Ten Bistro

Ten Bistro
Calle 50
Centro Comercial Multiplaza (location visited)
Panama City, Panama

There always seems to be a cultural flip when people travel from/to different countries. When I first moved to Vancouver, I was really happy to try things we didn’t have in Panama (or, at least things I considered “exotic” back then). For example, I visited one or two Korean restaurants, then moved to Indian, Vietnamese restaurants, Japanese restaurants and so on. Why? Because in Panama, these weren’t mainstream back then! Of course, things have changed and yesterday’s post of Sushi Itto is a sign of that. Of course, since I was out of the country for so long, that meant I really wanted to try the “local” fare, not things I could also find in Vancouver, as well. Alas, my mom was cooking almost every single day for me and my parent’s friends which limited my opportunities of eating out. But, I had a wild card: meeting my own friends. As mentioned yesterday, I went out with GN and the meeting place was a mall where we had a light snack in Sushi Itto. Later that day then, it was time for dinner and the question was… Where? In the end, we went to Ten Bistro; however, believe me, there was a bit of thought process behind it!

Prior to even meeting GN at that mall, we were considering different options. The fact that neither one of us had a car in Panama (while I could rent one, Panamanian traffic is not something I am willing to deal with anymore), plus the fact that public transit is a pain and cabs are another pain in their own way, meant the meeting place had to be somewhere manageable. For her, another important detail was that the place had to be somewhere with A/C – after all, the temperature on those days were ~33C and over 75% humidity! For me, as long as there was a good restaurant, hehehehe. We ended up going to Multiplaza, a local relatively big sized mall with the intent of going to a restaurant afterwards. The problem was that GN was a bit enthusiastic on some American chains! For example, she wanted to visit originally places like Bennigan’s or TGI Friday’s – and I will admit that 10 or so years ago, it would have been fine to me… ^_^;;; By the time we finally chose to go to have dinner, we were a bit lazy to go out of the mall which left us which a limited number of options. Following that initial non-North American chain line of thought, I “convinced” GN not to go to Tony Roma’s and Benihana. And, while my wish to go to a more traditional Panamanian restaurant was partially squashed as well (there weren’t any in the mall), we ended up in a compromise to go to the first non-North American restaurant, non-food court restaurant we could find. And, somehow, we ended up going to Ten Bistro. OK, I fib… On our way there, we pass through two other restaurants; however, (1) We thought they were part of the same restaurant and (2) we didn’t want to sit outside, despite it had cooled down a little bit by then.

I know these two restaurants names (next to Ten Bistro) do not mean a lot to you but, if you watched the Panama episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations…

However, visiting Ten Bistro, has its own share of pros. While in the past I had gone to traditional Panamanian restaurants (Mi Ranchito, El Trapiche, et al), I was also curious as to what would happen when a French trained chef takes the local Panamanian ingredients. Sure, I want my sancocho or ceviche but, at the same time, you want to expand those borders. So, in its own odd ways, I had my share of enthusiasm coming to this place.

Now, it wasn’t GN’s first visit – she went there a couple of weeks prior to my visit to Panama. In her case, she went during an event to that similar of Dine Out Vancouver was going on. OK, just in case to those who are also NOT from Vancouver: During a two week period, local restaurants have prix fixe menu (ranging from $18, $28 or $38 in 2010) to entice customers to visit restaurants. While that sounds good, I have mentioned in the past I have doubts about it. Specifically, the experience in such events does not necessarily reflect what you get in a regular (in our case, weekend) dinner night. With that in mind, we sat down and looked at the menus…

Because of the “snack” we had prior to visiting here, I wasn’t really that hungry so I devised a plan of my own: order two small dishes. On GN’s side, she wasn’t sure what to order either and, eventually I decided for her by choosing a dish I would have ordered had I plan to eat a full meal. However, there was a small problem: they weren’t sure if that dish was “ready” yet (more details in a moment), so the waiter had to go to the kitchen to verify. When he came back, he mentioned it was but, it might not be at its optimum. GN had her share of doubts whether to go for that dish or another she was pondering about while the waiter was checking with the kitchen. Eventually, I “convinced” her to go for my option. But, here is the kicker… After her order was taking and I made mention I wanted two small dishes instead of one, the waiter asked GN if she was interested in another dish (i.e., appetizer), since mine would be served one at a time and she would then have something at the same time. Well, it seems that was the only push she needed, as she ordered it on the spot! Yes, I will admit the waiter did quite a good job selling the menu…

