When Panama Social co-owner Paul Aron told me his new restaurant was “neo-tropical”, I’ll admit I took a moment. I wondered, have we just jumped the shark? But Aron’s track record speaks for itself: Tiny’s, Mary Street Bakery, el Publico, Ace Pizza, Greenhouse. Ventures that at some point pushed the Perth dining scene forward.

Any doubt was quashed within minutes of entering the vibrant William Street property that many would know as the former home of Han’s Café, and the short-lived Cyril Mason’s.

There’s an air of el Publico in its heyday across the venture; both in the spirit and the delivery. A mix of primary colours, pastels, whitewashed walls and an urban jungle of greenery, provide the tropical motif writ large. Archways leading through to private booths, a real plus for settling in: albeit Maradona’s Den, brings back memories not of Argentina, but Mexico 1986.

If there’s one thing Aron and co know, it’s that food is only half the equation. Familiar faces from Perth’s bar scene are straight in with the offer of drinks. Whether their tropical shirts are a veiled Cocktail reference, I don’t know. But the list, dripping with rum, tequila and pisco is on point.

In the kitchen chef Chris Howard is the unassuming powerhouse of the venture. On his shoulders the neo-tropical bent could sink or swim. He’s Olympic squad material. There’s real curiosity and passion here.

He’s crafted a menu that’s fun, accomplished and coherent; tweaking staples of the Caribbean, Central and South America without it feeling like shameless appropriation or reckless fusion.

Okra, strangely perhaps, is one of my great pleasures. It brings back memories of buying handfuls from a Brick Lane cash and carry or soul food in out if the way Memphis neighbourhoods. Howard is pickling them; a simple but effective use of good produce. He tells me it’s now off the menu. Gutted, but hoping it returns.

Empanada, the wrapped savoury, is perhaps an obvious and easy addition to the menu. Howard’s gone a simple route with crisp not oily pastry and a piquant jalapeño mayo. The quesadilla, is another thumbs up, as is the well-priced half char-grilled jerk chicken.

A raw hamburger isn’t really a selling point to most but Howard has taken a Trinidad classic, frybake shark, and his want for beef tartare and lo one of Perth’s best dishes is born. The bread, fried not baked and not as heavy as you’d think, holds beef tartare, with pickled white onions, spring onion mayo and a wonderful textural hit from anchovies and fried shallots. The fry bake is destined to be Panama Social’s signature, and proves that neo-tropical isn’t jumping the shark.