MAITO (PANAMA)
- Mommy the Foodie
- Jul 29, 2017
- 2 min read
Food: 4.5
Ambiance: 4.5
Service: 4
Panama has had a restaurant boom in the past few years, led in part by Chef Mario Castrellon (yay Panama!). In 2010, Chef Castrellon opened Maito, an ode to Panamanian food, in the neighborhood I grew up in. Being a Panamanian who now lives in the US, one of the things I miss most about my former home is my Panamanian food
When I come back to Panama to visit family, everything I eat is deliberate. So if I’m eating at your restaurant in Panama, the food you’re serving means something to me. Maito is a trip down memory lane. Every dish feels so authentically panamanian. It’s a home cooked meal but elevated (don’t tell my mom I said that).
We started out with a Ceviche de Atún (tuna ceviche) in a passion fruit sauce. The freshness of the raw tuna (raw, yum) paired with the tangy passion fruit was delish. It was topped with some sort of cracker that added a smokey taste to it. Very yummy.
We had a heart of palm salad with a passion fruit vinaigrette. I know, two dishes with passion fruit. But we Panamanians love our passion fruit. So bravo Chef. Delicious salad.
Next we had the goat cheese salad. One of the things that upsets me when having goat cheese in my salad is always feeling like there just isn’t enough dang cheese. Not this baby. The goat cheese covers the greens like a beautiful layer of cheesy snow. Not a super Panamanian dish but I’m not mad. I just ate goat cheese snow.
My semi-vegetarian friend (who I love) ordered this dish next. It was a sort of vegetarian ceviche made with watermelon and jicama. If you’ve been reading my posts you know how I love raw fish. So replacing raw fish with watermelon and jicama felt a bit sacrilegious to me. Skip this dish.
A friend ordered the cobia in a miso sauce. It was tasty, but my dish schooled every other dish at the table.
Oh yes, I had the duck chow mein . The noodles were saucy and deliciously flavorful. But the kicker: the sauciness was paired with crunchy duck. I could have kissed this dish. It was homey, and cozy, and sophisticated. It was exactly what I went to Maito for. Order the duck chow mein. You’ll thank me.
For dessert, we had a popcorn sandwich. Let me explain. The ice cream is popcorn ice cream and the sandwich is made of churros. A little drizzle of caramel and voila. Happy camper over here. I felt like a kid. Perfect ending
If you’re visiting Panama and want to see what our food is all about, this is an awesome fancy shmancy way of doing that.
Address: Calle 50 Este, Panama, Panama
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