52 Best Restaurants in Panama

Wooden tables, plastic chairs, and a tin roof hardly do justice to the spectacular six-course, prix-fixe dinner served here. A great deal of effort (and love) goes into each dish, prepared by Spanish chef Monica, who abandoned her law profession to be with German engineer "Ossi" (who serves as the restaurant's charming waiter). Together they have managed to break the barriers of Bocas's typical fare with a tasting menu that includes tuna carpaccio, spinach salad, and pork tenderloin with roasted potatoes and blue cheese sauce. Adding to the experience is the sound of crashing waves near the open-air restaurant. The menu changes daily, and special vegetarian courses can be provided upon request. Since the restaurant is surrounded by lush vegetation, mosquito coils are lit beside each table to keep the bugs away.

After years of running one of Panama City's most popular restaurants, Lourdes Fabrega de Ward built this elegant place across from her retirement home so that she wouldn't get bored. It now seems unlikely that she'll ever retire, since old clients and a growing list of new fans pack the place on weekends, drawn by Lourdes' inventive menu and the magical ambience of her Tuscan-style casa. Meals are served on a back terrace with views of her garden and Cerro Gaital framed by high columns, arches, and an elegant pool. It is truly a house, and you enter through a spacious living room with couches, a piano, and family photos. She changes her menu frequently, but it always has a good mix of seafood and meat dishes, as well as amazing desserts. Reservations are essential on weekends.

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.

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.

Though Boquete's first hotel now faces stiff competition, its stately restaurant remains one of the best in town. Created by award-winning Executive Chef Charlie Collins, inventive dishes are based on traditional Panamanian cuisine and might include pumpkin soup, shrimp-and-plantain croquettes, butter-poached trout, wild boar with chocolate demi-glace, and grilled beef tenderloin topped with a three-pepper sauce. Service is flawless in a historic European atmosphere that's hardly changed over the past century. Sunday breakfast is popular.

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).

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.

The interior of this Lebanese restaurant goes a bit overboard, with faux-stone columns and arches, but the food is consistently good, and the waitstaff is attentive. The extensive menu goes beyond the Middle East to include dishes such as grilled salmon and pizzas, but the best bets are the Lebanese dishes, which include an array of starters such as falafel, baba ghanoush, and nearly a dozen salads that can make for an inexpensive, light meal. It's a good choice for vegetarians. Be sure to order some fresh flat bread to go with your meal. Belly dancers perform on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 9 pm. There is a collection of hookahs for smoking on the patio, which is a nice place to eat at night, as long as it isn't full of hookah smokers. The owner also has a restaurant on the Amador Causeway.

This small Italian restaurant next to the lobby of the Anton Valley Hotel has a covered terrace where you can watch the townsfolk roll by. The food is quite good and the menu includes an ample selection of salads and pastas, half a dozen different bruschetta, corvina (sea bass), salmon, and beef tenderloin. The nicest seating is on the front terrace, which has a view of the main road and the church, and access to Wi-Fi.

As one of Boca’s first restaurants catering to tourists, this waterfront bar and grill has been offering fresh ingredients with a view since 1997. Perched over the water, the back deck is one of the most pleasant places in town to have a meal since it overlooks the sea and nearby Isla Carenero. Start with the bean dip blended with cream, and move on to tasty dishes like the Greek wrap dribbled in homemade tzatziki or the fresh catch of the day. The menu ranges from filet mignon to the more daring jambalaya, enchiladas, and ginger-orange shrimp. Salads, burgers, and sandwiches made with imported meats and cheeses makes it a popular lunch spot. Save room for the Bocas Brownie made with organic Cerutti chocolate. Breakfast is served daily and there’s Happy Hour from 5 to 7.

Decent Italian food at reasonable prices served amidst tropical foliage make this restaurant in the Hotel Las Vegas a local favorite. Though there is a small air-conditioned dining room, the nicest tables are on the hotel's large interior patio, with its tropical trees, potted plants, and palms decorated with swirling Christmas lights. At lunch, it feels like a jungle oasis in the heart of the city, with birds singing in the branches above. The food is standard Italian, with eight varieties of homemade pastas served with any of a dozen different sauces, a variety of broiled meat and seafood dishes, personal pizzas, and focaccia sandwiches. For dessert, choose from chocolate cheesecake, tiramisu, and other treats. There is usually a guitarist playing at dinnertime Monday through Saturday, and the Wine Bar next door has acoustic Latin music until late.

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.

