Santa Rita - Casco Viejo

Excellent restaurant. Food was delicious. Humberto, the manager, and his staff provide outstanding service. The restaurant is elegant, yet cozy. Special thanks to our waiters Jonathan and Miguel.

During our two weeks in Panama, we had the pleasure of dining at Santa Rita in Casco Viejo not once, but twice, and it was an exceptional experience both times! The staff at Santa Rita were incredibly attentive, offering excellent recommendations and engaging in friendly conversations about our trip, which made our visits feel personal and special. Based on online reviews, we tried the Tuna with truffle oil and sweet potatoes, and it was so perfect that we couldn't resist ordering it again on our second visit. The staff also guided us to some fantastic steak options on both occasions, and their wine list was impressively extensive, complementing our meals beautifully. Santa Rita truly impressed us with their delicious food, attentive service, and inviting atmosphere. It's a must-visit for anyone in Casco Viejo looking for a top-notch dining experience!

The food is absolutment delicious!!! One of the best restaurants in Panama City!

Oh Santa Rita! Thank you for so many wonderful memories! This is one of my favorite spots in the city. I’ve been here so many times for both lunch and dinner. The energy in this place is awesome. Super friendly service and food is outstanding! And they have a great selection of Argentinian and Spanish wines. I’ve tried almost ever dish on the menu and have loved them all!

Delicious food. The mousse de maracuja was one of best desserts ever. Really lovely staff and excellent service. Thr place is beautiful

Great steak. Solid sides. Crepe was too suite for my liking.

Lovely restaurant with incredibly helpful staff. Most food items are coeliac friendly & gluten free and they are able to adapt those that aren't (changed the oil in the fryer for the chips). Good tasting food and a great location. Would definitely recommend!

Amazing food and excellent service! We had the papas braves, empanadas, ribeye, and lemon pie. This was probably the best meal we had in Panama and the staff was incredible! Would 100% recommend

Amazing place with great people and great food. We were expecting smaller portions and so we ordered a lot of food for just the two of us! Well worth it though! My wife said the egg plant was some of the best she's ever had. You really can't go wrong with the choices here.

An absolute gem! Outstanding service from start to finish from all of the staff, especially our waiter Claudio. The most divine food! (The Panamanian Filete de Res is the steak to go for, it was so juicy and tender). Everything was cooked perfectly and with great flavours. A must visit in Panamá City!

No matter what's the reason you are in Panama city, find a moment to visit Santa Rita. Located in old town, the place offers great service, incredible food selection, fantastic wine list, and cocktails are well represented. We did a little sampling of 4 dishes and couple of cocktails. Reach palettes of flavors and nearly Micheline style presentation are complemented by a personal attention by the staff. Rarely can you find a place that offers high end food and equally good service, this is one the hidden gems of Panama city.

Unbelievable service, food is beyond delicious, atmosphere is unique, warm, and inviting. Staff is phenomenal! One of the best restaurants in Old Town! And…live music! Wow!

Our dining experience at this restaurant was truly exceptional. The service was top-notch, and our waitress displayed an impressive knowledge of both the menu and the wine selection. The specials were thoughtfully presented on a board above the kitchen, adding a personalized touch to the dining experience. Now, let's talk about the food—remarkable would be an understatement. We had the croquettes, coconut shrimp (a special of the day), and steak, each dish surpassing expectations. The coconut shrimp, in particular, stood out as a highlight, and I highly recommend exploring the specials for unique and delightful surprises. The restaurant boasts an extensive selection of wines, catering to various preferences. The ambiance is cozy and inviting, with great lighting that complements the homey and clean atmosphere. Easy to find, this restaurant offers not just a meal but an overall delightful dining experience. Highly recommended for those seeking a memorable and tasteful evening.

