Salotto Italiano, San Felipe, Panama — Restaurant in Santa Ana

SALOTTO ITALIANO REVIEW:

March 28, it’s a Saturday night in Panama City at Salotto Italiano. The lights are bright and the room is electric with sounds of laughter and excitement from well-appointed patrons anxiously awaiting an evening filled with beautiful live music, delicious food, and well poured drinks.

To experience the exceptional vocal stylings of the incomparable Idania, I along with countless others, would travel far and wide and dig deep into our pockets to pay a premium price that she so deserves.

My friend and I arrived at 7:30 and were promptly seated with three friends of Idania. We thoughtfully chose our seats for the best possible viewing of the performances.

It was around 8pm before we were offered drinks. Glasses of champagne were ordered and eventually came.

Despite no offering of food, even after an hour of arrival, we were enjoying the masterful collaboration of the operatic trio, IL Voló.

Later in the evening, a request was made and granted to seat a couple at our table as the restaurant was quickly filling up to capacity and four seats at our table remained.

Close to 10pm, and just before Idania’s performance began, yet another couple appeared and required seating. I was asked to move from my chosen, comfortable, end seat which I’d occupied for over two hours, so that the couple could sit next to each other, rather than across from each other.

As you can imagine, I was not pleased and initially refused to move as there was an option for them to sit at the same table, just not next to each other.

The owner pressed and pressed for me to move, disregarding my comfort and desire to remain in my chosen seat.

After continued prodding by the owner, the couple hovering over me, and Idania’s impending arrival on the floor, I finally acquiesced, sitting in the middle seat and foregoing my premium view of the staging area.

Another half hour passed and my companion and I had still not been offered a meal. Yet, the two couples that arrived hours after us had been served both appetizers and the main course. Idania’s friends had also been served.

For the first time since arriving to Panama 🇵🇦, I was reminded what it feels like to be Black in America 🇺🇸.

I was being asked, dare I say, demanded, to forego my comfort and desires to accommodate that of white people.

I was upset and felt diminished. I wondered if there is any place that black people in general, and black women, in particular, can feel protected from the will of white people.

So, I did what I felt was necessary to protect myself. I left.

Whether this treatment was a one-off or standard fare for those unable to understand the impact of their seemingly harmless actions, I am forever scarred by the supposed innocence of one man’s attempts to appease a protected class while diminishing a member of the least.

When I chose Panama 🇵🇦 as my new home away from home I did not expect perfection. However, I had hoped to flee, altogether the...

We went there for dinner and jazz. The jazz was great. The dining experience left much to be desired unfortunately. It was a fixed menu which is fine but I am allergic to shellfish and this caused some confusion for the staff as they tried to figure out how not to kill me. Also the menu appeared to offer choices but was really just a guide for what was going to be served. Everyone received everything listed. Again, slightly problematic for those with food allergies. Also, we were forced to wait to get our food as they wanted to make sure we were taking time to fully appreciate each part of the meal. We were left staring at a centerpiece for awhile before we even got drinks. We had to listen to the artist sing before dinner was served. At one point she even asked the crowd of we were hungry and people answered honestly, YES. We arrived at 7pm. It took about 45 minutes to get to ordering our wine, which was included in fixed price. One person at our table had a simple question about the red wine choices. Which one is drier? This question caused the owner to stop by and discuss the wines. He offered her a sample and then proceeded to pour the entire table a SAMPLE. Then when we ordered the wine we actually wanted we were told that the sample was our one glass by the server. The owner never communicated what he did and it left some without the wine they paid for. We were served appetizers around 8:20pm. The question came around 9:00pm. So yeah ...HUNGRY. But to add to the injury, the artist heard us say yes and then decided to sing ONE more song. Except it was actually TWO more songs. The entire table found this off-putting to say the least. And when the next course came, the lasagna was cold. As if they had prepped 50 plates of food and had no way to keep the food warm while the artist kept holding us hostage singing. The lasagna tasted ok. Probably would have been good if served hot. Then the artist performed some more. We still haven't had the main course yet. They started serving the main course around 10:15pm. Our table was served dessert first for some strange reason. My fish came as I was finishing the ice cream. Again, these mishaps completely distracted us from the food. It's a beautiful restaurant. I'm sure the food is good normally. But I doubt I will ever attend this kind of format again. Just allow us to order when we arrive and eat out meal as WE wish. We can eat and enjoy music at the same time. Three and half hours to eat one meal is absurb. People have all kinds of medical issues and forcing this one size fits all approach is a complete...

Lovely place! Stumbled on it completely by chance when out with the family for a dinner during a short trip to Panama. Very warm, welcoming owners. It's beyond obvious that the owners are putting their heart and soul into this restaurant! Cozy atmosphere. Nice food. We were lucky to dine on the day with live singing by the three gentlemen. Very impressive indeed. My only suggestion would be with respect to the volume of the performance and the volume of the nice background music when the singers are taking a break - it was quite loud to the point of us having to wait for a break between songs to converse with the waitress and among ourselves. The live performance was truly impressive and...