Restaurant in Guatemala City, Guatemala
Guatemala City's most-watched table right now.
Ana is Guatemala City's most-watched restaurant right now, led by Colombian chef Nicolás Solanilla and recognised with the American Express One To Watch Award 2025. The kitchen runs a mestizo menu that bridges Colombian culinary memory with Guatemalan seasonal ingredients. Book it for a milestone dinner while reservations are still easy to secure.
If you've already visited once and left wondering what Nicolás Solanilla would do with a different season's ingredients, this is the restaurant worth returning to. Ana is the right table for a dinner that marks something: a milestone birthday, an anniversary, or a trip to Guatemala City built around eating well. The American Express One To Watch Award 2025 puts Ana in a category of restaurants that serious diners track before they become impossible to book — and right now, securing a table is still relatively direct.
Ana is led by Colombian chef Nicolás Solanilla Leguizamón and operates out of Guatemala City's Zona 14 district at 12 Calle 2-99. The kitchen works in what Solanilla describes as mestizo cuisine , a cooking language that draws on Colombian culinary memory, Guatemalan ingredients and tradition, and a seasonal sourcing approach. That cross-cultural premise is not decorative; it shapes how the menu is built and what ends up on the plate.
The energy at Ana sits closer to considered than casual. This is a room where the pace is deliberate and the ambient feel reflects the seriousness of the food. It is not a loud, high-tempo space , conversations carry, and the atmosphere suits the kind of dinner where you want to actually hear the person across from you. If you were here on a first visit and found it more formal than expected, that read is accurate. It rewards a second visit precisely because you already know how to move through it.
For returning guests, the question of what to order next depends on what the kitchen is running seasonally. The mestizo framework means the menu shifts with local availability, so a return visit within the same calendar year can land a materially different menu from your first. That makes Ana more interesting as a repeat destination than most restaurants at its level in Central America. Guatemalan ingredients , local corn, chiles, squash , appear alongside Colombian-inflected technique, and the results are specific to this kitchen rather than generic to either country's tradition.
Ana is not a delivery or takeout operation. The food here is built around the experience of eating in the room , the pacing, the service context, the sequencing of courses. Nothing in the available data suggests off-premise options exist, and given the restaurant's positioning as a fine-dining destination that just won a major international award, that is the expected format. If you are looking for a Guatemala City restaurant that travels well for an off-premise meal, this is not the right call. If you are planning to eat in the room, the One To Watch recognition suggests the timing is good: Ana is at a point in its trajectory where the food is drawing serious international attention but the reservation is still accessible.
See the full comparison section below.
Ana sits at the leading of Guatemala City's current fine-dining conversation. For other strong tables in the city, DIACÁ and Flor de Lis are worth considering depending on your format preference, while Mercado 24 offers a different energy if you want something more casual. Sublime Restaurant is another Latin-focused option in the city worth putting on your shortlist. If you are building a broader Guatemala trip around food, 6.8 Palopó in Santa Catarina Palopó and Villa Bokéh in Antigua are the strongest out-of-city options.
For context on how Ana's recognition compares to award-winning restaurants internationally, the One To Watch category has historically flagged restaurants that go on to appear in the Latin America's 50 Best list. Restaurants in that tier share a trajectory with places like Atomix in New York City and Lazy Bear in San Francisco , kitchens that built reputations on chef-driven, culturally specific menus before becoming harder to book. At those restaurants, lead times are now weeks or months. At Ana, you are not yet there.
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| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ana | Chef: Nicolas Solanilla Leguizamón document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() { var el = document.getElementById("Achievements_chefs"); if (el && el.parentNode) { el.parentNode.removeChild(el); } });; Ana is a restaurant in Guatemala City led by Colombian chef Nicolás Solanilla, offering a mestizo cuisine that blends memories of Colombia, Guatemalan culinary traditions, and a deep respect for local, seasonal ingredients. It was the winner of the American Express One To Watch Award 2025. | — | |
| Sublime Restaurant | — | ||
| DIACÁ | — | ||
| Flor de Lis | — | ||
| Mercado 24 | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Dress on the polished side — this is a fine-dining room that won the American Express One To Watch Award 2025, and the crowd reflects that. No venue dress code is published, but turning up in shorts and trainers would be out of step with the room. Think neat evening wear rather than formal black tie.
Specific menu items are not published, so no dish-level advice is possible without risk of getting it wrong. What is documented is that the kitchen works with seasonal, local Guatemalan ingredients filtered through Colombian chef Nicolás Solanilla's memory of Colombia. Put yourself in the kitchen's hands and ask your server what's driving the menu that week.
It depends on your comfort with fine-dining pacing alone. Ana's format — mestizo tasting-style cuisine with clear chef intent — rewards attentive eating, which suits solo diners willing to focus on the food. Check whether a counter or bar seat is available when booking, as that tends to be the better solo position in rooms like this.
Yes, and it's one of the stronger cases for it in Guatemala City right now. Winning the American Express One To Watch Award 2025 gives the meal a credential your guests will recognise, and Nicolás Solanilla's mestizo cuisine — Colombian roots, Guatemalan ingredients — gives the evening a clear point of view. Book well ahead; this level of recognition fills tables fast.
DIACÁ and Flor de Lis are the other tables worth considering at the top of Guatemala City's fine-dining tier. Mercado 24 offers a different format — more market-driven, less formal — if a tasting-menu commitment isn't what you're after. Ana is the pick for a single high-investment meal; the others give you more flexibility on format and spend.
No bar-seating policy is confirmed in published venue data. check the venue's official channels at 12 Calle 2-99, Zona 14, Guatemala City to ask — it's worth a call before assuming walk-in bar access is available at a venue operating at this level.
Book at least three to four weeks out, and further if you're planning around a specific date. The American Express One To Watch Award 2025 has put Ana on the international radar, and a small fine-dining room with that kind of recognition will fill quickly. Don't leave this to the week before.
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