Fish dinner at the Executive Hotel

As has been discussed in this section before, a lot of Panama’s better dining places are in the hotels. Especially in the banking district, hotel food is an interesting niche in the restaurant business.

On the one hand, if you are running an establishment located where the Executive Hotel is (at Calle Aquilino De La Guardia and Calle 52), guests who are into specialized gastronomic adventures are within walking distance of an amazing selection of restaurants, many of which are very good. On the other hand, if much of your clientele is composed of business travelers, they may not be much interested in adventure --- food that’s good, reasonably priced not totally strange to their palate and quickly available through room service will be the right ticket for many of those whose first thought is to get out of those business clothes and unwind after a nerve-wracking day of negotiations. Too much familiarity, however, would add boredom to the traveler’s stress.

I found myself at the Executive Hotel’s restaurant recently, along with some international journalists who were staying there while doing a feature on Panama. It was not my first visit to this establishment --- the last of my previous experiences had been a delightful pasta and salad lunch at which I was the one man among a party of about a dozen women. This occasion was dinner, at which I again found myself the token male at the table.

I wasn’t super-hungry, so I gave the salad bar serious consideration. It’s not the capital’s biggest selection, but it has all the basics and more and everything was fresh.

However, I went for something a bit more substantial --- the catch of the day fried Bocas-style, with a bit of salad and some rice with guandu on the side. It was a whole fish, fried crispy brown on the outside and moist but done on the inside. Being an Atlantic sider I could have heated it up with some aji chombo sauce, but this fish was seasoned well enough for me.

Two of the women at the table ordered something from the bar in lieu of food. My colleague who did eat dinner got something more international than my choice, but with a bit of yucca on the side.

Neither of us finished all of the food put in front of us, and the tab was in single digits for both of our meals.

So yes, the Executive Hotel has a good little restaurant that offers international fare with Panamanian touches and does the selections on its menu very well for a good price. It’s a worthy place to dine, even if you aren’t staying at the hotel.

dining

Dining at the Executive Hotel