Where to eat COLOMBIA 🇨🇴 Genève: Restaurant Le Luserna

Restaurant Le Luserna

Avenue De-Luserna 13, Geneva

What we ordered: For two people, two beef empanadas, one ceviche colombiano, one arepa con todo (“with everything”), one bistec al caballo and two Club Colombia beers to drink.

Cost: 99.60 CHF / €102 / $111

We loved Restaurant Le Luserna and would definitely be making this a regular date spot if we lived in Geneva. We can highly recommend it for all who are budget-conscious, love amazing food and places dripping with totally authentic atmosphere. If there is a prize for a restaurant that is like an indie band and deserving of cult status, Restaurant Le Luserna would be the uncontested winner.

Let’s start with the location. Restaurant Le Luserna is located in the heart of an immigrant-heavy, working-class neighborhood in the Luserna mall, an indoor, single-story, seventies construct that also houses a Turkish-Kurdish kebab restaurant, a Persian grocery and a host of other little businesses.

We think perhaps it was once the stomping ground of an older generation of Italian immigrants who left behind the pizza oven that is behind the counter. Though our server and other staff were not certain, they did say they were planning on serving pizza in the not-so-distant future to make use of the brick oven. Why though when the extensive Colombian offerings on the menu are so on point? Because the Swiss love two things, one of which is pizza (the second being the company of fellow Swiss people).

While it was not packed in the final 90 minutes the kitchen was open during our Friday night visit, the other patrons at the few occupied tables were most certainly Colombian. Colombians are family-oriented and in such a family-focused culture, the later hours are reserved for those on dates, meeting friends and out for a night on the town. It was however easy to imagine that such an affordable and quality eatery does better business at hours when many in the Spanish-speaking world have their main meal of the day, namely mid-day, and when parents have off work, such as on weekends, especially Sundays.

In general, the atmosphere came straight from any immigrant-heavy neighborhood in the Americas, whether Jackson Heights, Queens or certain parts of the north side of Chicago. Having never been to Colombia, it is hard to say how faithful to form Restaurant Le Luserna may be, but the vibe of the recreation of home by exiles was strong. In other words, a slice of not quite home most certainly away from home. The food too was homestyle out of another world, namely the new world, and among some of the very best we have had the opportunity to experience yet on our culinary adventures.

While we have had a few empanadas in our journeys – Argentine and Bolivian come to mind immediately – none were made with corn flour and served with a salsa verde, the results being sublime. With our empanadas came the arepa con todo, and con todo it was indeed.

Stacked on top of the corn pancake arepa was every flavor imaginable that one could top off an arepa with, from beef and chicken to avocado, fried egg and cheese. While the cheese was melted over it, the egg was the part that oozed everywhere, spreading streaks of bright yellow richness across the meal.

While I had envisioned the empanadas being served with the shrimp ceviche, perhaps the choice of corn flour empanadas with corn flour arepas was better and having the seafood as the second course as the restaurant had it was in fact wiser. While it too had avocado and a delicious tomato sauce, the choice for the lighter fare after the heaviness of the arepa meant I was able to walk out not feeling like an empanada myself.

The same cannot be said of the bistec al caballo as a choice main. Steak piled with piquillo of tomato, peppers and onions and topped with a fried egg is a most extravagant way to finish out a meal. My husband was pulsating from all the haemoglobin. While it was rich as rich can be, afterwards he said even his fingers felt fat from the gout-inducing richness of the meal.

When I looked up later why Colombians calls their steak topped with deliciousness “al caballo” I learned that it was because the extras are mounted on top of the steak as if on horseback. We probably could have used a chariot or at least a wagon home. However, the 20 or so minute walk back to our hotel and a break for a nightcap of a glass of white wine on our way served us well.

Restaurant Le Luserna is a fantastic secret spot and anyone who can visit, should. All of this and two beers for under 100 francs is hard to beat in Switzerland. Everything about the place is wholly authentic and attractive for those on a budget, certainly so for those who love Central American cuisines. Colombia most certainly delivered and represented strongly.

How to get to Colombia from Switzerland:

From Zürich, flights are available on Air Europa, Air France, Iberia, KLM with transfers in Madrid on Air Europa and Iberia, Paris on Air France and Amsterdam on KLM on to Bogotá. Swiss Air purists can fly on a code share Helvetic flight to Madrid before travelling on to Bogotá. Flight times with connections average from just under 14 hours to nearly 16 hours.

Similar options are available from Geneva, though additional routes are possible to Bogotá with British Airways and a connection on Avianca through London’s Heathrow Airport and on US carrier United through Newark, New Jersey. Flight times average just over 13 hours to approximately 20 hours with connections to Bogotá.

How many Colombians are in Switzerland: Almost 6,000

Distance between Bern and Bogotá: 8.976 km

Distance from Restaurant Luserna and Bogotá: 8,872 km

Learn how to make Colombia's national dish, ajiaco, and about its origins.

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