Dining around #BocasdelToro

There are many dining options in Bocas del Toro and most all of them come with a view. There are no chain restaurants or fast food of any sort. If you are staying in the town of Bocas most restaurants can be reach my walking or a by taxi which is only $1.00 per person to go most anywhere. To get to restaurants on other islands you go by water taxi. That is also true if you are staying on one of the other islands and want to eat in Bocas town. Water taxi’s range from $4.00 per person to $10.00 pp, at night.

Most restaurants offer what a basic meal, which is chicken, beef, or fish served with coconut rice & a vegetable or side salad. You can get this with either coconut curry sauce or creole style,onions and peppers  for about $7.00 - $9.00 depending on where you go. There are always daily specials as well. 

 Breakfast – All 3 of the places we stayed during our trip included breakfast. 

Koko Resort we got a full breakfast made each morning by Jack the owner. It was a full  meal, with toast, eggs, sausage, or homemade waffles along with fresh fruit, banana, pineapple, and papaya. It was a great way to start the day. 

Eclyspe de Mar breakfast was more of a continental style with homemade coconut bread, jam, and fruit. You could add eggs and other items for just a few dollars.

Red Frog Beach Villas included breakfast served at either of their 2 restaurants, Playa Lava on the beach or Kayukos. It was a full menu to choose from. 

Lunch – we tried a few different places for lunch but it can take a big part of your day.

 

Carenero

Bibi’s on the beach on the isle of Carenero was a nice place to have lunch overlooking the ocean. There are always daily specials like fresh lobster but I stuck with the traditional fish with coconut curried sauce which was very good. Bibi’s is a great stop before or after a swim at the beautiful beach in Carenero.

Alvin’s sits over the water in the town of old bank on the isle of Bastimentos and serves local Panamanian food. I had a chicken thigh and wing, rice, beans, coleslaw, & a beer for $8.00. 

Palmar tent lodge on red frog beach is where we found some great lunches. Chicken Empanadas sold by the local children for $1.00. 

Brick oven pizza’s are Saturday’s special at tent camp and are excellent. You can get any topping you can imagine. 

Brian grills burgers & hotdogs on the beach Wednesday’s, Friday’s, & Sunday’s. I had a grilled hotdog which he serves with cheese, relish, onions, & homemade salsa on a grilled sesame seed roll. It was fabulous. 

All of the above are great options when visiting and spending a day on the beach at Red Frog.

Dinner

We had some interesting dinners during our stay here, some really good some not so good. Two of our best meals here were Firefly & Guari Gurai. That being said 2 of our worst meals were Lemongrass & El Ultimo Refugio.

Guari Guari is located just out Bocas town, which you can get to by taxi. They offer a six- course gourmet dinner for $23.00 and it is well worth it. They understand dining and how to cook food with flavor. Both the service and the food were excellent. You do need to make a reservation.  Dinner here is a true dining experience.

Firefly was my favorite. It is located on the beach just outside the town of old bank on the isle of Bastimentos. It is all open air seating right next to the beach and ocean. I loved the atmosphere of the place. We got there just as the sun was setting and it was simply beautiful. The food is amazing, everything fresh and full of different flavors. The girl who served us couldn't have been nicer.

We tired the beer battered fish with coconut sriracha sauce & a salad of beets, watermelon, cucumbers, goat cheese with a sesame vinaigrette sauce. 

 Both were excellent. For dinner I had the fish cakes in a coconut curry sauce which had just the right amount of heat. I wish we had gone to dinner here sooner so I could have eaten here again. You do need to make reservations and some nights they are closed. Monday’s they have a 4 course dinner which is for guest staying there but they do open it up if they have the space.

Lemongrass restaurant is located in Bocas town, upstairs overlooking the water.  We heard it to be a nice place to get a meal and some nights they have music. The food is Asian fusion with nightly specials on a blackboard.  Having heard good things about the place and went for the nightly special of Pad thai with chicken or shrimp. What we got was a pound (seriously) of dry angel hair pasta top with a few shrimp with a bit of sauce (not very flavorful) on the plate under the mound of pasta. Not even close to being Pad Thai. The people who told us how wonderful it was having had dinner there a few night before also ate there that evening and thought it was not so good. They said it must have been an off night. 

El Ultimo Refugio is in Bocas town on the water and a place I really was looking forward to trying. There is no menu just a blackboard with nightly specials. We went on our first night thinking it would be a place we would eat more than once. Our first night there we arrived early 7pm and there were a few tables open to choose from. We ordered appetizers, tuna tartar & a beet salad, along with dinners, Lobster risotto, and a bottle of wine all from a very friendly happy server. There was a singer and we were enjoying our wine listening to the music. Our apps came out quickly and were very good. Being our travel day, which are long days, up early and not much to eat, we were really hungry. Some big parties came in and we watched as they set up for the group. At some point our server came over and asked if we had our apps, which we did and ordered a second bottle of wine. We started to notice the big parties getting food and still no dinners. I asked and was told the kitchen was slammed. Now we had put our order in long before any of these people sat down. Our server now was just avoiding us like we had done something wrong. I finally got up and asked about our meals, we had been there 2 hours. They finally were honest and said they forgot to put them in. At this point we were tried and said to forget them. I understand stuff happens so let’s call it a day. Our server still would not come near us and had someone else bring the check.

  Now knowing sometimes things just go wrong I thought we should give it another try. I love live music and the place has music every night and the food did look really good even though I had only tasted the tuna. We asked our hotel about making reservations and were told we did not need them. We arrived once again about 7:00pm and the place was busy. There was music and a few people at the small bar. I saw one of the girls from the other night and as I walked over to her I was greeted with “Oh your back.” Really. I said yes we really wanted to try the food here. She told me it was a 30 minute wait. Okay, there was music, a bar which I am standing next to I could wait. Before I get a chance to say this to her she turns and says “You can go have a drink someplace else and come back.” I was basically being asked to leave. Guess what? That is exactly what we did. I have seen the reviews and everyone says how great the food is here but the customer service is awful. There would be now 3^rd chance for this place sorry to say.

Bocart is where we ended up after leaving El Ultimo Refugio that first night. We passed Bocart's, heard the music and stop in for a drink plus an app as we were still very hungry.