Food and Restaurants

By: Jean Bouttet

It wraps around the Las Vegas Hotel on the corner of Avenue Eusebio A Morales and Calle 55 streets and is in the area known as El Cangrejo, Panama City’s business district. The Wine Bar entrance faces Eusebio A Morales and the Cafe Pomodoro Spaghetteria faces Calle 55. On the Wine Bar side music and wine flow from 6 pm to wee hours; earlier they serve a lunch menu from the Pamadoro side. The Wine Bar offers a generous and varied wine menu. Leaving the Wine Bar side you travel through an inter courtyard that connects the Pomadoro and the Wine Bar, there you can dine under a canopy of trees as Panama’s weather is perfect for on a starry night. As you enter the Pomodoro side you enter a cozy café atmosphere. There’s an espresso machine behind the bar and sidewalk tables just out the door. Right next door out the sidewalk is Pomodoro’s walk up window for carry out orders.

Our Saturday night meal for two consisted of: Freshly toasted bread with Balsamic dipping sauce, veal sausage, Pomodoro salad, Chicken and Egg soup, and Corvina with Spaghetti. Two Atlas beers (excellent, local favorite) to wash it down, and we were out the door tip included $22.00. Menus were in Spanish and English.

It’s obvious by the details more than one trip was made here and we are partial to this dinning experience.

From the carry out window you can see into the kitchen of the Pomodoro. The counter waitress doubles as the salad chef for the sit down dinning area. From there you can see orders prepped for the seated section. I watched as huge rustic loaves of bread were quartered and sliced, then toasted and served as a prelude to all seated customers. Salads are not prepared ahead and reserved for service at the time they are ordered, but instead each order is made from uncut vegetables especially for you.

A second location has recently opened on the causeway with more of a night life atmosphere.

It’s obvious by the details more than one trip was made here and we are partial to this dinning experience. We find the atmosphere and the service to be delightful and the food has never failed to be generous and delicious.

Manolo

There are several locations around town and is probably as close to a ‘chain’ restaurant as you are going to find in Panama. It offers typical Panamanian food and we would compare it to a Panamanian ‘Friday’s’. The atmosphere is more quiet and sedate than Friday’s with a romantic feel for evening dinning. There’s usually a bar area, and inside and patio dinning. Manolo is open 24 hours a day, with complete menus. The atmosphere is friendly and the service is fast. The food is always fresh, generous portions, and delicious.

For dinner I ordered a mixed salad (ensalada mixta) a large green vegetable salad and a bowl of Panamanian chicken soup. My husband ordered the antipasto and a fried chicken dinner that came with a salad and fried plantains. The chicken was several pieces of boneless chicken breast grill fried. A beer and two cups of café con leche. Our bill was $23.00 with tip. Manolo is one of my favorite places to get a cup of café con leche (Panamanian coffee). Make a note that for all restaurants in Panama we’ve been to so far additional cups of coffee are additional charges to ‘la cuenta’ (the bill). Menus were in Spanish and English.

We’ve been here several times and will keep going back. For good quality food and great prices, it’s hard to beat.

Visit http://www.martiniboys.com/ Toronto restaurants