Panama Dining Room

Panama Dining Room

Level 3, 231 Smith St, Fitzroy
www.thepanama.com.au

BarAmigo’s two pesos –cool but rather commercial for Smith St.

When visited – Sat 11 Aug 8.45pm to 12.15am

Panama Dining Room is great for the young professionals with disposable income at hand. Sleek, busy and cool. Maybe a place to be seen but its still good for a drink to catch up with friends.

The bar area at Panama Dining Room about 11pm on a Saturday

Just polished off three great Mountain Goat beers at Rockwell and Sons and now meeting some friends for dinner. Been looking forward to hitting up Panama Dining Room for a while now.

At 9pm on a Saturday Panama Dining Room is busy and pumping. There’s enough people around that you’d need to be a little lucky to be able to grab a seat in the bar/lounge area. Most of the good spots already taken. About 11ish its a bit different with most people mingling and up on their feet so you might be able to find a spot rather easily then.

Crowd wise its the mid 20s through early 30s young professional crowd with cash to splash. I don’t really care about the whole north/south rivalry thing but everyone can generalise about places whether they are north or south. Panama Dining Room is the kinda crowd which would easily fit into a venue that’s south of the river. Not many hipsters over here. Most people dressed in classy clothes fitting for a big night out on a Saturday. No scruffy jeans or t shirts here. Panama Dining Room is really one of the more commercial, mainstream places that you’d find on Smith St.

Can’t comment too much about the drink prices at the bar but we spent $120 a head for two courses, shared desserts and two bottles of wine at the restaurant. Mains you’re looking at $25-$30 a plate. My friends had a couple of cocktails before (expect $17-20 each) and they mentioned they were pretty good. Decent choice of beer available so you won’t be stuck with the standard CUB beers by any means.

The bar at Panama Dining Room is a great spot for a pre or post dinner drink whilst you are waiting for your table at the restaurant. Or even just a spot to drink up in the vibrant bar atmosphere. It’s voice noise which fills the room. Don’t remember the tone of the music but it’s more background music than getting people up and dancing.

And yes it has taken a while to get this Panama Dining Review up and going…

Panama Dining Room is that flash of south side on the north side. Busy and happening on a Saturday night. Make a booking for the restaurant if you wanna meal. Regardless, a drink at the bar is pretty good. And the view of the city is fantastic as well.

Salud
Eddie
BarAmigo – Your friend at the bar

Keep up to date with new reviews by clicking “like” on the top left or head to our Facebook page.

Follow BarAmigo on Twitter @baramigomel