Pantano Bar: A neighbourhood gem in Willagee serving delicious Latin American food and elite cocktails

There is something so exciting about finding a great neighbourhood restaurant. A venue close enough to walk to, with great food and drinks, bringing vibrancy and, in this case, Venezuelan food, to your local area. When Pantano opened in 2021, we were worried for its future. Named for the Spanish word for swamp as a tie to the wetlands of Willagee, the new owners wanted to enrich the area with “the warmth, vibrance and loudness of the tropical place we came from”. But it was still a tricky time for restaurants as the COVID-19 pandemic wore on. Would the ‘Gee embrace Latin American food? Four years later, it’s clear we need not have fretted. As we head into Pantano for a Friday lunch, the colourful dining room is quiet but we know that by dinner, it will be heaving. It’s become a favourite, and the friendly greeting and attentive service as we enter are just part of the reason why. We head straight to the back courtyard, where a sandpit is set up with toys for the kids and a colouring page and pencils are immediately plonked down in front of our six-year-old. Latin American pop music and quirky decorations (Bad Bunny on a greenery wall, anyone?) put an immediate smile on my face. Much of the menu is customisable; one section allows you to choose a filling to be made as either a burger or an arepa (a Venezuelan bread made with ground maize, or “corn dough”) and another lets you choose a base — salad, sweet potato fries, cassava, arepas, cachapa (a kind of pancake), tostones (fried plantain slices) and more — then add toppings. We choose the Pantano arepa, a salad topped with “paloma chicken” and chicharron (pork belly bites) while our little guy branches out and gets, you guessed it, chicken nuggets and chips. And to be fair, both are great; the chips are top-tier, especially accompanied by the house-made sauces (bacon mayo, coriander, hot chilli and chipotle barbecue). The chicharron’s accompanying lime slices are perfect for cutting through the fat of the pork belly; this is a very unctuous dish. The salad is fresh and topped with grilled chicken, pickles and shoestring fries, house salsa and chilli sauce — tasty, but our pick is still the Mr Mechado from a previous visit, whose shredded beef and avocado combination is hard to beat. The arepa is, to put it mildly, elite. It’s not a first-date dish but once you’ve been together a while, you’re willing to risk a messy meal in the pursuit of flavour, which this brings in spades. The arepa is light with great crunchy texture, the chorizo patty is not too thick, the salad is fresh, and it is loaded with sauce; your mileage may vary but for me, more is better. And don’t sleep on Pantano’s cocktails. I had a very nice pisco sour, while my husband ordered the Trinidad fire. The waitress warned us the latter was very boozey — Kraken rum, orange curacao, cherry smoke, an orange ice cube and cherry drops. When she lifted the lid at the table, the wafting smoke was a nice piece of theatre to accompany a hard-to-beat drink which would be at home in any fancy cocktail bar. All this, and just a short walk from home. How lucky are we? The verdict: 15/20 A joyful, delicious neighbourhood favourite that gets better every time I visit. Pantano Bar 4/60 Archibald St, Willagee Open Monday-Sunday from 11am Contact 6261 9118 Bookings Yes