Since 2013 Hernan Correa Riesen, chef and owner, opened Riesen a restaurant 100% Panamanian, not common on that time. They had hard times but eventually people started to visit the restaurant. In Riesen he works a 100% with local products, to promote the consumption of seasonal & local products and support the national producers.

Located in the heart of Panama City, Riesen is a sober contemporary restaurant that makes you escape from the city and travel through Panama.  Chef Hernan works in the kitchen while his mom directs the service. As a fine dining restaurant, they offer a tasting menu, and I would recommend having it with the wine/beer pairing that accompanies each plate perfectly.

The menu I experienced included 8 times, of which 5 were plates and 3 desserts. Each one accompanied with a wine, beer and at the end a tea.

  • - Zucchini flowers, goat ricotta, koji* flour

  • - Nixtamalized* creole corn, stalk leaf, sungold tomatoes

  • - Nixtamalized* creole corn

  • - Scallop, miso, mandarin lime

  • - Mandarin lime

  • - Red clam from Bocas del Toro, amazake, leek

  • - Sancocho*

  • - Roasted duck, celeriac*, duck jus reduction, greens

  • Pumpkins

  • - Lemongrass tea

  • - Wild strawberries

  • - Cocoa from Bocas del Toro, jobito

  • -Vanilla icecream

  • -Petit fours

Riesen is a restaurant to put in your radar, if you like to enjoy 100% local and seasonal fine-dining restaurant in Panama City!

For more information: website and Instagram.

*sancocho: is a delicious, filling, and used to economical dish that gets its distinct flavor from chicken, an herb called culantro, a bit of corn on the cob, and starchy vegetables such as ñame, yuca, plantains, otoe and yams.

*celeriac:is a variety of celery cultivated for its edible stem and shoots.

*koji: is cooked rice and/or soya beans that have been inoculated with a fermentation culture, Aspergillus oryzae.

*nixtamalized: is a process for the preparation of corn, or other grain, in which the corn is soaked and cooked in limewater. washed, and then hulled.

Stay safe

 Diana 🤗