Restaurante Tinajas in Panama City

I changed the restaurant description to South American restaurant instead of Central American because although Panama is geographically in Central America, culturally we are much more Southern American. In Panama, and thus in Tinajas, you won’t be eating flat tortillas or any type of taco, you will be eating rice, and plantain… South American cuisine is a much better description.Tinajas is dinner and a show, quite an experience. It is family-owned and we are friends and they are truly wonderful people. Highly recommended. An absolute MUST for tourists.

2 nights there. Service and atmosphere were excellent. Steak and onions , fish fillet with garlic, large shrimp with garlic were all excellant. Steak was perfect and tender. Pork with plum sauce- the sauce was wonderful but the pork dry.

Had a wonderful meal. Panamanian food well done. Friendly service and reasonably priced for the quality.

Bring an ear plug in case you find the music is too loud!!If you are going to watch the folklore show, make sure to make a reservation. We booked it via Whatsapp (they can chat in English). For a Fri night, the show started at 8pm, we booked 7:30pm so we could get seated and begin ordering/eating prior to the show. Its $8 a person extra to watch the show (so you will be seated in the show room). They messaged us on the day of our reservation to confirm the booking.Food prices are very reasonable, service speed was reasonable too. They have a group ~30 people with reservation and seems like they have pre-set menu items for them, they got seat at 8pm. Almost all tables at the dining room were occupied, so if you do want to watch the show, you definitely want to have a reservation.The show started ~8:15pm and ended ~9:15pm. The music was VERY LOUD! I would suggest to bring ear plugs just in case you need them. They explained the custom in both Spanish and English which was very informative.Overall, we enjoy the food and the show and will recommend anyone visit Panama to check it out!

Delicious food and great cultural dance performances.

Service was really nice. Menus are English/Spanish. Food was good and nice to see traditional food available.

I came with my family to Panama City for the first time. We gave this restaurant a try and definitely don’t regret it. The service and food was amazing! We got the grilled chicken, red whole fried snapper and calamari. All three tasted great! The wait time for food was not too long. The price was worth it for the meal. Totally recommend this restaurant!

The atmosphere was folkloric and i enjoyed the food. They had a fish cerviche that was out of this world and the drinks where great. It was my first experience of Panamanian food and I enjoyed every bite. I would highly recommended this place especially for the show. We didnt get to see it. But we heard great things about it.

It was delicious, the restaurant was empty and I believe it’s because the doors are closed and it Lola like a house from the outside.

We stayed at the W Panama and wanted to try and local restaurant, and we were so happy we found this gem. The food is fantastic and the service was great. Such friendly people who were very welcoming. Definitely recommend to everyone

I travel to Panama every year and used to love dining in this restaurant. Not anymore! The food always was overpriced but they have dancers, so it was ok. Now, they have an additional charge per person to see the dancers and the food is still overpriced. Also, the show is a reduced version of the "included with your meal" show.They were short-staffed, so when the food arrived to us it was very cold and unpleasant.

Las Tinajas was recommended to me twice so I had to check it out, and it didn’t disappoint. It was a bit quiet when my friends and I went, but we enjoyed our food and drinks very much. Wish we could have enjoyed the show.

Traditional dance is nice, very entertaining, there is a charge of $8.00 per person to watch the show, we had a 6 year old child and paid $8.00 for the child, also ask the watiers the prices of drinks before you order, some how our natural juices ended up costing $5.00 each...enjoy...food is nice...staff is nice...

The food was mediocre and the sound volume on the show was unhealthy.

I had the corvina and shrimp with rice and peas and the bacalao fritters. The fish was bland, the shrimp (2 pieceswas mediocre and the rice and peas had no flavor. The bacalao fritters we’re just fried mush balls. No real bacalao flavor. Overall this place was not worth it. Sadly, I do not recommend.

