On your first dinner at La Makha, expect a seven-course tasting menu built around Colombian cocina de origen, a minimalist and discreet atmosphere under Binn Hotel’s “quiet luxury” concept, and live music accompanying the service. If you’d rather not commit to the tasting menu, you can also build your own dinner à la carte, dish by dish.
Here’s what you’ll actually find once you sit down, no filler: the cooking concept, the atmosphere, how the menu is structured, and how service runs. If you don’t have a date yet, you can book a table at La Makha before reading on.
The cocina de origen you’re about to try
La Makha works under the cocina de origen concept: modern Colombian dishes built around local produce, with a tasting menu as the centerpiece of the whole idea. This isn’t a menu that shifts with tourist season or a generic hotel offering. Every course on the tasting menu comes with a pairing chosen specifically for that dish, whether a signature cocktail or a glass of wine.
That same logic carries into the à la carte menu: dishes are organized by main ingredient (corn, seafood, lamb, beef) rather than generic categories, and dessert always closes with something focused rather than a long list that scatters the experience. The kitchen, currently led by chef Nelson López, keeps that same backbone across both the tasting menu and the à la carte: local ingredient first, technique second.
For a first-time visitor, this matters because it changes the question you should ask before ordering. It’s not “do I prefer meat or fish,” but “do I want the full picture of what the kitchen does, or would I rather go deep on a couple of dishes.” The answer decides whether the tasting menu or the à la carte makes more sense for you.
The atmosphere: minimalist design and “quiet luxury”
La Makha lives inside Binn Hotel, in one of the most exclusive dining districts of El Poblado. The design concept behind the whole hotel comes down to what they call quiet luxury: an exclusive, elegant, and discreet experience, with minimalist lines that prioritize quality and privacy over any flashy decorative element.
In practice, that means a dining room that doesn’t try to impress through excess. The décor follows a palette and set of guidelines tied to the brand, without the mixed colors or overloaded setups you’ll see at other restaurants around the city. The architectural concept behind the hotel fuses modernity, sustainability, and a minimalist approach, aiming for a relaxed atmosphere that blends into its surroundings instead of competing with them. If you want the deeper story of how that space came together, check out the article on La Makha’s design, which goes further into the interior design approach.
That same philosophy extends to the location: La Makha operates on the hotel’s main floor, without relying on panoramic views or a rooftop setting, which is instead the signature of Etro Rooftop, the hotel’s other venue.
The seven-course tasting menu, step by step
If it’s your first time, the tasting menu is the most complete way to get to know La Makha’s kitchen in one sitting. It’s seven courses, each with a suggested pairing if you choose that option:
- Corn Crisp, with tuna tartare and oyster mushroom emulsion
- Watermelon Ceviche, with chontaduro tiger’s milk
- Oyster Mushrooms, with corn cake and pickled guatila
- Catch of the Day, with prawn stew
- Pork Belly, cooked three different ways
- Lamb, in stuffed pasta with goat yogurt foam
- Coconut and Coffee Flan, as the sweet finish
The price is COP $330,000 per person without pairing, or COP $420,000 with pairing included, and it’s built for one person (if two people are dining, the math doubles). You can see the full breakdown, including what’s paired with each course, on the La Makha tasting menu page.
Seven courses means the dinner isn’t quick. You’ll move through cold starters, a mushroom-and-corn interlude, a seafood course, two mains built on different proteins (pork and lamb), and a sweet finish. If you’re working around a tight schedule before another commitment, this isn’t the right format for that particular night.
If you’d rather build your dinner à la carte
Not everyone wants to commit to seven courses on their first visit, and that’s fine. La Makha’s à la carte menu holds up on its own, split into starters, mains, and desserts, each priced separately: starters between COP $45,000 and COP $135,000, mains between COP $58,000 and COP $275,000, and desserts at a flat COP $35,000 each.
For a shorter first dinner, a reasonable combination is one starter, one main, and one dessert. That gives you a representative sample of the kitchen without stretching the night to the two or three hours the full tasting menu can take. It also leaves room to add a cocktail or a glass of wine without turning dinner into an all-night event, which matters if you have somewhere else to be afterward. If budget is what worries you most, it’s worth checking the full price breakdown for dinner at La Makha first, so you can put together your combination with real numbers in mind instead of surprises when the bill arrives.
Live music and how formal the experience really is
La Makha has live music as a regular part of the experience, which sets the tone for the night: it’s not a silent fine-dining room, and it’s not a loud bar either, but something in between, meant to accompany dinner without taking it over. It’s the kind of detail that shapes how the room feels more than any single dish does.
Service follows that same logic of discretion and personal attention that defines the whole hotel. Don’t expect a server reciting every ingredient like a script; the style leans closer to accompanying you through the meal without interrupting the conversation.
Given the kind of atmosphere described above, it’s not unusual for the table next to yours to be marking an anniversary or having a quiet business dinner. La Makha is one of the spaces Binn Hotel uses for romantic and intimate celebrations, on top of regular dinner service, so the general tone of the dining room leans toward calm and private rather than lively. If your first visit happens to land on a special occasion, the atmosphere is already built for that; if you’re just going in for dinner on an ordinary Tuesday, the experience doesn’t change much, except the room will probably be a little less full.
With all that, you now have a clear picture of what to expect the first time: a well-defined cocina de origen concept, a minimalist atmosphere built around privacy, and the choice to go all in with the tasting menu or keep it simple with the à la carte. What you decide to order comes down more to how much time you have that night, and whether you want variety or depth in a couple of dishes, than anything else. Settle that question before you sit down, and the rest of the evening takes care of itself.
Ready to experience it? Book your table at La Makha.
