Conoce Mi Panama

It is not often when one hears of a Zabiha Halal Panamanian restaurant, so when we found out about Conoce Mi Panama ("know my Panama"), we felt daring and decided to check it out. It's a tiny restaurant located at 3054 W. Armitage Ave. in Chicago. It was a pretty cold night with some drizzling, and the warm hues emanating from inside the restaurant looked very cozy and inviting. Inside, there was a good blend of customers: a Caucasian family, an African-American Muslim couple, a mixed couple, a Panamanian couple, and a mixed Muslim group of friends. The restaurant was painted in deep reds and burnt orange. There were framed photographs of the Panamanian culture on the wall-people, geography, art, etc. 2 big tvs played Latino band music with a few salsa dancers (which my daughter loved and then proceeded to display HER dancing moves to the entire restaurant-sigh).

We were greeted by Antonio, the manager/owner with a friendly "Assalam alaikum" and by the rest of the Muslim patrons. Everyone else was very nice and inviting as well. Our waitress was Lulu, who was also one of the chefs at the restaurant and even has a dish named after her! She was very patient while explaining the menu to us novices of this type of food. She also pointed out the 2 most popular dishes which we ended up ordering.

For drinks, my husband ordered Chicheme, which is Hamony corn with sweetened milk. This was very sweet, too sweet. Lulu also let us sample the Saril, a drink made with the Hibiscus plant. This was also very sharp and sweet, but smelled beautiful because of the flower. For appetizers, we ordered Carimanolas, which are filled Yuca fritters. Basically, it was a potato-like shell, fried with ground beef inside. Those were not bad and were served with some Thousand Island dressing. We ordered chicken nuggets for my daughter since it didn't look like there were any kid-friendly options on the menu. Those were served with a ketchup-mayo blend.

For the main course, we ordered Lulu's Special-Bistec Encebollado a La Pimieta which is Lulu's Fried Flank Steak with Caramelized Onion. This came with white rice, bean soup, sweet plantains, and steamed vegetables. I did not like this dish at all. Even though most of the reviewers rated their steak very high on Zabihah.com, I thought it had too much black pepper in it, which quickly became overwhelming. The white rice was not all the way cooked and was hard. The only thing good about the dish were the steamed vegetables and the bean soup. My husband ordered the Ropa Vieja which is shredded beef (known in Panama as "old clothes"). This was served with the same sides as the steak, only my husband ordered a salad with dressing instead of steamed vegetables. This dish was pretty good. It was very tasty and filling. Usually, when I get shredded beef anywhere, it's pretty chewy and too stringy, but here it was very soft and easily digestible.

For dessert, they offer some pretty delicious-sounding Panamanian food like Caramelized Plantains with ice cream and bread pudding, but it was getting late so we left. The prices were pretty cheap for the amount/type of food they gave. My steak dish was $13.00 which is a pretty good price for the quantity of steak that was on my plate. All the other entrées range from $12.75-$14.75.

Overall, I thought this restaurant had good appeal for a date night, not so much for a family-friendly place due to the space limitations. I did not like the food, but that could be because I have no real knowledge on Panamanian food.

Spice Card

Atmosphere: B+

Staff/Waiter: A

Food: D