If you are travelling through Central America and you consider yourself a serious food lover, Panama City deserves considerably more attention than it gets. It is not usually the first city people mention when they start talking about the great food destinations of Latin America. Mexico City, Lima, Buenos Aires, Oaxaca, Bogotá and Cartagena tend to dominate those conversations. Panama City often gets treated as the place where you change planes before heading somewhere more interesting.
That is a mistake.
Panama City is actually one of the most interesting food cities in Central America, partly because Panamanian food itself is so difficult to put into one neat little box. Panama has spent centuries being a crossroads. Spanish colonists, Indigenous peoples, Afro Caribbean communities, Chinese immigrants, West Indians, Arabs, Jews, Indians and people from across Latin America have all contributed to the country's culture. The result is a food scene that can feel surprisingly international while still being distinctly Panamanian.
And that is what makes eating in Panama City so much fun.
You can have a very traditional Panamanian breakfast in the morning, Chinese dim sum for lunch, fresh Pacific seafood in the afternoon, an Italian dinner, a Panamanian tasting menu at night and then finish with a cocktail made using tropical ingredients you probably have never encountered before.
All without leaving the city.
Start with Panamanian food
Before getting excited about fancy restaurants, you should actually eat some ordinary Panamanian food.
This is where many visitors go wrong. They arrive in Panama City, stay in Casco Viejo, eat at expensive restaurants with beautiful rooftops and leave thinking they have experienced Panamanian cuisine.
They haven't.
You need to find the places where Panamanians actually eat.
Panamanian food is generally comforting rather than aggressively spicy or complicated. Rice, beans, plantains, meat, seafood, corn, yuca and other root vegetables appear constantly. But the country's Caribbean and Afro Panamanian influences add another dimension, while Chinese influence has become so deeply integrated into everyday eating that some visitors don't even realize how much of what they are eating is connected to Panama's immigrant history.
Look for things like sancocho, Panama's famous chicken soup; ropa vieja, shredded beef cooked until it falls apart; arroz con pollo; patacones, fried green plantains; carimañolas, fried yuca stuffed with meat; hojaldres, the delicious fried dough often eaten for breakfast; and all sorts of seafood.
And don't forget the humble raspao, shaved ice covered with syrup and often condensed milk. It may not sound like a sophisticated dessert, but that is precisely the point. Food in Panama City doesn't always need to be sophisticated to be memorable.
Panama City is fantastic for seafood
This one should be obvious.
Panama has Caribbean and Pacific coastlines, and Panama City sits directly beside the Pacific. Fresh seafood is a major part of the city's food culture.
One of the first places a food obsessed visitor should investigate is the Mercado de Mariscos, the city's famous seafood market beside Casco Viejo. It is both a working fish market and a place where you can eat seafood without paying the prices you might expect in a fashionable restaurant.
And this is where you should eat ceviche.
Panamanian ceviche is usually based around fish such as corvina, combined with lime, onion, cilantro and chili. It is fresh, acidic, cold and ridiculously easy to eat.
Then you look down and realize you've already eaten two portions.
Then you order another.
That's how ceviche works.
The Mercado de Mariscos is particularly interesting because you're not simply eating seafood. You're seeing where much of it begins. Fishermen bring in their catch, vendors sell it and restaurants around the market turn it into meals. National Geographic also recommends the market as a local food experience, particularly for its ceviche and the spectacle of the fish market itself.
For a foodie, that's much more interesting than sitting in a restaurant that could exist in any city in the world.
Casco Viejo could keep you eating for days
If you want the highest concentration of interesting restaurants, bars and cafés, Casco Viejo is probably the obvious place to start.
The historic district has become one of the city's major culinary centres, and you can find everything from casual Panamanian food to high end contemporary restaurants, Spanish food, Argentine grills, seafood, Italian food, Japanese cuisine, Peruvian Japanese fusion and international restaurants. Current restaurant directories list well over 100 places to eat within Casco Viejo itself.
The great thing about Casco is that the food comes with scenery.
You can have lunch in a centuries old neighbourhood, walk around the plazas, stop for coffee, have a cocktail overlooking the skyline and then have dinner in a beautifully restored building.
You can basically turn eating into an entire day's activity.
And honestly, that's a pretty good way to spend a day.
But don't eat only in Casco Viejo
This is important.
Casco Viejo is beautiful and has some excellent restaurants, but Panama City is much bigger than Casco.
Neighbourhoods such as San Francisco, El Cangrejo and Costa del Este have their own restaurants, cafés and food cultures. The city's dining scene extends well beyond the tourist centre.
This is where you can start finding the difference between Panama City for tourists and Panama City for people who actually like food.
The latter involves getting out of the historic district.
Look for busy restaurants.
Look for places filled with locals.
Look for small family restaurants.
Look for Chinese restaurants packed during lunch.
Look for bakeries.
Look for fondas.
And don't automatically assume that the restaurant with the most beautiful Instagram account is serving the best food.
Sometimes the best meal of your trip is served from a place with plastic chairs, fluorescent lighting and absolutely no interest in your Instagram feed.
The Chinese influence is huge
One of the most fascinating things about eating in Panama City is discovering how deeply Chinese food has become part of Panamanian culture.
Chinese immigrants arrived in Panama in the nineteenth century, including people who came to work on the Panama Railway. Later immigration and generations of Chinese Panamanians helped create a culinary influence that is now woven into everyday life. Dim sum became a major part of Panama City's food culture, particularly as a weekend brunch tradition.
This means Panama City is a fantastic place to experiment with Chinese food.
And it isn't just about finding some generic Chinese restaurant that serves sweet and sour chicken.
There are restaurants and communities where Chinese culinary traditions have been adapted to local tastes over generations.
