Leonardo’s Pizza is quite possibly the best meal deal in Panama.

The restaurant, if you could call it that, is quite sterile in appearance. Many of the walls are adorned with caricatures of celebrities: my favorite being the one with Madonna and Ronaldinho the soccer star. Upon looking at the photo one afternoon while waiting for my pizza, I envisioned a love child of the two; a baby who slightly resembled a blonde creature from outer space.

The menu at Leonardo’s is simple: pizza, pasta, or salad. Everything is priced exactly the same ($2.99) and while each used to come accompanied with a soda, they recently changed their policy and now you have to pay a whopping forty cents extra for a Coke. Let’s take a look at each of the menu items for a moment, shall we?

The pizzas are huge, maybe one and a half feet in diameter, probably enough for two people for lunch. They’re also crispy thin crust which makes me happy. You get to choose three toppings from a list on the board which includes ground beef, pepperoni, onions, mushrooms, some other things and my personal favorite pineapple. How pineapple ever found its way to pizza stardom I don’t know. Try ordering a plum pizza or a mango pizza and the waitress might look at you as if you told her you eat rocks. But pineapple. It works for some reason.

The pasta has several variations, my favorite of which is the lasagna which comes with vegetables, chicken, or beef. Each comes in a tin container the size of a brick which is piping hot, just out of the oven. You can also choose from a number of spaghetti options, my favorite of that collection being the bolognese which I still am not able to pronounce in Spanish.

The salads are a new option in Leonardo’s, probably to cater to that health-crazy demographic. Personally, I can’t ever see Panamanians eating anything other than fried foods all day, but occasionally I’ll hear someone order one of these salads which comes in a plastic container about the size of a small Nerf basketball. They are heavier in weight than they look.

The food comes out relatively quickly at Leo’s (what I’m now calling it) which is nice, but lines can be long during lunch time. They have a number of different branches throughout Panama City, my favorites being Via Brasil (because no one ever goes there—it’s too crowded) and Albrook Mall, the tables at which afford a terrific view of shoppers and small children with disabilities.

Leonardo’s is a terrific option if you’re looking to eat cheap in Panama City. If they only had opened up shop on my college campus.

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Filed under: Reviews on January 25th, 2008