Panama City Eats on a Budget: Where to Get a Meal
Where to eat in Panama City without overpaying
Panama City’s food runs on a wide spread, market ceviche at $3 a plate on one end, rooftop tasting menus at $40-plus on the other, and the gap between them is mostly location, not quality. Here’s where the good, cheap food actually is.
Mercado de Mariscos: the cheapest good meal in the city
The fish market near Casco Viejo sells corvina ceviche made to order for $3 to $6, versus $10 to $15 for the same dish sitting down at a restaurant a few blocks away. Go at lunch when the day’s catch is freshest, order at the counter, and eat standing or at the shared tables outside. It’s the single best-value meal in the city and worth building a day around.
Casco Viejo fondas
Tucked between the boutique hotels and rooftop bars, these small local lunch counters run $5 to $8 for a full plate, usually sancocho (Panama’s chicken-and-root-vegetable stew, the national dish) or patacones (twice-fried plantains) with rice and beans. They’re easy to walk past looking for the fondas rather than the restaurants with menus posted in English; the food is better and the bill is a third of the price.
Street and market snacks
Patacones run $2 to $4 from street stalls citywide. Hojaldras, fried breakfast dough, and carimañolas, stuffed yuca fritters, both run $1 to $3 and make a solid cheap breakfast or snack between sights. Look for stalls with a steady line of locals rather than the ones parked directly outside a tourist attraction.
Sit-down and rooftop
Casco Viejo’s rooftop restaurants charge $25 to $40 or more for a version of the same dishes the fondas serve, with a skyline or old-town view attached. Marbella and El Cangrejo have a denser, cheaper mid-range dining scene, $10 to $20 casual, aimed more at locals than tourists, and it’s usually a few dollars less than an equivalent meal in Casco Viejo.
What a full day of eating costs
| Meal | Pick | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | Hojaldras or carimañolas from a stall | $1-3 |
| Lunch | Ceviche at Mercado de Mariscos | $3-6 |
| Dinner (casual) | Casco Viejo fonda or Marbella spot | $5-8 / $10-20 |
| Dinner (splurge) | Casco Viejo rooftop | $25-40+ |
Drinks
Seco Herrerano, the national sugarcane spirit, and Ron Abuelo rum both show up on menus citywide, usually $4 to $8 a pour. Balboa and Panama beers run $2 to $4 at a casual spot, more at a rooftop bar.
For the full city budget breakdown, including transport and lodging alongside food, see the main Panama City guide ; the things-to-do guide pairs well since Mercado de Mariscos and Casco Viejo’s fondas sit right next to the day’s main sights.
Order the ceviche at Mercado de Mariscos before noon. The market thins out the seafood selection by mid-afternoon, and the freshest catch is gone first.