For a foodie, this is much more interesting because you're eating something that represents Panama itself.
It is another example of the country's greatest culinary strength.
Panama doesn't simply import cuisines.
It absorbs them.
Caribbean food changes the equation
Then there is Panama's Caribbean influence.
Afro Caribbean communities, particularly those connected with the construction of the Panama Canal and the country's Caribbean coast, have left an enormous mark on Panamanian food. Seafood, coconut, spices, stews, fried foods and different cooking techniques all contribute to the country's culinary personality.
This is one reason Panama City can sometimes surprise travellers who arrive expecting standard Central American food.
You might have a dish containing coconut and seafood one day, Chinese influenced food the next, then traditional rice and beans, followed by something heavily influenced by Spain or another part of Latin America.
It is culinary chaos.
But very delicious culinary chaos.
The modern Panamanian food movement
Perhaps the most exciting development is what is happening at the higher end of the restaurant scene.
A growing group of chefs are looking at Panamanian ingredients and traditions and asking a simple question:
What happens if we take Panama's food seriously?
Instead of simply copying European fine dining, modern Panamanian restaurants are increasingly using local ingredients, traditional flavours and historical influences in more creative ways.
That can mean taking something familiar and presenting it completely differently.
It can mean using local seafood, tropical fruit, roots, plantains, cacao, corn or indigenous ingredients in ways that surprise people.
Casco Viejo has become one of the main places where this contemporary Panamanian cooking is visible. Current guides highlight restaurants experimenting with local ingredients while combining them with modern culinary techniques.
And this is where Panama City becomes particularly interesting for serious food travellers.
You're not simply eating traditional food.
You're watching a food culture evolve.
Panama has incredible coffee
Foodies should also pay attention to coffee.
Panama's highlands, particularly around Boquete and Volcán, produce some extraordinary coffee, including the famous Geisha variety.
And Panama City has developed a specialty coffee scene that allows visitors to experience those beans without having to drive into the mountains.
Specialty cafés increasingly focus on single origin beans, different brewing methods and coffee tasting experiences. Eater specifically highlights Panama City's specialty coffee scene and cafés working with high quality Panamanian beans.
This is particularly interesting because coffee gives you another connection between the capital and the rest of the country.
You can drink a cup of coffee in Panama City and then travel into Chiriqui and see where it was grown.
Suddenly your breakfast has a geography.
And then there is the fruit
Panama is tropical.
That sounds obvious, but it is easy to forget how much this matters to the food.
There are fruits everywhere that visitors from colder countries may have never tasted properly.
Passion fruit.
Papaya.
Pineapple.
Mango.
Guava.
Coconut.
Starfruit.
Soursop.
Watermelon.
And plenty of fruit that doesn't even make it onto the average tourist's radar.
Try fresh fruit juices.
Try smoothies.
Try desserts.
Try fruit from markets.
And if you see something you've never heard of, ask what it is.
That's one of the best rules for travelling anywhere.
If you don't know what it is, eat it.
Obviously, use a little common sense.
But generally speaking, curiosity is one of the best ingredients a traveller can bring to Panama.
Panama City can be surprisingly good for cheap food
Another reason I like Panama City as a food destination is that you don't have to spend a fortune.
Yes, there are expensive restaurants.
There are rooftop restaurants.
There are tasting menus.
There are restaurants where you can spend serious money.
But there are also fondas, markets, bakeries, street food and small restaurants where you can eat very well without destroying your travel budget.
This gives you the best possible situation for a foodie.
You can have a cheap local breakfast.
Have a market lunch.
Drink excellent Panamanian coffee in the afternoon.
Then spend more money on a serious dinner.
You don't have to eat expensive food three times a day to have an excellent culinary experience.
In fact, I would argue that doing that would be a mistake.
The real foodie challenge in Panama City
The biggest challenge isn't finding good food.
It's figuring out what kind of Panama you want to taste.
Do you want traditional Panamanian cooking?
Go local.
Do you want seafood?
Go to the market.
Do you want Chinese food?
Explore the city's Chinese culinary scene.
Do you want Caribbean flavours?
Look beyond the obvious tourist restaurants.
Do you want modern Panamanian cuisine?
Spend some time in Casco Viejo.
Do you want coffee?
Start asking where the beans came from.
Do you want international food?
Panama City has an enormous range.
Do you want cheap food?
Ignore the expensive rooftops and follow the locals.
Do you want an expensive night?
There are plenty of restaurants ready to separate you from your money in a very enjoyable way.
Is Panama City one of Central America's best food cities?
I would say absolutely yes, particularly if you are interested in food culture rather than simply looking for the largest number of famous restaurants.
Panama City doesn't have the same international reputation as some of Latin America's heavyweight culinary destinations, but that is part of its appeal.
It still feels like a city where you can discover things.
Its food tells the story of Panama itself. Indigenous ingredients meet Spanish traditions. Caribbean cooking meets Pacific seafood. Chinese cuisine becomes Panamanian. Modern chefs take traditional ingredients and turn them into something completely different. Coffee from the mountains ends up in sophisticated cafés in the capital. Fresh fish arrives at the market in the morning and ends up as ceviche a short time later.
That is a pretty impressive food story.
And perhaps the best thing about Panama City for a foodie is that you don't have to choose between eating like a local and eating like a gourmet.
You can do both.
Have a hojaldre and coffee for breakfast.
Eat ceviche at the fish market.
Try dim sum.
Drink Geisha coffee.
Have a raspao.
Eat patacones.
Find a tiny fonda.
Then dress up and go somewhere fancy for dinner.
And after all that, you will probably discover the biggest problem with being a foodie in Panama City.
There are simply too many meals and not enough days.
That is a pretty good problem to have.