Where to Eat if You Have One Night in Panama City
Our packages to Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge typically require that you spend one night in Panama City on the way into town. That’s definitely not a hardship, since it’s a safe, vibrant cosmopolitan city. If you really need to get there in one day, we can arrange for a private flight immediately on your arrival, but if you’re not in that much of a hurry, you really should enjoy the city.
On our first visit we ate at a seafood restaurant called Bucaneros on the Amador Causeway, which was scenic and very good. On the second one, we got roped into going to Diablicos, which was something of a tourist trap. Then, on the recommendation of SFPIL proprietor Shane Jarvis, we ate the next two times at Nazca 21, a Peruvian restaurant in the scenic Casco Viejo (Old Town) area. On our fifth trip, we had a large group of 20, so we figured that it would be like herding cats to go anywhere that required a ride – so we walked to the Argentinean steakhouse Gaucho’s just a few blocks away from the Hilton. On a return trip, we also grabbed fish tacos at Maagoo’s.
We hope to spend more time exploring in the city in the future, and while we’ll likely return to some of those restaurants from the past, we’re looking to the following sources for inspiration.
Wanderlog -- Where to eat: the 50 best restaurants in Panama City
Conde Nast Traveler -- Panama City Has Gone From Mere Stopover to Bona Fide Stay
NY Times – 36 Hours in Panama City, Panama: Things to Do and See
You’ll want to try some Panamanian specialties, which should of course include seafood (you’ll get plenty of tuna when you fish and stay at Isla Parida – as well as various other fish and shellfish – but I never get tired of it), but don’t sleep on the fact that this is a very international destination – there are plenty of other top-notch versions of cuisines, at a wide range of prices. We love to eat and we can’t wait to go back.
