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There are plenty of good restaurants in San José, Costa Rica but very few “excellent” ones…
Park Café is most definitely an excellent restaurant.
[ http://parkcafecostarica.blogspot.com/ ]
The photograph below is of the double lamb chops at Park Café…. Que hijo de p…a rico!
I would love to hear any VIP Member recommendations for truly “excellent” restaurants anywhere in Costa Rica.
Scott
When you are in the Nuevo Arenal area, try “The Gingerbread House” (they have a web page) for some of the best food in CR at very reasonable prices. The chef prepares food according to season, availability, and freshness – usually 4 or 5 choices for the main course, all of them wonderful. Dishes are served for two to share. The atmosphere is open and welcoming and the chef strolls the tables.
I have heard good things about that place VictoriaLST and is that the same place that brews their own ales too, right?
Scott
La Esquina de Buenos Aires, downtown San Jose – one of the best steak houses I have ever been to – NYC, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Tampa…..where ever!!! This place is GREAT – the food, the wines, the atmosphere are tops!!! Reservations are a must. http://www.laesquinadebuenosaires.com/
Restaurante BRISAS DEL LAGO in San Luis, 3 miles north of Tilaran on the way to Nuevo Tronadora. Excellent food, large menue, very reasonable prices. 😀
I agree with Watchdog. A trip to Costa Rica is not a trip without at least one meal at Hotel Grano De Oro. The best in Costa Rica or Canada for that matter. Well, in my opinion that is.
Jack
[quote=”Scott”]I have heard good things about that place VictoriaLST and is that the same place that brews their own ales too, right?
Scott
[/quote]
The Gingerbread house does not brew beer. I agree that they have great (though pricey) food but the Chef also has a attitude problem that many people complain about. Restaurants should provide a overall pleasant “experiance” not just food..
As to the place in Lake Arenal that brew’s there own beer, that would be the newly opened “Volcano Brewing Company” http://volcanobrewingcompany.com/ which is a Hotel/organic farm/restaurant/Micro-brewery.. their restaurant is pretty good but I would not say Excellent, though the whole place is beautiful and the beer is great and brewed on site. They also offer tours of the brewery and their Organic Gardens (where they produce the food to be used in the Restaurant).
Also in the Lake Arenal area, Brisas de Lago does indeed have the best food on the Tilaran side of the Lake. Also very affordable.
Ginger in Playa Hermosa Guanacaste is wonderful. Innovative small plates and tapas. Not cheap, but not terribly pricey for a beach town restaurant. And I agree about Gingerbread. Excellent food, and the portions are huge enough to split. I’ve read the stories about the owner, but he was perfectly genial when we were there.
Gan-Bei Asian Bar and Grill in Santa Ana is excellent. http://www.ganbeicr.com/
They specialize in a fusion of various Asian dishes kind of like a PF Changs. Their sauces are fantastic.
They have a great atmosphere and live Music on Fridays and Saturday evenings. They are in the Centro Comercial near Appleby’s on the Lindora Road behind Brads Grill. Bon Apetite, JerryThis posted in the wrong place but reposted here by Scott
Fantastic “Angus Beef” Steaks and Chops
Posted Sunday, May 13, 2012 at 2:44 PM from 186.15.4.51
Finally, Belén has an excellent steak and chop restaurant with imported “Angus Beef.” The name of the place is the Los Retana (2239-6494 o 8821-2255) and it’s located in the new shopping center in La Ribera which is near Ojo de Agua and on the same street as the Marriott hotel. La Retana is near the BCR branch and there’s plenty of parking. The shopping center has a separate food court and play area for kids, if you want to eat in peace and let your kids go have fun .
La Retana is an eat-in restaurant as well as a butcher shop with all items available to go. During my first visit to check the place out, I was offered a sample of their pork tenderloin and it was very tender and delicious. I returned Saturday afternoon and ordered an “Angus Rib eye” steak. The large steak comes with a potato and salad selection, all for about 12,000 colones. I had a baked potato with seasoned sour cream and a green salad with olive oil and vinegar dressing. Everything was perfect !
I’ve known the manager and his wife for many years and they were both anxious to find out how I wanted them to grill my steak. I explained two grilling methods that I use and detailed how many minutes to keep the meat under a hot flame. I wrote the details down for them on a piece of paper, and explained to them that it would be a good idea to save it for future reference if any avid steak lovers arrive to enjoy a “Seared” or “Pittsburg” style steak. I explained that a seared steak should be placed on the hot flame for only 3 minutes on each side in order to seal in the juices and result in a rare (rojo) steak. I told the managers that the “Pittsburg Style” method needs to be grilled a little longer to burn the surface of both sides of the steak. I recommended pouring a little olive oil on the meat in order to increase the heat of the flames and to grill the steak for about 5 minutes per side. So if you go there, ask Francisco or his wife, Elena for the seared or Pittsburg style grilled steak and tell them that Tom sent you. Additionally, my novia ordered a pork chop that was huge and very tender and delicious and it came with a potato and salad for about 6500 colones. The managers gave us a complimentary piece of “tres leches” cake that was excellent. They sell wine and beer, but no liquor.
If you’re not in the mood for steak, just a few doors down from La Retana is an excellent Italian called La Trattoria del Alberto. Their meat lasagna and cannelloni’s were awesome !
PS: La Retana is part of a family of meat distributors and they have several mouthwatering photos of some of the meats they offer on their Facebook page; https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carnes-Los-Retana/132833780099909
This link details how to get to the shopping center in Belen; http://www.cclaribera.com/llegar.Wonderful Japanese Restaurant in the Barcelo Palacio Hotel. First opened with a great Japanese Chef. He was sent home and a Costa Rican chef tried to dupicate his work and failed miserably. Now they have a new local chef, but this time he was trained in Japan and the food is marvellous.
We tend to prefer cozy, uncrowded little restaurants but my gal has a membership discount card for the Intercontinental Hotel in Escazu and we had a fantastic meal there last night.
They have a few different restaurants in the hotel but we dined in the Factory Steak & Lobster section and the food was excellent.
My gal started with a lobster bisque which had BIG chunks of lobster in it and I had a huge plate of New Zealand mussels (at least 20 of them) in a lovely orange butter sauce…
For the main course, she had duck in a raspberry sauce which she thoroughly enjoyed and I had the entraña steak which was cooked perfectly and very succulent.
We were way too full to think of dessert …
The hotel’s website can be found at:
[ http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/intercontinental/en/gb/locations/costarica-sanjose ]
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