Best Restaurants in San José

The most popular tourism destination in Central America has long attracted surfers and eco-tourists, but foodies have also discovered plenty to enjoy the food in Restaurants in San José . The many microclimates of the nation progressively channel an abundance of fish and produce into the dynamic capital city of San José, where the ingredients are used to prepare Casado’s (smorgasbords of rice, beans, pork, salad, and more), bocas (bar snacks), and vivid seafood specialties. Make time to eat at a family-run soda tpica in the city, sample traditional fare like Gallo pinto (the local version of rice and beans), stroll through the Central Market’s stalls, and eat at upscale establishments like Sikwa, where chef Pablo Bonilla experiments with Indigenous pantry and jungle-to-table cuisine.

Restaurante Freddo Fresas

Grab a cup of superb Costa Rican coffee and place an order for a typical snack after you’ve had your fill of fresh strawberries picked directly from the garden of this quaint cabana in the Alajuela’s Province. The soups, such as olla de carne (meat soup), Sopa de pozol (hulled corn with pig), and Sopa de frijol (bean soup), should not be missed. The chorreadas (corn pancakes) go nicely with a drink of strawberry juice. A tortilla aliada, a Frisbee-sized tortilla cooked with a blend of corn masa, cheese, and cream, is an alternative to gallo pinto and casados.

Chubascos

Starting out as a little hut in 1982, the institution only operated during the day. A must-see attraction nowadays is the rustic wood cottage located close to Poás Volcano during a lush natural forest. Before starting a day of volcanic trekking, have a cup of Costa Rica’s world-famous coffee. While the casados, a “pura vida” platter of rice and beans with eggs, cheese, picadillo (chopped meat), salad, and your choice of stewed meat, are well-known Tico breakfast dishes, as are gallo pinto, gallotes (large, filled tortillas), gallitos (tortillas filled with savory stews), and arepas.

Bacchus

The primary attractions of this well-known Italian restaurant are the garden patio and the enormous selection of local seafood. The Restaurants in San José advertises a lot of Costa Rican goods amid the list of Italian classics on the menu, including ossobuco, tuna carpaccio, antipasti, standard pasta dishes, and pizza al taglio. The seafood menu, which has dishes like sea bream cooked in lime, giant shrimp in a Barolo wine reduction, and a combination of corvina, shrimp, and octopus mixed with tagliolini pasta, shows the abundance of local fish.

Maxi by Ricky

The famed Italian Restaurants in San José outdoor deck and wide selection of local seafood are its key charms. Among the menu’s Italian staples — ossobuco, tuna carpaccio, antipasti, the traditional pastas, and pizza al taglio — the restaurant highlights several Costa Rican items. Check out the seafood area, which features dishes like sea bream cooked in lime, giant shrimp in a Barolo wine reduction, and a combination of corvina, shrimp, and octopus mixed with tagliolini pasta.

Gallo Rojo

Chef Andrés Sandoval Tsao, who was born in Costa Rica to Costa Rican and Taiwanese parents and has worked in the United States, Spain, France, and Peru, has created a menu that reads like a biography. His pan-Asian cuisine includes gua bao (pork buns) from Taiwan, Vietnamese bo luc lac (shaking beef) from Vietnam, pad Thai from Thailand, and Peruvian chaufa from Peru. Tsao’s leisurely tour of world street cuisine includes several Costa Rican specialties including tacos.

La Divina Comida

One of the best places to eat in San Jose is Chef Marco Antonio Ganoza’s modern Peruvian fusion restaurant, which serves dishes such aj chicken risotto, grilled octopus in balsamic vinaigrette reduction, and ceviches made in the Nikkei manner. With a well-balanced pisco sour and views of the hip Avenida Escazu, try the traditional lomo saltado or Costa Rican pozol acriollado (corn and pig soup).

L’Ile de France

For more than 40 years, this most renowned French Restaurants in San José has satisfied tourists with bistro classics like duck a l’orange, boeuf bourguignon, and snails cooked in garlic butter, as well as regional specialties with a Gallic twist. Sea bream niçoise, seafood crepes, and giant shrimp cooked in lime give this popular place a Costa Rican flavor while maintaining its French roots.

Raw Co Juicery & Food

Chef Nene Murillo returned to her home Costa Rica to devote her life to the raw-food lifestyle after working in famous Spanish restaurants such as the two-Michelin-starred El Coque Restaurante and El Club Allard. She established Raw Co Juicery & Food, a takeaway business that specializes in colorful cuisine that highlight the pure products of Costa Rica. She prepares drinks with turmeric, lime, ginger, and honey, gluten-free, plant-based sushi and poke bowls, and vibrant bowls of pureed dragon fruit or red banana topped with fresh berries when she isn’t instructing workshops on the production of raw cuisine.

La Granja

Desayuno granjero, country breakfast with fried eggs, gallo pinto, Costa Rican sour cream, plantains, fried cheese, and tortillas, is served at this Tico family-style restaurant in the lively Pavas sector. There are three substantial casados to choose from, including the casado granjero, which is like your own personal Tico feast. Many foods are served on banana leaves, which is only one of the beautiful features of this rural residence, which also has hefty wooden picnic seats. Pozol, a sweet corn and pig rib stew colored by achiote and complemented with culantro notes, is a real flavor of Costa Rican home food.

Furca

This is San José’s take on the world steakhouse, led by head chef Marco Leiva, including superb cuts of chateaubriand, Brazilian picanha, falda (flank steak) served with sticky rice and bok cabbage, and porterhouse. Local Costa Rican ingredients are used in recipes such as green papaya salad, octopus with cassava “charcoal,” and a saute of jumbo shrimp with garden poppies. To complement your steak, choose from a range of sides, including grilled asparagus, charred yucca, and sweet potato puree, all paired with wines from the Americas.