Lunch at Finca del Mar, Casco Viejo
The rule for the whole Panama City trip was simple: somewhere new every single meal, no repeats. With a week in the city and a neighborhood like Casco Viejo to work through, that was easy enough to stick to. We'd spent the morning walking the cobblestone streets — looking up at crumbling colonial facades painted in every shade of yellow and blue, ducking into plazas, following the sound of music down alleys that opened onto views of the bay. By early afternoon, we were hungry and right where we needed to be: on the Paseo Las Bóvedas, in front of Finca del Mar.
Finca del Mar sits right on the seawall promenade — the old fortification wall that runs along the western edge of Casco Viejo with the Pacific on the other side. The restaurant is an open-air patio: brick underfoot, iron railings along the water's edge, a red canopy stretched against the sky. The chairs are mismatched and colorful — reds, lime greens, oranges — and there are big terracotta planters thick with tropical greenery shading the tables. It has a Caribbean island vibe, unpretentious and easy, the kind of place that feels like it's always been there.
We got a table right at the edge of the patio, looking straight out over the railing to the water. The sky was the way it gets in Panama: bright and overcast all at once, the kind of afternoon light where everything looks slightly luminous. We ordered drinks first — a tropical agua fresca that came out a deep rosy pink, cold and not too sweet — and just sat there with the bay in front of us for a few minutes before looking at anything else.
The menu leans into fresh local seafood, and they do it right. We started with the ceviche — locally caught fish, cured in lime with ají chombo for heat. Panamanian-style ceviche is different from the Peruvian version most people know: the chunks are thicker, the flavors bolder, less acid-forward. It came out in a bowl with crispy corn on the side and it was exactly what you want when you're sitting next to the water in the afternoon heat. Clean and bright with just enough punch to make you pay attention.
We followed it with their fried fish — the thing Finca del Mar is most known for, and deservedly so. The skin is properly crispy in a way that holds, the flesh inside still moist and flaking cleanly off the bone. It came with patacones — twice-fried plantain rounds, golden and slightly salty — and a simple fresh salad. You eat it slowly. You look at the water. You realize the afternoon has gone exactly right.
If you're spending any time in Casco Viejo — and you absolutely should — Finca del Mar belongs on the list. Go for lunch when the heat is full and the bay is bright. Sit outside, order the ceviche and the fish, get the tropical drinks. It's one of those spots that earns its place in the neighborhood without having to try very hard.
