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$$$ | Bella Vista |
Elegant ambience and an innovative mix of Latin American and European flavors have kept La Posta one of Panama City's most popular restaurants. Located in a refurbished house just off Calle Uruguay, it has a classic Caribbean feel, with ceiling fans, cane chairs, colorful tile floors, and potted palms. There is usually Latin music playing, and the shiny hardwood bar stretching down one end of the dining room is the perfect place to sip a mojito. The menu changes regularly, but it always includes fresh seafood, USDA beef, and organic pork and chicken prepared in inventive ways, plus a few risottos and pastas. You can check current offerings on the restaurant's website. Reserve a table in the back, overlooking the small, tropical garden, and try your best to save room for dessert.
Calle 47 and Calle Uruguay, Panama City, Panamá, Panama
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun., Credit cards accepted
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$$$ | Bella Vista |
This trendy steak house a block off busy Calle Uruguay is the best option for a meat lover, whether you're in the mood for filet mignon or a cheeseburger. You can get USDA Omaha beef here, but it costs considerably more than the Panamanian beef. The chicken and pork are organic and free-range from the restaurant's own farm. You can also get such American classics as a Cobb salad or a side of macaroni and cheese, which are no doubt novelties for the predominantly Panamanian clientele. The steaks are excellent, but so is the Moroccan-style chicken with couscous, and the salmon grille beurre maitre d'hôtel. There's an extensive wine list, and the service is excellent. You may want to reserve a table on weekends, when this place gets packed and noisy. They also serve brunch from 11:30 to 2:30 on weekends.
Calle 48 between Calle Uruguay and Aquino de La Guardia, Panama City, Panamá, Panama
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Credit cards accepted
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$$$ | El Cangrejo |
Named for the year it opened, this restaurant serves traditional French and Swiss cuisine in an eclectic mix of dining rooms. It holds the strange distinction of occupying the only building in Panama City that resembles a Swiss chalet. The owner, chef Willy Dingelman, trained in Lausanne then moved to Panama three decades ago, and has since developed a small restaurant and wine-importing empire. They consequently have an excellent wine cellar. When President Ricardo Martinelli was on the campaign trail, Dingelman promised he'd share a $15,000 bottle if he won the election; there's a photo of the post-election moment on the wall at the entrance. Dingelman's original Swiss restaurant, called the Rincón Suizo, is now a rustic dining room in the back of 1985—two menus under one roof. The decor is a bit of this and a bit of that, with a cluttered collection of chairs and couches in the long entrance, but people come here for the food, such as chicken cordon bleu, tenderloin in green peppercorn sauce, raclette, bratwurst, or Zürcher Geschnetzeltes (veal chunks in a mushroom cream sauce).
Calle Eusebio A. Morales, Panama City, Panamá, Panama
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Credit cards accepted
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$$$ | Calzada Amador |
The best tables here are across the drive from the main restaurant, overlooking the Flamenco Marina and the city skyline beyond, but they are also the first ones to fill up. The other options are to sit on the large covered terrace, cooled by ceiling fans, or in the air-conditioned dining room. The food here is good, but the service can be leisurely. The menu has something for everyone, including a good selection of pizzas and pastas, but seafood is usually the best choice. You can start with duo de mar (corvina and lobster in béchamel sauce) or mero (grouper) carpaccio, and move on to pizza, salmon ravioli in a creamy tomato sauce, corvina al cartucho (sea bass and julienne vegetables broiled in foil), or langostinos provençal (prawns sautéed with fine herbs and tomatoes). You may want to walk around the island a few times before visiting their Italian ice cream shop.
Panama City, Panamá, Panama
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Credit cards accepted
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$$$ | Area Bancária |
A bit of an institution, this large, 24-hour restaurant half a block south of Vía España is where locals head for a good meal at a reasonable price. The decor in the large, bright restaurant is functional, and the service can be slow when it's busy, but the terrace in front is a good place for people watching. The menu ranges from Panamanian classics such as bistec a la criolla (steak in a tomato sauce) to Spanish dishes such as corvina a la vasca (sea bass in a shrimp and clam sauce). An extensive list of daily specials printed on a piece of paper inserted into the menu is usually the best option, both in terms of price and freshness. They also make about 40 different emparedados (sandwiches), including the classic Cubano with salami, ham, roast beef, cheese, and toppings.
Calle Ricardo Arias, Panama City, Panamá, Panama
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$$$ | Paitilla |
This restaurant combines wild decor with an inventive menu that melds the cuisines of three continents. The central dining area looks like something out of a Hollywood adventure movie, dominated by a 20-foot bust reminiscent of the statues on Easter Island. By day, sunlight glistens down through portholes in the bottom of the pool on the roof. If the statue is a bit too much for you, look for a table in the other dining area, where the artistic decor includes giant vases and a wall of TVs broadcasting fire images. The menu matches the atmosphere with an inventive mix of Continental, Asian, and Latin American cuisines that is true to the restaurant's name. You can start your dinner with Peruvian ceviche or turkey ginger spring rolls, then dive into some shrimp and vegetables in a coconut curry, lamb ribs with a sweet and spicy sauce, or creamy lobster risotto with palm fruit.
