| Many excellent restaurants serving a wide variety of international
foods are scattered all over the San José area. Most
of these restaurants are incredible bargains when compared
to similar establishments in the United States. You will be
happy to know that Costa Rica's restaurants are clean, and
health codes are strictly enforced by the Health Ministry
(Ministerio de Salud). For your convenience we have
included a list of our favorite places to eat, but you are
sure to discover many on your own or by word of mouth once
you have lived in Costa Rica for a while.
Some of the best sea food you will ever savor may be found
at La Fuente de los Mariscos behind the Hotel Irazú
in the San José 2000 Shopping Center. El Banco de Mariscos
in Santa Barbara de Heredia and El Balcón de Mariscos
in Curridabat round out our list of affordable seafood eateries.
Machu Picchu, Ceviche del Rey and the Inka Grill serve delicious
Peruvian-style seafood.
There are also many Italian restaurants. The Balcón
de Europa serves about the best pasta dishes in San
José. If you like U.S.-style food and beer served in
foot-tall mugs, try Fridays near the university in San Pedro.
La Soda Tapia is famous for its gigantic fruit salads and
typical breakfasts. Restaurante Grano de Oro, in the charming
hotel of the same name, offers an excellent menu.
You can dine, watch TV and read an assortment of newspapers
at the News Café in the Hotel Presidente. They just
installed a new street-side bar that is a great spot for people
watching. Chelles (Ave. Central, Calle 9) serves great sandwiches.
Café Parisien, in the Gran Hotel Costa Rica, never
closes and is one of the best locations in town to people
watch. The City Café is one of many all-night restaurants
and a popular North American hangout. If you get a case of
the munchies and want to grab a late-night snack, there is
a lot of action here with the adjacent gambling area and swinging
bar. Rounding out our list of all-night eateries is Manolo's
outdoor café .
Chinese restaurants abound in the San José area. It
seems as if there is one on every block. The Asian food served
here is not as tasty as what you will find in San Francisco's
Chinatown, but it is inexpensive. If you want something other
than chopsuey, chow mein and rice dishes, try Tin Jo (221-7605)
restaurant. It has a wide selection including tasty Mandarin,
Szechuan and even Thai food. Shil La is a new restaurant in
the suburb of Rohrmoser that features authentic Korean and
Japanese food including sushi, sashimi and tempura. Villa
Bonita in Pavas is famous for its Asian food.
Lovers of Mexican food should try any of the El Fogoncito
locations, Antojitos (four locations), Las Tunas in Sabana
Norte and Los Panchos in Zapote. The latter has a great atmosphere
together with roving mariachis to serenade you. Tex Mex in
Santa Ana has become very popular with foreigners.
Excellent French cuisine is available at El Refugio del Chef
Jacques in Heredia.
The Pops ice cream parlors sell every imaginable flavor of
your favorite ice cream. Haagaen Dazs now has stores in Escazú
and Curridabat and is available in many super markets. TCBY,
the U.S. frozen yogurt chain, even has a couple of stores
here. Spoon pastry shops sell the best cakes and pastries
in the country many locations in the San José area.
Bagels can even be found in Costa Rica. Bagelmens'in San
Pedro, Curridabat, Belén and Escazú offers a
wide selection of fresh baked bagels, sandwiches and excellent
coffee.
La Fuente de Mariscos Restaurant
Coffee connoisseurs can savor a cup of their
favorite local brew and grab a bite to eat at the Café
Parisien in the Gran Hotel Costa Rica. The new Port City Java
chain of gourmet Cafés is very similar to Starbucks.
Café Britt offers a great coffee tour of its farm in
the hills of Heredia. We recommend this excursion to tourists
as well as permanent residents. They explain every step of
how coffee is grown and processed and relate the history of
coffee in Costa Rica.
If you like to eat-on-the-run, you can; all of the American
fast food restaurant chains operate in Costa Rica. Pizza Hut,
Papa John's, McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, Kentucky
Fried Chicken, Quizno's and Subway sandwiches all have restaurants
conveniently located in San José, the suburbs and several
shopping malls.
However, the best chicken is served at the Rosti-Pollos restaurants
in downtown San José, San Pedro, Escazú, Heredia,
Alajuela and Guadalupe. They cook their chicken over coffee
branches, which gives it an incredibly delicious flavor.
Denny's has one 24-hour restaurant next to the Hotel Irazú
and another by the airport with more restaurants scheduled
to open in the next couple of years. The chain offers breakfast
specials just as they do in the United States.
Meat lovers will be pleased to know that Tony Roma's, famous
for its ribs, opened a restaurant in Escazú. The same
owners just opened the first Wendy's hamburger chain in Costa
Rica.
Most U.S Fast Food Can be Found in San José
Goya in downtown San José and La Masía
de Triquell in Sabana Norte offer a wide variety of Spanish
and international dishes. Zermatt (222-0604) serves European-
style dishes.
For the best Costa Rican style cooking try La Casa de Doña
Lela with restaurants in Escazú, Belén and in
Tibás about a mile past the Saprissa Soccer Stadium.
The food is delicious and a steal. Rústico, a local
chain, also offers a wide selection of Costa Rican style dishes.
They have restaurants in Multiplaza, San Pedro Mall. Paseo
de las Flores and Real Cariari Mall. La Casona del Cafetal
is a real find. This restaurant is located about 45 minutes
from San José in the heart of the Orosi Valley and
has a great Sunday buffet. The setting is incredible. It is
located next to a lake and surrounded by a coffee plantation.
Sodas are plentiful and found all over. You can be
assured that almost any small shop displaying the sign soda
serves affordable food, since the majority of working-class
ticos eat in these establishments. Most big towns and
cities have a central market where a lot of sodas can
be found. Both San Jose's and Heredia's central markets have
dozens of sodas where you can find almost every imaginable
dish at rock bottom prices. We have eaten at the market in
Heredia and many a time couldn't finish the huge amount of
food that was served to us. The bill usually never runs more
than three dollars.
There are a number of vegetarian restaurants all over San
José and surprisingly in remote areas of the country
such as Montezuma Beach. As more and more Costa Ricans become
health conscious these establishments grow in popularity.
Prices are generally low and the servings are huge. One establishment
in San José offers soups, salad, rice, a vegetable
dish, dessert and a natural fruit juice drink for under $3.
Restaurante Vegetariano of San Pedro, located near the University
of Costa Rica, is one of our favorites and popular with the
college crowd. SIGLO XXI, 300 meters west of Pops ice -cream
in west Sabana, is a vegetarian Chinese food restaurant. Vishnu
has a couple of locations in downtown San José and
another in Heredia. The Mango Verde, also in downtown Heredia
completes our list of vegetarian eateries.
The Vishnu Natural Food Restaurants
The Tico Times and Costa Rica Today both carry
advertisements for restaurants and feature occasional restaurant
reviews. In addition, The Tico Times Restaurant Guide
lists hundreds of restaurants.
Home Delivery
Many establishments that would offer home delivery in the
United States do so in Costa Rica. We have listed a few below.
Please consult the phone bookor information for more locations
near you.
Fast Food:
Pizza Hut ......................................................................
290-9595
Domino's Escazú ..........................................................
228-8650
Papa John's ....................................................................
258-9999
Dos por Uno Pizza ................................800-621-2121,
281-2121
McDonald's ...................................................................
286-0101
Burger King ..................................................................
257-7777
Chicken:
RostiPollos ....................................................................
218-1212
Pollos Campero .............................................................
256-6363
Others:
Spoon Escazú ............................ 288-3145
(many other locations)
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