Very very yummy food! We tried a variety of dishes and everything was soooo good. Ceviche with actual plantains chips was a bomb. Margarita was also very very good. Service was superb, attentive, kind and quick. We are satisfied with everything in this restaurant. 5 stars and we’ll definitely be back.

What a wonderful cultural show, telling you the story if their colorful history.It is relaxing to sit and eat supper while you learn about their past.

I loved this restaurant not only for the food but more so for the hour of traditional dances. It was so beautiful and captivating I didnt even want to finish my food cause I couldnt look away. Everyone traveling to Panama for a cultural experience should go to this restaurant and make sure to go when a dance is scheduled

Odd place not a great experience. Had to send my order back twice, finally just paid and left.

Very good food, when I went they had a traditional Panamanian band performing with traditional dancers.

What a cultural experience! The show really...well stole the show. The food is really good

Good service, but needs to improve more anyway, Food is not the same of before and its OK, nice night show.

This restaurant got very good reviews on Google so we sought it out for traditional Panamenian food.Lets start with the good stuff. The Ceviche was lovely. And the calamari was perfectly fine, though I suspect out of the freezer but nothing wrong.By accident, we ordered the prawn cocktail, and if you like the taste of almonds / marzipan with your small Prawns, youre gonna be raving. Unfortunately, that wasnt to our taste, but that might be a pallet thing, rather than anything else.And breathe... to the main courses. My partner had Prawns in pineapple. It was literally grey on the plate and the Prawns disintegrated. Somehow the pineapple wasnt sweet either. I had the Fish Stew, and it wasnt great either. Same issue with the Prawns and I didnt want to chance it.We asked for something else and to the credit of the waiter there were no issues and we both got the steak. It was perfectly fine, nothing to complain about.Overall, the food was really not great. Props to the waiter for changing the food when we had an issue.Maybe we got a bad day, but we wouldnt recommend this restaurant.

Based on the reviews, I decided to come here on a Tuesday at around 8pm and was able to enjoy the amazing show!! It was so great to be able to catch a glimpse into the Panamanian culture, while enjoying the most authentic dishes. I ordered the sancocho and arroz con pollo and wasnt disappointed in the slightest. Im the type of person that likes to put hot sauce on everything, and today is the first time I didnt want to. I definitely recommend coming to dinner here especially if its your first time visiting Panama. A MUST visit :)

The day we had the whole restaurant to ourselves! Covid safe, very clean and the restaurant is two streets away from the W hotel panama. The staff always went out of their way to make sure we were satisfied and our cups were always full. Definitely check it out, a great patamanian experience! By the way they also have authentic dance shows at night but we didnt make it sadly.

We visited Panamá city the month of March and we wanted to have the experience of a local cuisine and we decided on tinaja restaurant, I ordered a red snapper and when it came to my table it was cold and served uncooked the fish was not freshly cooked seems that it was a leftover but not fresh I told the waiter and right away he took the plate and carry it out and a few minutes brought it back to me and I asked is this the same fish and he said yes it was cooked but no flavor or seasoning what a fiasco other than that the show was great but I will not return to this establishment ever again.

Nice little restaurant, great service and food!

Extremely friendly waiter. Very solid food, large portions be prepared to eat!

Great local food, we had the typical panamian food and it was awesome.Also great coffee and desert.The waiter was very kind and attentive 👍

Great atmosphere and live cultural show. The food was also amazing really good for families and friends. If youre Panamanian it will make you feel nostalgia of yesteryears.

This is a quaint restaurant offers superb spanish style seafood amongst other dishes. We had the fish and prawns which was full of flavor. The decor is old but authentic and the owners are very nice people.

