Nueva Posada Restaurant Review

Travelling from Supermercado El Rey towards Panama City, you will find La Nueva Posada on the left side of the street across from the entrance to Gorgona. This in a small covered, open style patio restaurant with about 5 tables that are well spaced from each other. The space is basic, with a TV showing the news. This is another one of the local restaurants that make up in the quality and price of their food, what they lack in décor. It’s a Monday night, when my friend and I arrive for dinner. The restaurant is fairly quiet with just one other table of 5 eating. We seat ourselves and the waitress, Merida arrives promptly with menus. While we contemplate the extensive Spanish-English menu, Merida brings us 2 glasses, a jug of water and sets bread and butter on the table.   The menu has a variety of foods. Apart from the traditional fare that is expected of this type of restaurant, I’m surprised to discover that Chow Mein and Chop Suey are also on the menu.

Deciding to pass on the Chinese dishes, we order a plate of Garlic clams to share for an appetizer and ask the waitress to recommend our mains. She suggests the Chopped Beef with Sliced Onions and the Garlic Corvina. My friend gets the beef with a side of fried Plantains and I go for the seafood with French fries. To drink we order fresh papaya and pineapple slushys. I hang on to the menu, so that I can make some notes for this review. There are a variety of selections available here for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The following are the highlights:

For breakfast you can order scrambled eggs for a $1.90. Add a side of hojaldres (fried bread), empanadas carimañolas (filled yucca), or bollo (corn rolls) and you have a traditional Panamanian breakfast.

For lunch you can order Sancocho. A small serving is $1.50 and large is $2.00. If you have a taste for the ocean, a small sea food soup is $2.50, while a large is a dollar more.

If you have a hankering for pasta, spaghetti with meat balls is $3.25, with shrimps $4.25 or with chicken and a cream sauce, $5.95.

You can order a hamburger for $1.00, a grilled cheese sandwich for $1.50, or a pork leg (emparedado de pierna) and mozzarella cheese sandwich for $3.75.

There are several main dishes that are served with side selections of fried plantain or yucca or french fries or a small salad of cabbage, carrots and tomatoes. The most expensive of these is $8.95.

For seafood you can have Corvina (sea bass), shrimps or jumbo shrimps. An order of shrimps with garlic sauce come with fried plantains, yucca or French fries is $4.95. The Sea Food Grill that comes with a variety of sea food is $12.95.

The highlight of the beverage selection is a fresh fruit slushy for $1.15. Lemonade, beer, wine and sodas are also available. For deserts there is ice cream, gelatin or banana split.

As for our meals:

The Garlic clam appetizer is quite delicious. We dip pieces of the compliment bread in the garlic sauce and clean the plate. My friend’s beef with onions was an ample portion and he says the meat was tender and tasty. My Corvina was a fair size and quite satisfactory. The total cost of our meals, with appetizer, drinks and deserts was under $20.00.

One other thing… The bathrooms are very clean.

La Nueva Posada is open Monday to Sunday from 6:00am to 10:30pm (or 11:30pm, customer dependant