Breakfast at Brio Brasserie, Waldorf Astoria Panama

One morning we decided to stop pretending we were roughing it and had breakfast at the Waldorf Astoria. The hotel sits right on the edge of Punta Paitilla, steps from Balboa Avenue where it runs along the bay, and Brio Brasserie — their French and American brasserie on the ground floor — has a terrace that opens straight onto the water. It felt like the right morning for it.

The terrace is beautiful in a quietly understated way — wide white umbrellas, dark rattan chairs, a wooden deck that stretches out toward a glass railing with nothing between you and the Bay of Panama. We got there early enough that it wasn't crowded yet, and we had a table right at the edge. The city skyline sat on the horizon across the water, boats moving in the channel below, and the morning light doing that thing it does in Panama where everything looks washed and golden even before it gets hot.

Brio runs a proper French-style breakfast — the kind that makes you slow down without trying. A basket of fresh pastries came first: a croissant with real layers and proper butter, a pain au chocolat, a small brioche roll. Everything baked in-house and tasting like it. Coffee arrived in a proper wide-mouthed cup, strong and smooth, none of the bitterness that hotel coffee usually has. We ordered off the à la carte menu too — eggs, fresh fruit, a couple of things we'd been missing after a week of street food and local spots. It was unapologetically good.

We'd been eating somewhere new every single meal the entire trip — the rule was no repeats — but sitting on that terrace with the bay in front of us and a second cup of coffee on the way, we understood why people come back to Brio again and again. Some places just get the basics exactly right. If you're in Panama City and want a slow, beautiful morning before the day starts, this is it.