The short answer

Panama is the McDonald’s you can price-check against your own, because the country runs on US dollars. The board is mostly standard Arcos Dorados, with one local turn of its own: a Desayuno Típico built on carimañolas (fried yuca fritters) and thick Panamanian corn tortillas, with a portion of white cheese sold as a side. No beans on the McMuffin here, no Antojos counter, and fried chicken on the bone at any hour.

The Panamanian site listed 72 items on September 11, 2026, across burgers, chicken and nuggets, breakfast, sides, desserts and drinks. Most of it will look familiar from Costa Rica and El Salvador: McNífica, Cuarto de Libra, McPollo, bone-in Pollo McCrispy, Cajita Feliz. Breakfast is where the menu stops being generic.

The other thing to know before you order is the money. Panama uses the US dollar as its circulating paper currency; the balboa is the national unit, pegged one to one, and you mostly meet it as coins. So the number on a Panamanian menu board is a US dollar number, which makes this the rare foreign McDonald’s you can compare with your local one without opening a converter.

Images © McDonald’s Panamá, checked against the chain’s own menu.

Checked September 11, 2026. The corporate site publishes no prices. The app quotes yours in dollars, and they vary by restaurant.

Burgers

Seventeen listings once you count the sizes. The value tier runs one patty further than the US board does, and the Gourmet tier runs a lot shorter than the one next door in Honduras.

Item What it is
Big Mac Big Mac Beef, Big Mac sauce, cheese, onion, lettuce, pickles. 472 calories here.
McNífica McNífica Latin America’s own beef signature, single or double. Never sold in the US.
Quarter Pounder with Cheese Quarter Pounder with Cheese Cuarto de Libra con Queso The Quarter Pounder, name translated literally, with a Doble beside it.
Triple Cheeseburger Triple Cheeseburger Triple Hamburguesa con Queso Three patties and cheese, a size the current US menu doesn’t carry.
McDoble Gourmet McDoble Gourmet The whole Gourmet tier in Panama, one item, listed with no build.
McFiesta Jr. McFiesta Jr. The 284-calorie small burger sold in the Cajita Feliz with yogurt and a toy.

Chicken and nuggets

Six listings in the chicken category, plus the two McCrispy sandwiches, the McPollos and the CBO, which the site files under burgers. Nothing on the page is fish: two coastlines about 50 miles apart, and no Filet-O-Fish anywhere on the menu.

Item What it is
McCrispy Fried Chicken McCrispy Fried Chicken (3 pc) Pollo McCrispy 3 pza. Fried chicken on the bone, sold as one, two or three pieces.
Chicken McNuggets Chicken McNuggets (6 pc) Sold in 4, 6 and 20. No 10-piece on the published board.
McCrispy Chicken Sandwich Deluxe McCrispy Chicken Sandwich Deluxe The premium crispy chicken sandwich, with a Classic version beside it.
McPollo McPollo The regional McChicken; a Doble McPollo stacks two fillets.
Pollo Ranch Pollo Ranch Crispy chicken patty, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion. 366 calories.
CBO CBO Three letters, no description. Chicken, bacon and onion in the other Arcos Dorados markets.

Breakfast

Nineteen items, the longest category on the menu and the reason to write about Panama at all. The Desayuno Típico comes with carimañolas or with tortillas, a combined plate carries one of each, and both starches are also sold on their own, as is the white cheese.