Santa Rita was all that! I began with an exquisite bloody Mary. I skipped the appetizer because I wanted to save room in my belly for dessert. I ordered the salmon with lemon sauce and capers, served in a bed of finely cut potatoes. The salmon was baked to perfection! The generous portion was moist and flavorful. Simple elegance. I vacilated a bit about dessert (because I was very satisfied with my meal) but I caved! I ordered the tres leches with a cappuccino. The tres leches was out of this world great! It was topped with fresh strawberries and a side of heaven; melted caramel! Dammm!!! I loved it!

This place was absolutely the most delicious meal I had in Panama. I highly recommend this place if you're looking for fine dining. They had a great wine and cocktail selection too!

Spanish restaurant in Casco Viejo. It’s a more upscale spot but you can dress casually still if you wish. Valet parking available. There is wifi. We got the croquettas as an appetizer, and one friend and I split the Riojan rigatoni and the sticky oxtail rice. Our other friend got the steak medium rare, but needed to send it back to the kitchen for some additional cook time, which the servers were nice about doing. However, they seemed to misunderstand our order on the oxtail and neglected to bring out the rice. Nevertheless, the oxtail was a filling plate and we got our carbs through the pasta (which was slightly overcooked, but I liked the jamon that came in it). Service was very nice and we got complimentary shots at the end of the night, which were a nice surprise. Overall, a great choice for date night or nice intimate dinner with friends.

Hands down, one of the best restaurants I have ever been to. Every dish was perfect, and the atmosphere and service were second to none.

The place is cosy and really nice, you feel really comfortable. The waiter take care of you like his best friend. What to say about the food…it was amazing!!! I took sea bass carpaccio, squid ink rice and profiteroles, everything was amazing. Also the white wine was good. Honest price for what you get. Recommended, especially for a romantic dinner.

Have to start out by saying that our kids were here a few months before and raved about this place. So we put it as a must stop and see if we decided to visit the old town. So glad we did. It is a casual dress kind of place, which is very nice considering the place gives off a dressier atmosphere. There is a large selection on the menu and when we went they also had a chalkboard with special items of the day as well. I will say that this place is delicious. From the first bite of the appetizers to the tasty and sweet morsels of desert. I started off with the clams in garlic and white wine, it was delicious nothing I haven't enjoyed back in the states. I also ordered two empanadas which omg these were absolutely to die for. It was freshly sliced beef inside a perfectly cooked flaky crust. My wife who is picky as a kid trying new things even loved them. I had the oxtail with rice for dinner and it was absolutely delicious, a very interesting take but something I had to try. The wife got the filet as she and her family loves steak, it was perfectly cooked and the chimi churri they had to accompany it was amazing. The crepes were an amazing desert and I can not stress this enough but you have to give this place a shot when you venture out this way. You can walk in and be served but I strongly recommend making a reservation I can see it filling up fast. With appetizers dinner desert a glass of wine and three bottles of water the bill/check(whatever yall wanna call it) was $100.00, I knew it would be up there as I was over indulging my senses with this trip and I was not disappointed one bit. For the price the taste was worth every penny.

My wife and I wandered into Restaurante Santa Rita on a Friday evening without a reservation. No problem--we were cheerfully greeted and promptly seated at the bar (which we're always fine with). Michel took excellent care of us, recommending ceviche, eggplant croquettes, and a remarkable artichoke and ibérico ham dish. All three were equally delicious as were our cocktails! Highly recommended

We had a weekday (Friday) lunch here. Beautiful and stylish decor, extremely clean. Excellent service and food. I loved my steak tartar. We also thought the prices were very reasonable for the quality. We'll be back!

We visited twice since we loved the first experience. Food is really tasty. We ordered only entries/tapas and dessert. If you like chocolate they have chocolate lava cake. I wouldn't recommend profiteroles. personally the choux pastry was not really good. If you like Spanish tapas, try the artichokes with bellota and ensaladilla rusa (the best we had). The second visit, the best was the tagliatelle with lobster. Live music on Fridays' nights and it is open on Mondays. First night service was impeccable.