Now, I know I was a bit vague about the dishes so let’s jump to it, starting with GN’s first dish (the one she had originally in mind)…

Crema de Zapallo or cream of squash, though the translation of this name will have a small caveat: that of using “squash” as a generic term, not as a specific type of squash. I managed to have some of this soup and I will have to admit it was pretty darn good. It was quite thick, though not necessarily due to dairy but partially due to the squash itself, as if they used a lot of squash to prepare the soup, blend it and then add some dairy to call it a “cream” rather than add a heavy dose of cream. Not necessarily a complain… Furthermore the squash taste was heightened by a heavy pinch of nutmeg. It could have been borderline overpowering but it did quite a good job.

As for me, I ordered a cold lasagna, with oxtail meat and ravigote sauce. Based on the description, I was expecting something meaty and, from that perspective, it didn’t disappoint. Oxtail meat? Hey, sign me in! Unfortunately, that was the end of it. I won’t argue the meat was tender; however, the dish had a acidic, sour taste to it. Now, it wasn’t rotten or anything like that, instead, it was mostly due to vinegar/mustard in ravigote sauce which gave those tones. While I don’t have issues with eating/drinking bitter dishes/drinks, I found this one way past what I would normally like, hence I didn’t even finish half of it. On that note, when our second dishes were served, our waiter dropped by and wanted to confirm if there was anything wrong… (The dishes were taken away by a different waiter).

GN’s second dish was osso buco (though the restaurant has it listed as “Ozo buco”), which was served with chickpeas. Before going to the meat, the chickpeas weren’t as soft as it could have been and, flavourwise, additional seasoning would have helped a lot. However, I must keep in consideration that we were warned that they were just finishing and additional resting period would have helped. As for the meat, it was a really large serving, not to mention it was fall off the bone. It had a somewhat heavy tomato taste, which I didn’t mind, though I felt something to balance the taste could have helped a lot. Not disappointed overall, though, again, there was a bit of room for improvement.

My dish was sauteed octopus with potato aioli. While dishes like rice and beans is the core of more traditional Panamanian cuisine, given the abundance of seafood in Panama, dishes like octopus this would be something you would see when you go out on a weekend night. And, in this case, it didn’t disappoint – it was the most tender octopus I ever had. Sure, some people look forward to that “snap” when eating octopus but, here, it was as soft as if it could be. OK, no melt-in-your-mouth feeling but it had the texture of shrimp, i.e., a slight inital resistance and then soft afterwards. The potato didn’t do much (it felt like a mashed version of a potato salad) but, fortunately, it didn’t get into the way of the main star.

GN didn’t finish her dish; however, I managed to convince her to order dessert. OK, there wasn’t too much convincing required, after all, girls love their desserts… Last time she was in Ten Bistro, she ordered profiteroles and, for comparison purposes, I suggested it. So, we ordered one to share. If I compare it to the one I had at Bistrot Bistro, I will have to say there weren’t as good. The main problem was that the choux was baked crisp in some parts and, as a result, a bit difficult to break into. GN commented it wasn’t like that last time she had it so it seems there is a bit of consistency issues. As for the ice cream was average but, at least, managed to “soften” the crisp choux pastry. I won’t say it was the best in the world but, at least, it got the work done…

One thing that really (and I have to emphasize on really) impressed me was service. While it wasn’t overly attentive (we had to “chase” them down for the dessert menu), at no times the glasses were empty and dishes were cleared in a timely manner. And the fact that I was asked about any issues because I didn’t finish my dish topped it all. I wanted to mentioned this because, in the past, service was (still is?) one of the main issues in the hospitality industry in Panama. So, from that perspective alone, kudos to the restaurant.

Overall, despite some things went sideways, I like the direction the restaurant takes. Sure, it completely overlooks traditional dishes (there were no rice and beans or ceviche – for the later one, I should have gone to one of the restaurants outside Ten Bistro), it still prepares dishes locals are still familiar with a foreign methods. Granted, the average Panamanian might not go often to this place (think of it as somebody in Vancouver going to Market by Jean-Georges every weekend) but I found it was worth while. Finally, just for comparison purposes, other than the osso buco, which was $15, the rest of the dishes were less than $10.

Tagged under: Beef • French • Latin America • Panama City • Seafood