El Trapiche — Restaurant in Bella Vista

My friends from British Columbia came down to visit me in Panama and I met them in Panama City. Twice this restaurant was recommended to us so, of course, we went. Twice!! The first time was for dinner. Both of my friends ordered rice with chicken. It also said vegetables were included as well. Well, there were no vegetables but both really enjoyed the rice. It was a dirty rice with shredded chicken in it. My girl-friend said it was really tasty and filling. Her husband, who also had the same thing, said it was good, filling and inexpensive country food. I had hot chicken fingers and fries. These were not that hot but very tasty. And the fries were hot and crispy. We also had dessert that night. I had the passion fruit cheesecake. It was very nice but very small especially for the price. My girl-friend had a coconut item and it was absolutely delish while her husband had the squash pie with ice cream. The coconut sweet was by far the best deal and the best tasting. The squash pie was a small empanada styled 'pie' and it has a small scoop of neopolitan ice cream but for 10$ it was very expensive. He said it as good but we all agreed we would get the coconut treats next time. Today we went again for breakfast, although it was 11:30. We had just come back from a Monkey Island tour and we were starved. We were happy to see we made the breakfast menu. My girlfriend ordered fruit and eggs. The bowl of fruit was huge!! It was filled with watermelon, cantelope, papaya and pineapple with bananas on top. Her husband had the Trapiche breakfast with churizo sausage. He loved the corn tortillas. I had something I can't recall the name. It was a flatbread with a caribbean sauce. On top of that were some sauted peppers and two fried eggs. It was very tasty. I added some hot pepper sauce. Magic!! Highly recommended!!...

El Trapiche is the place you want to visit for authentic Panamanian food. Highly recommended. If you'd like to see entertainment of traditional folkloric dances, visit one of their other locations

We started with the sampler for 8 - it had a variety of tons of traditional foods such as pork belly chunks and skin (chicharrones), tortillas (which are nothing like the rest of Central American tortillas, fry bread (holdras), yucca croquettes stuffed with ground beef (carimañolas), fried and smashed green plantains (patacones), fried yucca, hand pies (empanadas), fried fish and chicken wings. All very good and filling!

The lemonade made with raw sugarcane was delicious too.

Ropa Vieja with white rice and side salad was tasty and tender.

The ropa vieja sandwich on fry bread with coleslaw was fantastic, would highly recommend and order again and again.

The steamed clams in white wine sauce were perfection as well.

Chicken wings were plump and juicy.

The kids size arroz con pollo (chicken and rice mix) and sancocho (Panamanian chicken soup) was delicious and filling.

The ceviche was tasty and fresh. Would recommend.

There is a cute photo op cut out outside of restaurant.

The staff was friendly and attentive. Would recommend a visit whether you live their or visit from out of...

Food is good, most of it being taken from (or at least inspired by) local cuisine; price is fair for most dishes and just slightly high for the other ones; the big issue here is service, waiters work with palpable disdain towards the customers and the job itself. However if you are fine ignoring the tired and bored gestures of the waiters, the place is pretty good in food and price.

I had a dish called "Fiesta panameña" (Panamanian Party), a sampler of their most popular Panamanian dishes including a small bowl of "sancocho" as first course and a second course including small sized portions of Panamanian rice, pulled beef "Ropa Vieja" style, chicken cooked in the "tamal" recipe, a piece of pork rind, and a few fried carbs as yucca and "carimañola" (resembles Arab kibbeh but the outer layer is just yucca flour, meat is only inside); overall it was pretty tasty, not something to eat everyday if health is to take into account but quite good as a tourism adaptation of a real Panamanian...