Hoping to experience the cultural experience but the full music and dancing is only offered on Friday night. I have attended before and would recommend but we had visitors in town and we’re very disappointed that there wasn’t a show. Hoping to advise all that if you hope to see the show, it’s only available one night. The place was empty without a show. Better luck next time.😩

Authentic and very traditional Panamanian food , very nice restaurant with friendly staff and a good environment. Normally they have Panamanian folk dance performances regularly but I was there in March 2021 and these were not happening due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sadly I was literally the only customer in the place when I came for dinner at 730 pm, which is a shame because it is quite good. I look forward to returning in my next visit to Panamá, hopefully by then such performances will be possible again. Good desserts.

I spent my few days in Panama looking for truly authentic Panamanian cuisine. We finally found it here. The food was great, and the atmosphere was nice. A good taste of Panama.

The food was excellent and service was too. We had appetizers (Empanadas de maiz con tesajo and Patacones con Roos viewsand salads (Caesar with chicken and cranberry almond). Picture shows 3 but there were 5. We couldn’t wait!

Had a great time here. The food was delicious and the manager was very nice. Great local food. They also have local dance shows several nights of the week. This place was the best local food that I’ve had in Panama.

Great place to take family or colleagues who are visiting Panama and want to experience some of the local dance and song traditions. Its great for larger groups, and decent sized stage for a 30+ minute performance. You can also just dine in the restaurant if you dont want to watch the show. The food was okay, but well worth it to go and experience.

Great service, delicious food, really neat decor. Curry pineapple shrimp was very good, so was garlic shrimp. Ceviche was very good and interesting. Chicken and rice was the best that one of our party had ever had. Drinks were really good too, we got the house special and some other cocktails. Staff were very enthusiastic. Sad that we missed the live show, but it is only on Tuesday and Saturday.

This is the Traditional Special: Rice with chicken, tamal, banana treat, and “ropa vieja” (shredded beef).Very local, a classic flavor in land home made Caribbean food. The place is quiet, decent prices and good warm service. Portions are small but the flavor is pretty good.

Great food - excellent show

Colonial style restaurant that features a fine dining experience. Staff is friendly and helpful when asking questions about the menu and Panama. The food was extremely delicious! The bathrooms are clean and spacious. Totally recommend!!

We had a great time. I recommend the ceviche de corvina. It was fresh and delicious. Show was a nice treat during our meal. Narrations were given in English & Spanish which I found to be very considerate. All around wonderful place.As a side note - I would not recommend the Tinajas Burger. Everything else was delicious.

Went during non-peak hours, service was excellent and so was the food! Ordered fried calamari, chicken rice, chicken soup, fried red snapper and a vegetarian plate! Flavors excellent and to top it, ordered a tres leches cake for dessert. Delicious as well!

Good service and well-trained staffs was impressive. The food was also tasty and worth to try it. We ordered Sancocho(Chicken soup), Seafood rice, and Pulpo Salad(Octopus salad). Seafood rice was unexpected but super nice, so I cleaned it up. Salad was a little sour, and Sancocho was under expectation. Theres a performance show on specific date with a fee(more or less 10 USD/pax as my guess).

The empanadas and salmon in butter sauce was delicious. Really pretty restaurant. Staff was great. Wonderful experience!

The food was very good and the service was great. Currently they have a dinner show which we did not stay for that starts at 9 pm. I would have liked to stay to see the show and give a better review however we had other plans for the evening.

Im all for learning and living. Learning about other cultures and experiencing them for myself. My visit to Las Tinajus was truly s memorable one. I enjoyed the native dances, the food at the restaurant and the amazing service of the staff. Please add it to your list when planning your trip to Panama. You wont regret it.

Amazing food at very reasonable prices. Jovial and patient staff. Cozy decor. Great spot, very much recommended.

Something for everyone; a touch of Panamanian cuisine without having to go all in. Pleasant waiters that let you enjoy your food in peace. Menu also in english++ Dessert menu could use an update and more focus on local specialties but we left happy and tipsy from a couple of dirty mojitos.

I LOVE this restaurant and this experience. A classic taste of Panama dance, song, and dress - it was a fantastic evening. I strongly recommend - if you visit Panama City, you must have dinner here!