(Michelle) Now marketing consultant Cassonie Ruiz Leon would like to present all the reasons why you should pay a visit to her pic.

Serving traditional Colombian food in a homey and picturesque setting, this spot will warm your palate with all the right flavors.

It's located in Miami and it's called Pueblo Colombian Restaurant.

(music) Hi, my name is Daniel Yepes I'm the owner of Apollo Restaurant here in Miami, Florida.

The restaurant started 23 years ago.

It was an idea that my mom and my uncle at the time, they came together, and they wanted to bring something that wasn't there at the time, which was a very traditional mom and pop type of restaurant in Colombia with affordable prices.

We are from Medellin, so our flavor comes from that part of the Colombia, but we try to feature dishes from all over the country.

So we have dishes from the Caribbean, from Bogota, from Medellin.

But it has like that Medellin flavor that little touch, as the name suggests.

My pueblo, my town.

We wanted to bring that to Miami.

So bring a little piece of Colombia.

And as you can see, it's reflected all over the place with the balconies, the windows, the colors, you know, they're very like very vibrant and colorful scheme.

And the idea is that is that when you come into the restaurant, you feel happy and you feel connected to your country.

Usually when people come here, they come obviously for the food, but mostly because of the service.

We made sure that everybody feels treated like they're at home.

My Pueblo restaurant is warm, cozy, traditional and good.

(music) (Michelle) Tell me a little bit about me.

Pueblo.

Well, definitely.

You walk into the picket fence, you cross that and you just walk into Columbia.

Everything they have, the decoration and everything you get that feel, that homey feel.

And definitely the welcoming.

It's like you're walking into somebody's home.

(Michelle) Jerome, you really fell in love with this place.

I did like she said.

It's very welcoming.

When you walk in, we are able to be accommodated immediately.

Uh, they sat us.

I brought the whole family.

My mother-in-law, my wife, my kids.

Oh, that's nice for a Sunday brunch.

And I was afraid it was going to be crowded, but it wasn't, um, it was full, but we were able to be seated, and, um, the portion sizes.

Amazing.

We definitely.

We definitely brought a lot of food home, I have to say.

And the juices don't leave that place without ordering some of their fresh juices.

(Michelle) Oh, great.

(Jerome) The passionfruit, the mora and the lemonade.

Oh.

(Michelle) What did you think Christopher when you walked in?

I came, right, uh, soon after work, and it was easy to get a seat.

The people were very nice.

Everybody was very welcoming.

And I sat in a little cool little, uh, patio style.

It seems like you're outside, but you're inside in the restaurant.

Okay.

(Michelle) So tell me what you had to eat this last time you went.

(Cassonie) This last time I had the ceviche, the chicharron, which is the fried pork belly.

Then they cover it with pickled onions, red pickled onions.

So that kind of breaks up the fat and the cuts belly.

Right.

So they're little bite sizes, crunchy.

And then with that juiciness.

Yeah.

So that's very good.

Then we ordered another huge appetizer.

It was just meats piccata.

So they have you know these arepas which are the corn fritters.

They have tostones which is, you know, the fried plantains.

And then they have like a steak, chicken sausages, all different types of meats.

So that's kind of to share.

(Michelle) And then you had.

(Cassonie) A main dish.

La Bandeja paisa okay.

Which is very traditional.

So there you have the white rice, you have the beans, you have the steak.

If you choose that you also have an egg and you have sweet fried plantains.

It’s definitely a lot of food.

It's something that you can actually share.

(Michelle) Jerome tell Me a little bit about some of the dishes y'all had that were standouts.

(Jerome)Well, we also ordered the ceviche.

The chicharrones delicious.

Very good.

It came with some arepas pitas.

So we use that to kind of make little.

You can make eggs filled with chicharron.

Yeah, exactly.

(Michelle) That's really yummy.

(Jerome) We ordered some empanadas for the table and they were prepared perfectly.

So they filled with ground beef.

And sometimes when you order empanadas, they come out a little hard.

Uh, these were perfect.

Soft and excellently prepared.

Main dish.

You had a bandeja bandeja paisa.

Well, actually, I had the bandeja me pueblo, which it's the same thing as a bandeja paisa, but it just brings a Spanish sausage as well.

Instead of.

(Michelle) Be careful with that one.

Yeah.

(Jerome) Uh, the bandeja paisa.

(Michelle) There you go.

And you had one of my favorite dishes.

And your last dish, you had a sancocho, right?

(Jerome) The sancocho.

(Michelle) But it was not a chicken sancocho.

(Jerome) I think it was the the rest of Costilla.

Aha.

Exactly.

(Michelle) Which are pork ribs, which is kind of like a soup slash stew, ajiaco kind of thing, right?

With all kinds of vegetables and brothy.

And yes, the ribs must have fallen apart.

(Jerome) Oh, yeah.

Delicious.

Perfectly prepared.

That was my my wife's dish.

She shared that with my mother-in-law, and, yeah, they devoured it.

(Michelle) Delicious Christopher tell me what you had.

(Christopher) I had that mosquito which was delicious.

And it came with rice and the red beans and a touchstone.

(Michelle) And for those that.

Don't know what Churasquito means.

(Christopher) It's like a it's.

Churrascos churrasco.

Steak, but it's a smaller one.

It's a smaller.

(Michelle) Anything with ito means little.

Yeah.

It sounds like there's a lot of value to the food here.

Is that correct?

(Cassonie) That is correct, definitely.

It's very it's home cooking.

Yeah.

You feel it?

(Michelle) No doubt.

How's the service?

(Jerome) The service is great.

They're very accommodating.

Portions came back quickly.

All the dishes came by quickly.

We have any questions?

They were immediately able to answer anything we had.

But yeah it was very, very, very friendly.

(Michelle) Cassonie mi Pueblo Colombian restaurant was your pick.

Sum it up for us, please.

(Cassonie) Definitely a homey, cozy family place to go to and just kind of transport you out of Miami.

(Michelle) Jerome.

(Jerome) Colombian comfort food with large portions.

You're definitely going to bring some home.

(Michelle) Christopher.

(Christopher) If you want to have a down home experience in Miami and you want and you love Colombian food, that's the place to go.

(Michelle) You can enjoy authentic Colombian fare at Mi Pueblo Colombian restaurant located at 10910 West Flagler Street in Miami.

They're open daily for lunch and dinner.

Reservations are not accepted where the average price for dinner without drinks is about $35.

(music)