food-wise, I can't say it was amazeballs, but for Columbian food, it is the best you can get, so it is "Woohoo! As good as it gets!" I was with Salinee H. and Annie D. and I split the Bandeja Paisa with Salinee and another. The platter comes with one egg, so we asked for 2 more so we can each have one and they didn't even charge us for that! A picture of the massive platter is featured on the cover of their menu. We all got that meal except for one, who got got a chicken platter that was equally huge and it came with a soup. Portions were huge, food was good, prices were very good, waters were filled, server was awesome (thank you, Jessica!) and the owner was present and helpful. And the two free desserts didn't hurt too. If you're looking for great Columbian food, La Colonia the place to go. And get the Bandeja Paisa if you're really hungry. read more

La Colonia Restaurant - Bandeja Paisa. nomnomnom - Colombian Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota

Really good food I recommend bandeja paisa good environment family and friends definitely I'll be back

Long story short: poor service but excellent food. STORY: My significant other found a groupon type coupon for this restaurant & the menu looked amazing - so we wanted to try it! Due to COVID, I wanted to make sure they would accept our coupon as we are both students and in-debt, especially with COVID, but love to treat ourselves from time to time! I would totally understand if they weren't accepting coupons due to COVID. I called and they verified that they would accept our coupon when we got to the restaurant to pay for the food. We placed our order, drove 20 min to the restaurant (we are from SLP), then successfully used the coupon at pick up. As soon as we got home, 20 min later, we received a call saying we had the wrong to go order. I discussed how far we drove and was leaning towards just keeping the wrong order, but the manager INSISTED I return to the restaurant... With more discussion, she said she would REFUND our order for such the long drive - she was eager to receive the meal back that we wrongfully picked up. She explained how she could not do it over the phone because she needed the receipt. We drove the 20 min back, then I gave her the wrong order and she gave me the right one. I handed her the card & receipt for the refund and she gave me a NEW receipt. Now we paid full price, when we were supposed to have a meal for free with our coupon - and we drove 80 min total. After what felt like forever, but probably 5-10 min of convo, she kept insisting she "didn't understand" and that the manager was not there to type in "the numbers" needed to refund either of my receipts. I tried explaining many different ways and used the visual of both receipts... by the end I felt extremely awkward and HUSTLED. I'm not sure if they just felt cheated with the groupon and wanted the money back or what, but I would have preferred them to just be up front about it and decline our groupon initially when I called and asked. To lie and say they would REFUND us for driving the extra 40 min felt so belittling... the only good thing out of the 2 hours is that the food was AMAZING. So delicious. Recommend the Encado de Pescado if you plan on eating here. Overall, I think eating in the restaurant if you can afford to do so would be worth it. I won't ever eat here again due to the poor communication, but it is worth it if you can afford to do so! read more

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I'm done. We have ordered several times through Bite Squad. Food has been about 50/50. Some good, some bad. But our last delivery was so bad I will not be giving La Colonia another chance. My husband ordered the Picada "La Colonia" which is pretty much a giant assortment of meat with a few potatoes and some plantains. The "pork belly" was chunks of fats with the nipples still attached! Yep NIPPLES! Deep fried NIPPLES! So freakin gross. The potatoes were not cooked and the plantains were either rock hard chips or overlooked mush. He had ordered this particular dish before, it was fine. He enjoys a plate of fatty meat every once in a while - but this was beyond disgusting. And today he has spent the entire day sick with stomach issues. And for those of you thinking - yeah pork belly is chunks of fatty belly meat. But let me reiterate - NIPPLES!!!! Never again. read more

You know you have something special when the food doesn't need any salt. This food is so flavorful. I'm going to be dreaming about it until I go back. I also had the Ecuador cocktail which was so refreshing and tasty. Clean establishment! What more could you ask for? read more

La Colonia Restaurant - Pollo Rostizado - Colombian Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota

I think the food here is great. My girlfriend is from Columbia and she says that the Columbian selection is very original and we both enjoy it. The place isn't fancy but the food is good and the environment is comfortable. read more

This place is a hidden gem! I brought my parents here and the food was so good we were back the next day. There are many delicious dishes in the menu, but I strongly recommend the Bandeja Paisa. It is by far my favorite and if you try it you'll be thanking me too. read more

Placed order through BiteSquad for 12pm lunch. Checked status and they did not accept by 11:20am. Contacted BiteSquad and they called restaurant and I called. They repeatedly hung up, saying the owner was not there, we can't see the order on BiteSquad, but they don't know how to do a phone order with a credit card. They refused to tell us they can't make the order. Waste of time and completely irresponsible! Just say you can't make it. Don't play games! read more

This restaurant is featured in local author, Christopher Valen's John Santana mysteries. As I was reading one I realized I haven't been here yet. I also found out this culture's food isn't spicy. Finally, a place for me. We started with beef empanadas. Super ground up and totally non-greasy. Delicious. We passed on chicken soup, good thing it came with my entree of the pollo combo. The chicken leg was borderline dry, and that was the only fault with the meal. Like Amintha, it was the best beans and rice combo I ever had and I'll get these every time. Basil had the carne asada. It was a thin piece of steak that was delicious, and that would have made my meal perfect. He got the inca bottled pop and I got orange fanta. I'm glad I saw a picture of the tres leches. It was covered with all kinds of stuff and we got the cake surrounded by nothing. It was perfect as is. Not too sweet and soaked. Our server, Danis went out of his way to make us happy. The AC was just right. This would be a good spot for Yelp International dinner. read more