This restaurant obviously relies on its location. I understand working NYE is not ideal. But if you work in service, you have to put off with it. The service is bad. They all look depressed. They forget what you order. I order a drink twice while waiting 45 minutes for my Salad. When the Teriyaki salad came, it doesn’t taste like teriyaki at all. And it is a very plain salad with lettuce, a bit of carrot, almost no dressing. The chicken can be like 150 grams of Chicken and all it is around 15 dollars. I also ordered the Montadito de Patacón and it says it comes with Caribbean sauce. Please look at the photo. It is just almost a spoon of sauce. It is weak
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Price per person
PAB 20–25
Food: 2
Service: 1
Atmosphere: 2
Had breakfast here for 5 mornings as part of the Palma Royale Hotel booking in Bocos del Toro. You had to display a voucher for this. The food tasted fine,no problems there. However the portions would not feed a mouse. It seemed that some people had normal sized and some not (vouchers?). Even the glass for the drink was mini. On the last morning I ordered an orange juice with no ice, same as the 4 days before. They gave me a mini glass of orange juice with ice. I said it to the lady and she didn't look happy but said she would get me another. I could see her behind the bar, scooping the ice cubes out of the glass. I went over to her and said with a smile that I don't want a watery orange juice that you are messing around with, and I'm not taking that. She seemed flustered I caught her in the act. She replied incredulously ' what, am I meant to pour new juice in a new glass for you?'. I replied 'yes of course you are, you messed up the order'. She returned with the mini glass only 60% full of juice. I asked her what happened to the rest, and she replied that's it minus the ice. That is so mean and petty. What a loser. Deserves 0 stars. The view of the marina was the only good thing about this place
Desde su decker pudimos disfrutar de los mejores desayunos y las mejores vistas de Isla Colón. Fuimos varias veces y cada plato era aún mejor. Calidad-precio es insuperable.
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Breakfast
Price per person
PAB 10–15
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 5
El desayuno full americano viene muy escaso. Pedí más pan por la ración era ridícula y me querían cobrar suplemento de 3 $ cuando ya había pagado 10$ por el desayuno.
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Breakfast
Food: 1
Service: 1
Atmosphere: 1
First, the atmosphere is excellent. Beautiful interior; we arrived by boat, and it was easy to access the restaurant.
I will detail the food a bit later but wanted to start with the drinks which were terrible and the reason for this bad review. My margarita was white. There was no fresh-squeezed lime or lime at all. It tasted like triple sec (or some sort of other syrup) and some sort of lime syrup. It was really just syrupy and liquor. We also had a rum punch which was basically rum (and a lot of it, it was strong) and pineapple. It was bright yellow. So I took some of my son’s smoothie and improved the flavor. A true rum punch is not just Pineapple and rum. For the prices, all the drinks were very disappointing.
The food was good. Some dishes were better than others. I had the special fish and it was amazing and served on some puréed beets. My daughter had the Montadito de patacon, another Bocas specialty with shrimp, and she said it was excellent! The nachos we shared for the table were OK. Nothing special. My husband had a hamburger and he said it was just OK.
I read another review that the server did not seem particularly interested in serving, and we found that to be the case here as well. We definitely had to track her down when we wanted dessert and I wanted to try a margarita to see if the restaurant could redeem itself from the rum punch (it didn’t).
With so many wonderful restaurants in the area, I may try this again to see if they were experiencing an off-day or I may not. They were only two people in the restaurant, so I assumed our server was also the bartender, which may have been why the drinks were so poor.
The atmosphere is five stars though.
And the brownie with ice cream was very good.
An off-day? I hope.
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Lunch
Price per person
PAB 5–10
Food: 3
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 5
Recommended dishes
Brownie
I had this place on my list of restaurants to visit, but it was not what I expected. The ambience is great! Looks newly renovated, or well maintained, and has great over the water and indoor spaces.
The food, on the other hand, was just OK. We started with an appetizer, Chicken Satay. The sauce was not like a traditional Thai peanut sauce that I've had many times before. This one had the consistency and taste of just straight creamy peanut butter.
For our mains we had two dishes in a Caribbean Coconut Curry Sauce, a Fresh Fish Filet and Shrimp. While both dishes were ordered with the same sauce, the one on the shrimp was more watered down than the one on the fish. In either case, though, we were not hit with any depth of flavor you would expect from a coconut curry sauce. Just a mild, there I say, bland taste.
Due to the experience so far, we decided against any desserts.
I also want to add, the initial waitress that waited on us seemed very disinterested, almost annoyed that we were even ordering. When we were ready for the check, I caught her gaze at the bar and signaled for the check. She didn't acknowledge me at all even though I know she looked straight at me, very dismissive! What she did instead was have a 10 minute conversation with a waitress that had just started her shift and that waitress came over with the check so she obviously knew I wanted the check. I don't mind someone else waiting on us that wasn't our original server, but it was just her entire attitude towards us throughout our meal that didn't sit well with me.
I will say, though, the owner was friendly and very approachable!
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Lunch
Food: 3
Service: 2
Atmosphere: 5
Excelente ambiente de 100 atención de 1000 la joven que nos atendió muy amable y la comida si está un poco caro pero se entiende por el lugar pero no hay quejas de nada
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Price per person
PAB 10–15
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 5
Nuestro hotel ofrecía el desayuno en este lugar. Riquísimo todo y las chicas que atienden son muy amables
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Breakfast
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 5
Amazing atmosphere on the water. Fast and friendly service. Delicious drinks, extra fresh fruit and very tasty chicken nachos all for a good price
Service
Dine in
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 5
I didn’t realize that I haven’t reviewed Buena Vista before now. It may not be a bad thing, however, because I have almost 2 years experience of eating at this particular restaurant & my feelings are no different from day one.
The food is always consistent here. We eat breakfast & lunch here the most.
For breakfast, I love the Happy & Healthy, the Caribbean scramble and the classic as well.
For lunch the Fish taco, the nachos (shredded chicken & shredded beef), the Caesar salad, the teriyaki burger, chicken satay, basically everything, is great here.
Beyond the food, during early 2021 (COVID), they were one of the only restaurants that had consistent hours so that’s how we discovered them.
Now, let’s talk about the service. If you want a place that makes you feel welcome & at home, like a second family, this is your place.
