Christopher's American Bistro — Restaurant in Bajo Boquete

We went for a special birthday dinner but had a disappointing experience.

It started off well with the bone marrow appetizer which was truly delicious!

The delicious looking roasted garlic bulb was uncooked, the veggies didn’t have much taste but the real kicker was the steak was so salted I couldn’t eat it! The steak was tender and I hadn’t had a steak in a long time so I ate more than I should have but it got to the point when I couldn’t eat one more bite of salt! I gave the rest to my husband and he ate one bite and couldn’t eat more than that. We both actually suffered from lip and tongue burn from the salt!

Later in looking at the reviews here I notice others complaining about the over salted steaks. Why haven’t they corrected this?! It’s simple enough to do and is quite upsetting to choose to eat at a place on a special occasion and have a meal like this.

We told the very good waiter who said he’d tell the chef (apparently the chef doesn’t care). Later he told us he’d give us a discount.

But then… somehow an $85 meal was charged over almost $170 on our credit card. Okay, an honest mistake. The charge was reversed and put through at the correct amount with no discount and we were charged the tip twice, once included in the whole amount and once separately. We tried to resolve that with them, showing them our cc statement with the charge but couldn’t resolve it with them.

We’d wanted a special meal and this was far from it. They need to pay attention to the details, cook your garlic, flavor your vegetables, and listen to the reviews of your customers and use way way less salt on the steaks!

We live here but unfortunately we definitely will not...

We are talking about a lunch meal that was 120 dollars for 2 people in Boquete, Panama, which is really expensive. We had the pumpkin soup, stake and for desert it was chocolate and some kind of nut pie. Soup: literally 2 pieces of 1×1 inch of hard pumpkin with the skin still on(hard to do because pumpkin gets soft super fats) then they poured on top chiken substance, the liquid you make boiling chiken with salt. That's it, plain tasted like water chiken broth, nothing special. Stake: Not bad, it tasted good and it was juicy, hence the 2 starts, however not one of the best I've ever tasted, ex. Longhorn Stake house in the US is far better and it is a restaurant chain, not fancy like this restaurant is supposed to be. Desert: The nut dessert my husband got tasted like the nuts were old, it's like when you leve the package open for many days and the nuts taste funky, like that. The chocolate dessert I had was plain at most, it was ok at best.

All of this was in very small portions and only jad 2 choices for the menu. I have to say that we didn't get to enjoy the view because we didn't have a reservation, we understood they placed us in front of the entrance door saying they didn't have a table outside, however one of the outside table and another far away from the door inside remained empty the whole time we were there, I ask them to be seated outside since our arrival, it would have been nice if they had moved us to one of the 2 empty tables, again, were empty the whole time we were there. The waiter was kind as it is supposed to and this is the only good thing I have to say about this place, at least in our experience. You will eat better anywhere...

Christopher’s Bistro is a cozy, upscale restaurant that when crowded, tends to be noisy; however, less so on the back terrace. A small, half loaf of sliced homemade bread was hot out of the oven and served with garlic butter. The onion soup, topped with thick melted mozzarella cheese, was somewhat on the bland side but still tasty. The wedge salad was just the right size, blue cheese dressing light, cherry tomatoes sweet. The night's special was prime rib, at least 16-20 oz. and 2” thick(!), tender and flavorful. Although sautéed mushrooms were not on the menu, the chef was able to accommodate me. The twice baked potato was just the right size; and altho the creamed kale was good, there was too much thick cream and not enough kale. The only criticism I have is that it took a good half hour after I had finished my salad before the main entry was served; and unfortunately, by then, I was no longer hungry! But it made for a nice second meal the next day! My server, Eddie, was the BEST! He speaks English and was very attentive. Overall, I had a very pleasant dining experience and I highly recommend this...