restaurants

Xandari or Mirador del Valle, both offer a nice view.

Thanks old mark I appreciate that.We will be going to the local cathedral in the central park , are any of those restaurants close to it?

No, they are both in the direction of Poas volcano.

Hi Jerry,

Downtown Alajuela is a real restaurant desert! There are a few little bistros there, but the advice about Xandari for a special meal, etc. towards Poas is accurate. The Hotel Buena Vista in Pilas de San Isidro offers good meals, but the Mirador del Valle nearby offers the same, plus the view. I'd go with Xandari, in a very beautiful locale with a warm ambience due to the art work, plus decent food. All of these are above the city, & well known locally.

In downtown Alajuela, there's a coffee shop/bistro called "Coffee Dreams" thatserves tasty lunches & baked goods at reasonable prices. (Café Delicias across the street is similar.) It's near the Good Light English Bookstore, which is a great place to visit for guidebooks, vacation reading & a look at the bulletin board for rentals & services you may be interested in. Plus the book shop gives away free maps of Alajuela City. These places are a few blocks north of the Cathedral. In Alajuela,I also like the Soda Palmares for lunch & the Trigo de Miel for pastries or the lunch buffet. But these places are for cheap eats, not gala dinners. The toilet at Trigo de Miel is particularly disgusting! Yet, I have had no problems from the Apple Strudel or anything else...

Hope this helps, Daphne a/k \/a La Mariposa

Hi Lamariposa, I see you are in Grecia, my wife and I will be in Grecia and Atenas in Oct. looking for our future retirement place . We have a gentleman named Ronaldo of Grecia that is going to take us on a tour of both places. We will be looking for a furnished house or apt. near the town center if possible. If we take a taxi from Alajuela to that restaurant you mentioned would it take very long to get there?

10-15 minutes tops to Xandari. Would you like some names/numbers of reliable drivers nearby?

Another thing--if you haven't done so already, check out travel guides to Costa Rica. I prefer the Moon Handbooks series. Christopher P. Baker wrote the one for Costa Rica. If you find a hard copy of this book, make sure it's an updated edition. Even so, the info can be old, so best to double check info on-line before making plans.

Travel guidebooks are, of course, written with travelers in mind, rather than ex-pats who intend to relocate. But the budget-oriented guides--Lonely Planet or Rough Guides--have helpful advice for bargain dining & using public transportation like the locals do. Moon Handbooks give that kind of advice, too, but also discuss more deluxe choices as well, plus have a lot of info on attractions such as parks & zoos. All three also have an on-line presence.

Maybe you've seen these guides already & it's nothing new! But sometimes the travel books are overlooked by those seeking to relocate...

Okay, just my personal opinion so don't everyone jump on me.  One of the two things that I miss about living in the States is a good restaurant.  (The other is Homedepot.)  I am originally from just outside San Francisco so I was used to "really" good restaurants.  I haven't found a restaurant that is better than average since I've been here.  Yes, there are good restaurants in San Jose, but nothing special.  So if you're from the Northeast or west coast, you probably won't be too impressed with the food.  However, if you're from the South or Canada, you're going to love the food!  (Lighten up, it's a joke).

The food here is not what I found in other countries to be "Latin."  The taste here is bland and not at all spicy.

Hi Dave, a friend of mine owns restaurants in Houston,tx. and said that if you want good food you need to go to the top[ of the food chain restaurants in CR for really good food.

Yes, but he's from Texas. 

Exotica in Ojochal ..... Best meal we have ever eaten bar none.

I was living in Austin TX before moving here and I grew tired of tex mex real fast! Originally from Boston with a food background I know good food,save your money and eat at home! Besides most eateries here are dirty and overpriced!

I totally agree Cgb.  And being you being from Boston you know what I mean.

I was told by that a good steak was hard to come by, but that if you go to a 4 star restaurant that the quality will be pretty good. We will try the Galleria steakhouse in Grecia when we come down in Oct.

We have bought and will buy good cuts of beef from Don Fernando's in Escazu.  Pricey but excellent.

I wrote a nice long post and somehow I hit a wrong key and lost it.

So let me just say that I have visited  Costa Rica probably 25 times, have lived there for months at a time, and I agree with others that  Costa Rica food is very bland and not very good. The Ticos generally do not know how to create good food. They do not use salsas like Mexico. In fact if you ask for "salsa" they will offer you tabasco sauce or steak sauce. They don't even make fresh salsa out of tomatoes and onions like Mexico. God only knows why.

In conclusion Costa Rica is not the place you go for good food.

Hello all, back to the restaurant beat after a long break...

Yes, despite my advice on where to find a DECENT meal, I agree with the general consensus about Costa Rican restaurants. I'm originally from the Washington, DC area, have visited San Francisco, & lived abroad & travelled in Europe & Asia, no stranger to excellent dining therefore. Costa Rican traditional cooking at its best is simple & tasty, not complex or spicy. But I do enjoy it on its own terms! What I notice about restaurants attempting to do something more than the usual is a lack of sophistication on many fronts--service, cooking, presentation, you name it. There is a tendency to blandness & to adding sweetness to foods that shouldn't be sweet at all, for example. Cleanliness--varies a lot & we can't inspect the kitchen, can we? That said, if you read Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" you won't want to eat out in the good ol' USA anymore either.

Summary--take the local options on their own terms, enjoy, but save your finest dining plans for trips elsewhere. My trips back to DC are spent in restaurants, museums & Trader Joe's! Also, stops in ethnic grocery stores to bring back curry paste, Kalamata olives & suchlike things at reasonable prices. Have also iced an entire boneless leg of lamb, put it in my carry-on & made it through customs at Juan Santa Maria. Home cooking can be most satisfactory anywhere in the world--that lamb went great with the fresh vegetables here in CR.

Thanks for the tip about Don Fernando's in Escazu to get the tender beef! My father will thank you, too.