Business & Tech

Quinoa Cakes at Bogota Bistro

The quinoa cakes at this Fifth Avenue staple are an interesting distraction from the eatery's more typical Latin fare.

Sitting down for a meal at the festively-decorated , I passed over all the usual suspects (arepas, tacos) in favor of something a little less than usual: quinoa cakes.

This protein-packed chenopod and I have had a tumultuous relationship: I’ve loved it – particularly at , drizzled in an avocado dressing – and other times I find it rather blah.

But the quinoa cakes at Fifth Avenue's Bogota Bistro fall decisively into the first category. Cooked brown quinoa is first sautéed with black beans and sweet potatoes. It’s then formed into a patty with cilantro and a variety of other seasonings, and lightly fried.

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The cakes were flavorful and pleasingly crisp – not excessively mushy like quinoa cakes can often be. I suspected that the sweet potato pairing might make the cakes too sweet, but surprisingly, it did not. Instead, when liberally doused in Bogota’s famous Aji Sauce (I am a hot sauce junkie), the cakes were a most amenable combination of sweet/spicy/savory. It was a delicious and surprisingly creative vegetarian entrée, even impressing my meat-loving date.

For my choice of “any two sides” I picked the lemony sautéed kale (just good) and the “tropical cole slaw” – a pineapple and coconut number that was just too sweet, even after being drenched in the aforementioned hot sauce.

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The sides may have not been winners, but I will certainly be back for a second helping of Bogota’s Quinoa cakes.

Best yet, I didn’t feel nearly as bad as I would had I instead opted for a plateful of arepas, smothered in cheese.


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