Tableside Tastes, Tuned for TikTok

Chefs are keeping an eye on social media as they devise increasingly over-the-top presentations.

- Hannah Selinger

The crème brûlée at Brasserie Margot, in Atlanta, is topped with cotton candy-and torched at the table.

THE GILDED CART caught my eye-a set piece stacked with overstuffed croissants, both savory and sweet. I was planning to have a traditional Panamanian breakfast of tamales and fresh fruit, but when I walked into Caleta, the restaurant inside Panama City's Sofitel Legend Casco Viejo (doubles from $324), everything changed. Who could resist that gorgeous laminated dough, gleaming in the morning light? Not me. I ordered the croissant de frutas rojas, which arrived oozing pastry cream and topped with candied hibiscus and cane honey.