Really good modern Spanish fare. I loved the sea bass carpaccio, and all of the croquettes that I had. Solid drinks as well

Awesome experience! Food hit the spot, The bread with tomato was so good i got a second serving! And richard our server did everything despite my small amount of spanish!

Picked this place from TripAdvisor reviews and it lived up to all our expectations. The restaurant is lovely, the atmosphere is warm and welcoming. The service was great and the food was so good and the portions are big, more than enough to share. The Uber driver said that this is the best restaurant in Casco Viejo and having eaten there I can say he was right. It’s a great restaurant with amazing food. We had the garlic potatoes, the octopus, the Argentinian black pudding and the steak tartare which we shared. For mains I had the lobster pasta and my husband had the local Panamanian steak. No dessert as we were full. We had a medium red sangria between us and they gave us a complimentary glass of white too. We tipped 20% and it came to $140. We could easily have just had the shareable and still have been full. It was so nice we will go back before the end of our vacay.

A Casco Viejo gem. The kitchen is remarkably quick without compromising on quality, and the service is some of the best we’ve experienced in the city. The carpaccio was phenomenal and a must-order. This was a perfect choice for a high-quality, seamless meal.

Doesn’t get much better than Santa Rita. Everything I tried was delicious, especially the empanadas. Great selection of beef for the red meat lovers out there. Cooked medium rare to perfection with a fresh chimichurri sauce.

We had dinner twice during our short visit to Panama at Santa Rita. The food, service, ambiance were fantastic. Live music on Friday night along with the interesting menu was over the top excellent. You will love this place, as we did.

Amazing dinner!! Delicious cocktails and perfectly cooked steak and so flavorful. Highly recommend!

Oxtail sticky rice was the true shining star of the night. Make sure you give yourself time if you order this dish as it is a fresh mad risotto! Restaurant was super cold but our server was amazing & provided a shawl. Perfect place for a special celebration! We wanted to try the lamb ribs but they were out.

I had really high expectations about this place because I read great comments, but it was not that great. It's not bad but I thought it would be better. Food was ok, nothing extraordinary. Everything was just good , including cocktails. Service and attention were regular. You won't have a bad time but I'm not sure if I would come back.

Ambiance and Presentation: The dining experience started with a rather ordinary presentation, particularly the old fashioned cocktail, which failed to impress due to poorly shaped ice and a merely satisfactory flavor. Adding to this, the use of plastic bottles for pepper and salt, as well as paper napkins, detracted from the upscale ambiance one might expect from a fine dining establishment. Appetizer - Tuna Tataky: The flavor of the tuna was pleasing and well-prepared, though marred slightly by excessive saltiness. The quality of the tuna itself managed to redeem this initial dish, demonstrating freshness and culinary expertise. Main Course - Oxtail: A generous portion of oxtail showcased the chef's skill in preparing a flavorful main dish. The inclusion of something to contrast the robust cow tail flavor would have elevated the dish further. Unfortunately, the slightly undercooked potatoes were a minor setback, yet they did not significantly affect the overall enjoyment of the meal. Dessert - Profiteroles: The dessert was a highlight of the meal, especially for those with a sweet tooth. The appealing presentation and delectable chocolate filling managed to captivate the senses, creating a memorable ending to the dining experience. Overall: Despite a few missteps in presentation and seasoning, the restaurant delivered a satisfying dining experience.

We really wanted to love this restaurant but it unfortunately didn’t meet our expectations. The front of the restaurant is very cute with little twinkle lights and flowers. The back of the restaurant, with higher tables, is unfortunately darker, right near the not very pretty bar, and too close to the comings and goings of the kitchen. We ordered three tapas to start with and two sangrias. The drinks were lovely but the tapas were average. We thought about leaving at that moment but decided to order our main entrees as the reviews had been so incredible. We ordered two different fish dishes. Both were very average. We also ordered dessert which was beautifully presented but again, nothing amazing. After all our other incredible meals in Panama, this was by far our least favorite. It felt as though the reviews didn’t match our experience. As a side note, the clientele from 5pm-7pm is mostly Americans and after 7pm, the clientele seemed more local.