Item What it is
Combined Panamanian Breakfast Combined Panamanian Breakfast Desayuno Típico Combinado Scrambled eggs, one tortilla, one carimañola, white cheese, sausage. 596 calories.
Panamanian Breakfast with Carimañolas Panamanian Breakfast with Carimañolas Desayuno Típico con Carimañolas The típico plate with the yuca fritters. No published ingredient list.
Panamanian Breakfast with Tortillas Panamanian Breakfast with Tortillas Desayuno Típico con Tortillas The same plate with thick fried corn tortillas instead.
Two Carimañolas Two Carimañolas Dos Carimañolas Mashed yuca around seasoned meat, fried, two to an order.
Two Tortillas Two Tortillas Dos Tortillas The Panamanian tortilla: a thick round of fried corn, closer to an arepa.
White Cheese White Cheese Queso Blanco A 44-gram portion of fresh white cheese, 110 calories, sold as a side.
Egg McQueso Egg McQueso Egg and cheese on the muffin, with a sausage version beside it.
Full Breakfast Full Breakfast Desayuno Completo Eggs, muffin, sausage, hash brown. 644 calories; the Deluxe adds pancakes for 833.
Double Sausage & Egg McMuffin Double Sausage & Egg McMuffin McMuffin Doble Salchicha Huevo Two sausage patties and egg. The bean McMuffins of the neighboring markets are absent.

Sides

The sides category holds one product: fries. There is no Antojos menu in Panama, so none of the McPatata wedges, fried cheese cubes or toasted bean sandwiches that the rest of Central America gives a whole section to. The hash brown is filed under breakfast.

Item What it is
Fries Fries (large) McPapas Grandes Three listed sizes: pequeñas, chicas and grandes. Two of those mean small.
Hash Brown Hash Brown Papa Rallada Grated potato, under its literal name, sold alone or inside the breakfast plates.

Desserts

Nine desserts, soft serve doing most of the work, and the shakes listed over with the drinks.

Item What it is
McFlurry Oreo McFlurry Oreo Oreo and M&M’s, the only two on the board. Honduras lists six.
Caramel Sundae Caramel Sundae Sundae con Caramelo Caramel, chocolate and strawberry, the full sundae trio.
Apple Pie Apple Pie Pastel de Manzana The only pie Panama lists; the neighbors also do cheese and strawberry cream.
Swirl Cone Swirl Cone Cono Combinado Vanilla and chocolate twisted together, beside a plain chocolate cone.
Strawberry Oreo Shake Strawberry Oreo Shake Batido de Oreo Fresa Strawberry shake blended with Oreo. The other shake is chocolate.

The drinks list beside them is short: Coke, Coke Zero, two Fantas, iced tea, apple and orange juice, bottled water, and Fresca, the Coca-Cola grapefruit soda that gives the fountain its one Latin American note. There is no McCafé section on the Panamanian page, one Café Premium aside, which is the clearest gap against Honduras and Nicaragua, where the McCafé counter carries the most local part of the menu.

FAQ

Does McDonald’s Panama charge in US dollars?

Yes. Panama uses the US dollar as its circulating paper currency, with the balboa pegged one to one and turning up mainly as coins, so a Panamanian McDonald’s price is a US dollar price. The chain’s site publishes no prices at all, so the app is where you see them.

What is a carimañola?

A carimañola is boiled yuca (cassava), mashed, wrapped around seasoned meat and deep-fried into a torpedo shape. Panamanians eat them at breakfast, and McDonald’s sells them two to an order, plus inside the Desayuno Típico plates.

What can you order in Panama that the US menu doesn’t have?

Bone-in fried chicken, a triple cheeseburger, the McNífica, the McFiesta Jr., the Egg McQueso, a strawberry Oreo shake, and a breakfast plate of yuca fritters, fried corn tortillas and white cheese. Everything else lines up with the US burger menu.

How does Panama compare with the rest of Central America?

It is shorter and less localized. Panama shares the McNífica, Cuarto de Libra, McPollo and bone-in McCrispy chicken with El Salvador and Costa Rica, while skipping the Antojos section, the refried-bean McMuffins and the localized McCafé board that its neighbors lean on. Its local energy all goes into the breakfast plates. More comparisons in McDonald’s around the world.

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About Kevin

I track what the world's biggest chains are serving, country by country — new releases, exclusives and prices, checked against the chains' own menus and press rooms. Every page shows when it was last verified.

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