 |
|
|
Best Dining Bets
- Manolo Caracol (Panama City; tel. 228-4640): The city's most innovative restaurant features an adventurous and creative daily menu that embraces in-season products and the freshest and most exotic fish of any restaurant in town. Sit back in the colonial, artsy ambience and wait for a "surprise" of 12 courses to be slowly ushered to your table -- you never know what you're going to get, but you know it will be good.
- Limoncillo (Panama City; tel. 263-5350): This little gourmet bistro is headed by a top chef who earned her stripes in New York, and brought that city's dining concept to Panama City: creative taste combinations, chill-out background music, an artsy ambience, and high-end prices. The food is mostly contemporary Mediterranean and Italian, and the cocktails are divine.
- Palms (Panama City; tel. 265-7256): It's one of the hippest restaurants in Panama City, with a tropical-chic and sleek decor, and delicious, well-conceived dishes that expertly blend Mediterranean, Asian, and Latin American flavors and ingredients. Upstairs is an ultra-modern bar for a nightcap.
- Las Barandas (Panama City; tel. 265-7844): Panama City's best boutique hotel also has one of its best restaurants. At the helm is "Cuquita," nationally famous as the Martha Stewart of Panama, who adapts traditional Panamanian recipes to modern gourmet tastes, and serves her delicious creations in a cozy and sophisticated dining area. They have Sunday brunch, too.
- Madame Chang (Panama City; tel. 269-1313): Few diners are aware that some of the best Chinese food outside of China is here in Panama, and Madame Chang is where you come to savor it. The Peking duck is the restaurant's showcase dish, and they serve potent martinis. The owners have merged Old China with new, both in terms of cuisine and their smart-casual atmosphere.
- La Casa de Lourdes (El Valle de Antón; tel. 983-6450): The cuisine is so to-die-for good that some residents of Panama City endure the 4-hour round-trip to El Valle de Antón just to have Sunday lunch. Ultra-fresh ingredients and exotic fruits are used to create updated takes on Panamanian and Latin American fare. Dining is alfresco: under the archways of a Tuscan-style manor house, next to an outdoor swimming pool.
- Restaurant Vista Mar (Vista Mar; tel. 215-1111): This brand-new restaurant is run by a renowned French chef, and sports a Moroccan decor that is fresh and chic, plus outdoor dining with ocean views. The Mediterranean-style seafood is well-conceived and bursting with flavor. The restaurant is within the Vista Mar residential community, on the Pacific Coast.
- Panamonte Inn Restaurant (Boquete; tel. 720-1324): This sanctuary of gourmet cuisine is located within the clapboard walls of the oldest hotel in Boquete. The food is inventive and consistently good, and service is attentive and courteous. You can bypass their more formal dining area for a comfy seat in their fireside bar and still order off the main menu.
- La Ballena (Bocas del Toro; tel. 757-9089): A wine bar serving fine Italian food is an incongruous element in the rum-and-beer Caribbean, but that's what makes La Ballena so good. Homemade pastas and thin-crust pizzas; a warm, candlelit ambience; and a pirate's cache of hundreds of wines can be found here.
- Restaurant Yasinori (Bocas del Toro; no phone): There's nothing much to this place other than a thatched roof and plastic chairs and tables in the sand, but the simple Panamanian and creole dishes are straight-from-the-sea fresh, and the fruit juices are delicious. Caribbean views also help make this a wonderful spot.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without
notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before
planning your trip.
|
|
|