My husband and I have been here before and really love their calamari as well as the entertainment. This last visit, we had to send it back as it was waaaay overcooked. My husband ordered the rigatoni and chorizo. There was NO chorizo in the dish. The owner was on the floor, normally a good thing, so we called him over to give him some sincere customer feedback. Again, normally a good thing, but he gave us a dismissive smirk and said, "Well, it was cooked in chorizo." Uh-huh... good to know... I guess 🙄 🤨 There are so many ways of appeasement an owner could have handled a scenario such as this; this was not one of them.

I found a reddish-brown hair in my steak. The restaurant manager said none of the chefs had long hair, and it was my own hair that fell in. That's utter nonsense! My hair is black! Not reddish-brown! There was no apology or explanation. I cannot accept this.

The food is good, but I'm still disappointed with the octopus croquettes they brought us twice because we sent them back. The squid ink has a very strong flavor that wasn't there, and maybe only the smell of octopus... we ordered a lot of other fried calamari. GOOD. Tuna tataki. Good. Cod croquettes. GOOD. Grilled octopus with potatoes. Good and tasted like octopus. But these croquettes, besides annoying us a little, because yes, of course you sell them as octopus croquettes, but if the flavor isn't there, ask your staff, why not take me for a fool? That's why I can't fully praise the staff or the dishes. I'm a Sicilian chef, I've been cooking since I was 16, and I know fish very well. If you make a complaint, maybe every now and then the customer should be listened to, not ridiculed. Do I recommend it? certainly but perhaps there are restaurants with a better attention to service. Ah, we also had a chocolate profiterole which was also to be rejected.

Ordered the Argentinian style steak, which is so so, but the problem is the desert- crème brûlée. When I told the waiter that it’s the worst one I ever had, but in a polite manner, the waiter and the manager all gave a very unpleasant face. I still offered 20% tip at the end, but still they were very unhappy. I hope that they can take the responsibility to improve food and more importantly have an authentic service to customers.

They couldn’t find our open table reservation. And made us wait 40 mins. And when we were finally seated and wanted to order they were out of everything. The had just one steak item on the menu. And it could be had only medium well. The dish was underwhelming and it was the most expensive item. They also didn’t have any of the seafood except the sea bass which was meh. It was comical when they said “would you like a dessert menu”, we said “yes”, and waitress said “let me see what they have left in the kitchen”. Only option was flan. I don’t think I’d come back.

We went there for the coeliac-friendly menu but were really disappointed, as several dishes were incorrectly labeled and the waiters simply referred to the menu (not knowing better), only double-checking with the kitchen after being asked multiple times. Also, both waiters were clearly unwell. We felt sorry for them, but it was also very inconvenient and uncomfortable for guests. Besides that, the food was really nice and the staff was friendly.

My ‘sea bass’ dish was almost certainly flounder fish. And not a good one. It had the texture of mashed potatoes and the taste of grilled dirt. My salad had soggy quinoa which tasted and looked like my first attempt to make quinoa (at age 12). The best part: chewing on the stew’s meat gave my mouth an unwelcome gym exercise that was not at all in my vacation’s itinerary. Picture a car’s tire chopped into cubes and cooked alongside potatoes, that just about captures the taste of Santa Rita’s stew. Oh and for future customers: Santa Rita’s last available Sunday evening reservation on OpenTable is at 8PM. But when you arrive to the restaurant a few minutes before 8, they will inform you that the restaurant is closed. You will tell them that you have a reservation (in our case, it was for 7:45). They will let you in. Once you are seated, they will tell you their ingredients are all gone and they can only serve ~3 menu items. You will be starving and it will be too late to find another restaurant so you will order the quinoa salad, the sea bass, and the stew. Ps. I very loudly and clearly told the waiter that I only eat gluten free- but the salad proudly showed up loaded with croutons which I daintily removed. I am puzzled by the other reviews on this establishment. The food is laughably bad. I actually laughed.