Elcielo Medellín

Elcielo is the restaurant of Juan Manuel Barrientos, the Medellín-born chef who in 2021 became the first modern Colombian chef to win a Michelin star, for his Washington DC restaurant. According to the group, the Washington restaurant held its star from 2021 to 2025 and the Miami branch from 2022 to 2026, and its Medellín listing sums up the brand as the place where Colombian creativity comes to life. Elcielo now runs restaurants in New York, Washington, Miami and Bogotá. The Medellín restaurant is the home of the group, and since the opening of the Elcielo Hotel it sits inside that building in El Poblado.

The format is tasting menus only. Elcielo describes each menu as a multisensory journey inspired by Colombia's biodiversity, by emotion and by storytelling. The Michelin Guide, which awarded the hotel one Key, calls the restaurant arguably the hotel's main attraction and describes an extravagant 17-course tasting menu, every bit the equal of its sister restaurants abroad. Menus currently offered include The Experience Menu, The Journey Menu and the Taste Me Menu, so check which one suits your time and appetite when you book.

With that many courses, this is a restaurant for a long, special night out rather than a quick meal, and it suits couples, food-focused travellers and groups celebrating an occasion. The same kitchen also serves breakfast to guests of the 28-suite hotel upstairs, which belongs to Barrientos and his restaurant group, so staying in the hotel is another way to sample it.

Bookings are made online through the Precompro reservation platform linked from the official website, and gift cards are available. If you want a less formal taste of the kitchen, the group also runs Elcielo Bistró in Medellín, which it describes as everyday dining to the same standard.

The building is on Calle 7D in El Poblado. Designed around a green atrium garden and wrapped in full-length windows behind articulated metal screens, it is a striking setting in itself, and if you are staying in the hotel the concierge can arrange outings to Barrientos's other restaurants in the city. The hotel's bar is another option for a drink before or after dinner.