Perched on the banks of Caldera River, this pleasant restaurant is Boquete's go-to place for an intimate meal. The smoked trout and pasta with prawns are delicious, but it's the rack of lamb in a rosemary crust that is a local favorite. For a romantic dinner, the fireside gazebo has the best view. A more social setting can be found at the bar, appropriately named "La Roca" (The Rock) for a boulder that washed onto the property during a rainstorm in 1970; the boulder remains. There's often live music, which can be enjoyed with a glass of wine or the tres leches dessert. Lighter fare of soups, salads, and sandwiches is also on the menu.

In a colonial-style building on the road to Playa Coronado, this attractive restaurant serves a good variety of quality dishes. The menu changes daily, but always offers a good mix of meat and seafood dishes that feature a mix of Panamanian and international fare. There is invariably corvina (sea bass), langostinos (prawns), and grilled (rather expensive) USDA-certified beef, including a good burger. The ambiance—terra-cotta floors, ocher walls, and a high wooden-beams ceiling—is right out of the 19th century, except for the TV and ceiling fans.

El Trapiche is a popular spot for traditional Panamanian food, thanks to its convenient location and reasonable prices. The menu includes all the local favorites, from ropa vieja (stewed beef) to cazuelo de mariscos (seafood stew) and sancocho (chicken soup). They serve inexpensive set lunches, and typical Panamanian breakfasts, which include bistec encebollado (skirt steak smothered in onions), tortillas (thick deep-fried corn patties), and carimañolas (cassava croquets stuffed with ground beef). The decor is appropriately folksy, with drums, Carnaval masks, and other handicrafts hanging on the walls, and a barrel-tile awning over the front terrace, at the end of which is the old trapiche (traditional sugarcane press) for which the place is named. The owners also have a branch location at Albrook Mall.

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.

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.

This restaurant is a short walk from the beach, serves some of the best food on the island, and rents basic rooms. The eight rooms are in a two-story building behind the restaurant, with high ceilings, TVs, and air-conditioning. The restaurant is a rustic, open-air affair under a high-thatched roof, which means it picks up the breeze, if one is blowing. The menu is a mix of fresh fish and seafood dishes, and German standards such as Wiener schnitzel and goulash. They also make a decent pizza. Food is tasty, but service can be very slow.

Hidden on the fourth floor of the Evergreen Building, down the street from the Sheraton Panama, the Golden Unicorn is one of Panama's best Chinese restaurants. A Cantonese restaurant that serves some Mandarin and Szechuan dishes, its a popular weekend spot with families who gather around its large round tables and order enough dishes to fill the lazy Susan. The menu is as long as a novella, and is written in Chinese, Spanish, and English. You can't go wrong with dishes such as pollo salteado con setas (sautéed chicken and seta mushrooms), pato salteado con piña y jengibre (sautéed duck with pineapple and ginger), langostinos Yau Pau (prawns with mini vegetables), or the spicy Szechuan shrimp. They also serve dim sum, the traditional Chinese breakfast, starting at 7:30 am. The spacious dining room has walls of windows that afford ocean views, beyond the roof of the ATLAPA Convention Center.

"Dive," "hole in the wall," "joint,". . . Bocas's expat community has various terms of endearment for this Mexican restaurant a block west of the central park. All agree that the fresh margaritas and Mexican food here are top-notch. The homemade salsas crafted with roasted onion, tomato, and pepper dress up the enchiladas, burritos, and taco salads. Dine inside the small restaurant itself—Mexican music videos are usually playing—or outdoors on the more spacious covered patio.

There is something European about the stone building that houses this restaurant a short drive northeast of town, which is made complete with authentic Italian cuisine. The small dining room is on the ground floor overlooking a stream surrounded by trees and impatiens; an outdoor patio sits beside a small waterfall. The menu includes fresh pastas such as vegetable lasagna and fettuccine del Chef (with prawn-and-mushroom cream sauce) or napolitano (with tomato-clam sauce). You can also build your own pizza or calzone or grab a pizza to go.

Surprisingly good pizza is served at this small, Italian-owned open-air restaurant a short walk from the beach. The thin pies baked in a wood-burning brick oven would be popular in Panama City, but they taste that much better served at the edge of civilization. On holidays and dry-season weekends the place can get packed, and it stays open late as locals and visitors top off their dinners with cold beers and good music. Service is relatively slow, so if your stomach is grumbling, get there by 6:30 pm if you don't want to wait longer than an hour for your food.

This collection of simple tables shaded by umbrellas at the edge of the Flamenco Marina is the place to go for an inexpensive dinner or a cold drink with a view. The food is basic but good—the Panamanian version of bar food—with dishes such as ceviche, sea bass fingers, hamburgers, and whole fried snapper, all served with yuca (fried cassava root) or patacones (plantain slices that have been fried and smashed). The relaxed atmosphere and low prices are a winning combination, and the place is packed on weekend nights.

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.