Fonda Lo Que Hay

I don't know how this restaurant is in the top 50 Best restaurants in Latinamerica. I was excited to go try it. My experience was disappointing. I looked up the menu ahead of time because I can't eat dairy or gluten. Found a dish which, based on the description, fulfilled my dietary needs. A Beef Guacho: Beans, rice, criollo stew, poached egg and cassava. Perfect, right? No... Luckily, I asked the waiter if the dish had gluten or dairy, and he said it has tons of butter and cheese. I asked if it could be made without cheese and he said no because it's pre-prepared with the cheese. I told him, please have management include those ingredients in the menu... Stuff like this is important. He said "well, we always ask if anyone has any allergies beforehand" but he hadn't asked me. It was such a turn off. I had been craving to try this dish all afternoon only to be told on site because I asked, that the dish is smothered in cheese, when there is no mention of it on the menu. Also, guacho typically DOES NOT include cheese in Panama, so there was no reason for me to have that expectation. I do appreciate that he knew his way around the menu and was able to recommend options for my dietary needs. I ordered the ceviche poke which was good though small. The ceviche had more onion than fish, I wish it had just a little more fish. The patacones were beautiful and amazing. The music could have been 15% lower... I couldn't hear the waiter and had to stand up and walk around the table to talk to him. My friend was sitting under the A/C and water was drippig on her and her menu. My menu had dried water droplets from a previous time it had been wet, smudging the ink. We had dishes on the table that were never removed, so we had to push the around to accommodate our dishes when they came in. Our food came in at different times, so we either had to wait or apologize to our friends for starting earlier so our dishes didn't get cold. The bussers didn't know who's dishes belonged to who and had to ask us. This is not what I expected from a restaurant of this caliber.

We enjoyed dinner with one guest who is vegan/gluten free. The restaurant was able to offer 3 delicious dishes for her. My husband and I shared shrimp ceviche, rice cakes with a smoked tomato dipping sauce and fabulous tuna carpacio served over crip casava tortilla as starters and had the grilled sea bass with fried plantains which were just OK. The appetizers were the stand out. They only had one dessert which was shaved ice in a large bowl with 3 topping options- passion fruit sauce, condensed sweet milk and powdered condensed milk which the diner self-served. It was a very simple but creative end to our meal. The restaurant was very crowded and the service was slow and inconsistent. I believe that the kitchen was unable to keep pace with the food and drink orders so service suffered. I think they would improve the dining experience if they reduced the number of tables and focused on customer service.