Mestizo At The Santa Maria — Restaurant in Juan Díaz

EDIT: An update to the original review. As we are staying at the Santa Maria Hotel, the restaurant's manager contacted us and wanted us to have dinner at the restaurant when they heard about our bad experience. We accepted the offer and had dinner last night and I was very impressed with the service and food. My wife enjoys eating ceviche, and the ceviche at Mestizo is no less than amazing. I personally order a ribeye at most restaurants, and the ribeye served here was cooked perfectly. I asked for the steak to be prepared medium-rare and the temperature was no less than perfect. Usually when I order a ribeye the temperature is always north or south of what I ask for, so I was very happy to have a steak cooked exactly how I like it. The dinner staff were very nice and attentive, the food was delicious, and I would not change anything about my dinner experience last night. The Mestizo at the Santa Maria is truly a wonderful restaurant, and I am glad we decided to experience dinner here as I had originally not planned on going back. Now when we come back to panama, we look forward to enjoying the food and service at the Mestizo. Thank you for the wonderful service and food!

I am writing this review after eating breakfast here the last two days. First let me talk about why I gave this restaurant 1 star. The main compliant here is the service. The first day my wife and I were seated, we were ignored for the majority of our breakfast, not being served any water of coffee. After finishing our plates I then had to ask for the coffee and water, while other guests had it served immediately upon being seated. The second day (today) this happened again, and I saw the waiter look at our table glasses completely dry and empty, and choose to ignore us and fill up the other guests glasses instead. We then asked for coffee and water like the day prior and it did not come. This is when I decided to go to the servers area to get my own coffee and water. With dining room less than a third full, I the guest, had to go to the servers area to get my own coffee and water due to being intentionally ignored by the staff. This was pretty upsetting and they finally started to treat us like the rest of the guests after this incident. This may have occurred because we do not speak the local language fluently, and maybe there was a communication issue, but universally, when you sit down at a restaurant water is brought to the table or offered, which happened for all the other guests except us. The ONE GOOD thing at breakfast was the very kind lady cooking the omelettes for the guests today (July 11 2022). Her name was Ana Cristina, and she was very kind and made me an amazing omelette so thank you Ana for the great service and breakfast today! You were the only positive thing to say about our experience at...

The food and drinks are fantastic, and the service was prompt and friendly. The prices are pretty average, or even on the low end, for a place such as this. The bartender spoke very very very little English and often had to run off to get someone to translate, but that was no fault of his... It just made things difficult for me, haha :) if I were to return, I'd have more tapas / appetizers, so I could have a lot of different things. The different dumplings was my...

Was visiting the area and stopped by this restaurant and this place is a must try. The Greek and Caesar salads was really good. Didn’t have the hamburger but it looked great and was told by the person eating the burger that it was the best burger in Panama. The Mojito was in the top three Mojitos I’ve had and the other drink (which I can’t remember the name) was another delicious surprise. So if you are playing golf at the resort definitely stay and eat at...