El Caribe Restaurant — Restaurant in Bella Vista

We chose to visit El Caribe from Sly's videos recommending the food here and since it is just down the street from our AirBNB.

Service: there were probably 2 other parties when we arrived, all seated on the patio. Being it our first time there and not speaking the language, we went inside to check with staff about our party. The owner (we recognized her from the videos) came walking out and we asked about getting a seat. She was definitely on the dry side and not friendly. She sat us at a table outside and we waited a while before a waiter came to take our drink orders. Leo was fantastic! We could see how busy he was..he was the only one working the front. It did take a while for drinks and food to be ordered and come out but this also seems to be the atmosphere of Panama, leisurely. That was fine with us. Leo was very pleasant, checked in with us when he could. There were a few other tables now and it seemed as if the owner was more interested in conversing with those guests. The chef was pleasant and came out to greet friends who came to visit. It was nice to see. While getting our checks, the owner came by with a machine and chatted a bit with us but seemed like she wasn't too interested.

Food: amazing. We ordered fried fish, oxtail and 2 drinks. All of it was fantastic. Well cooked, and flavourful. We are from Toronto and have access to a variety of Caribbean and especially Jamaican food. My partners family is also from Jamaica. We were both pleased with the oxtail.

Pricing: I would come during happy hour for the drinks. Food is on the more expensive side.

I'm not sure I would visit again. Though if we were staying for a longer period of time and really missed our Caribbean food, we would return for...

My husband and I went there and I ordered oxtails and he ordered brown stew chicken. I started to eat the dumplings first and it was stink. I quickly spit it out of my mouth andvtold my husband to smell it, he agreed it smelled. He did not touch his food after that. The servers was nice but the owner was a bit rude. I informed her that the food was not good, she quickly took my husband and I plate, only me mentioned the food wasn't good but she took both of our plates like she already knew both was spoiled. Then she came out and said the dumplings was cooked 1 hour ago, I told her impossible. The way she replied was the attitude no apology or anything. We paid for our drinks and left. Awful experience. Truthfully I was warned not to go there from another restaurant owner that is very popular, he said the food wasn't good. But I wanted to experience it myself. I wish I did listen.

Responding to the owner of the restaurant, everything that I said was 100% true. I have no reason to lie the dumplings was stink and Micheal the owner of the restaurant Michaels advise me that the food isn't good there. After he saw the restaurant on my list, he was given me reviews of restaurant that I wanted to try. An he advised that alot of Panamanian reported the food was not go and I shouldn't go. I will call names because my review is 100% honest. If your the owner you need intergrity and learn how to apologize to customers and admit when your wrong. Sour food is not cook fresh daily. Stop lying and serve better food....

EDIT AUG 2022

It's such a shame that service here only seems to be going down 😞

We had to leave due to the poor service. At least it looks like they are remodeling, hopefully they will hire more personnel as well 🤦🏻‍♂️

Looking for awesome seafood dishes? Yup, this is the place. The cod fritters and pataconea rellenos with mixed seafod are the go to appetizers. For mains I have had the doble corvina which is great and the coconut rice and yuca al moho, uffff.

Then to finish it off, get a GREAT dessert like the coconut flan, strawberry flan (it's warm instead of cold) or a lemon pie.

The only thing that dissapointed me was the mango Margarita as it was missing flavor and licor as well. The waiter did ask me how it was and offered to fix anything at the table so I made the comment thinking maybe more tequila would fix it but it didnt (he took it back and brought it with more booze) so then he asked again and told me not to worry if it still wasnt right. So I said maybe its the mango juice which he again went in to try and have it fixed. No go though, since it was 100% natural juice it was just the actual mango that wasnt that sweet/strong.

Since he did try to fix it which is really rare in Panama and also he was on top of everything else so many times I wont deduct a star.

This place deserves the rating, food and...