Av. Balboa, Panama City, Panamá, Panama
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Credit cards accepted
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$$$ | | Argentine
This Argentine restaurant in a Spanish-style house on Calle Uruguay is for serious carnivores who like their steaks big, tender, and juicy. The meat is USDA, but the cuts are mostly Argentine, such as the bife de chorizo, a thick sirloin cut, or the filete en trozo, a 16-ounce slice of filet mignon. They are served with chimichuri, whereas salads and sides, such as a baked potato, are à la carte. The restaurant also serves corvina, langostinos, and a dozen salads, but the real attraction here is the beef. Big windows surround the kitchen, so you can watch cooks slap slabs of meat onto the grill, or you can admire the cowhides, black-and-white photos, and paintings of gauchos (Argentine cowboys) that adorn the walls.
Calle Uruguay and Calle 48, , Panama
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$$$ | | Italian
Quality Italian cuisine served amid ancient walls make L'Ostería a popular dinner option. The restaurant is located under the Casa del Horno boutique hotel, in a restored colonial building, and the back patio, with its stone walls and small garden, is a lovely spot to spend a couple hours. The menu includes a small selection of pizzas, pastas, meat, and seafood dishes. Try the pennette with a zucchini and almond pesto sauce, corvina alla piastra (sautéed sea bass served with grilled vegetables), or one of the excellent pizzas.
Av. B between Calle 7 and Calle 8, , Panama
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: No lunch
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$$$ | | Eclectic
An eclectic blend of Panamanian, European, and Asian cuisines and the choice of dining in an old-world café or a distinctly tropical patio make a meal at Las Clementinas a memorable experience. The bright dining room evokes a Parisian bistro, with its large, arched windows, tile floors, and long, marble-topped bar, and the lush garden patio is a lovely spot for an intimate dinner. The menu ranges from sea bass with jasmine rice and roasted eggplant to three-chili-braised goat tacos with homemade corn tortillas. They offer several cuts of beef and a selection of sandwiches, soups, and salads, and a popular Sunday brunch. It can get quite lively on weekend nights, when reservations are recommended, but as soon as things calm down, the manager usually sits down at the piano and plays a song.
Av. B and Calle 11, , Panama
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Mon.
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$$$ | Casco Viejo |
Closed Permanently
This small restaurant has tables on Plaza Bolívar, overlooking the Iglesia de San Francisco, making it one of Panama City's more charming dinner spots. If you can't handle the heat, though, you can always move into the air-conditioned dining room in the historic building across the street. The menu is a mix of Latin American and Italian cuisines, an example being chicken ravioli with a spicy Peruvian cream sauce called ají de gallina. They offer several other fresh pastas, as well as seafood and meat dishes. Popular starters include seafood carpaccio, Peruvian ceviche, and mini brochetas: try the breaded pork option with sesame seeds and tamarind sauce. Those tapas and the gorgeous setting make this a good spot for cocktails and appetizers even if you dine elsewhere.
Calle 3 Este y Av. Sucre, Panama City, Panamá, Panama
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Credit cards accepted
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$$$ | Bella Vista |
Closed Permanently
One of the city's most attractive restaurants, Eurasia has several dining rooms with high ceilings and walls hung with paintings by Latin American artists. It occupies the second floor of an elegant former home surrounded by condominium towers and has a small tropical garden in back that seems a world apart from the traffic of nearby Avenida Balboa. Owners Gloria and Kim Young offer a soothing ambience and an innovative mix of Asian and French cuisine, with dishes that range from veal chops in a mushroom sauce to duck in a pineapple-plum sauce. They also have some enticing seafood creations, such as prawns in a tamarind and coconut sauce, sea bass with Chinese parsley and pumpkin puree, and grouper in seafood tomato sauce au gratin. You'll walk by a well-stocked pastry table laden with yummy cakes as you enter the dining room; they should inspire you to save room for dessert. Three-course executive lunches are a good deal, include a glass of wine, and are an excellent excuse to take a break from the heat and hustle of the surrounding city.
Panama City, Panamá, Panama
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Credit cards accepted
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$$$ | Area Bancária | Eclectic
Closed Permanently
This trendy, eclectic bistro in the ground floor of the Hotel De Ville is owned by Chef Fabién Migny, one of the founders of Eurasia. Ten's menu is similar to Eurasia's in its blending of French and Asian traditions, but the decor is something completely different. The rounded white walls, orange lights, abundant candles, and bird-of-paradise flowers suspended over the tables in giant test tubes, together with the beat of the house music, provide a very 21st-century ambience. You may start with saffron crab soup in a puff pastry, or dip some prawn spring rolls into a tropical sauce. The main fare ranges from grouper poached in coconut milk to beef tenderloin Indochine—with Chinese mushrooms and mustard leaves, served with potato tempura. The name refers to the fact that many main courses cost just $10, though some dishes are considerably more expensive. The desserts are decadent, so be sure to save room.
Hotel De Ville, Calle Beatriz Miranda, Panama City, Panamá, Panama
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: No lunch Sun.