Fortuna Restaurants

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You may notice the large divide of resteraunts where locals eat and touristy resteraunts. Tourist resteraunts will charge you 10$ a plate, while the Soda's (more local places) will cost you 3-4$ and have just as good of food. Try to find the hole in the wall and enjoy. Your best bet is to eat at "Soda's" instead of resteraunts as they can get pricey. These sodas offer a lot of very interesting drinks for you to try, and always expect for your silverware to come inside a little plastic package, I guess this is their way of saying the utensils are clean

Directly opposite the busstop in La Fortuna you find one of the cheapest places to have dinner in town. I don't remember the name of this place, but it is easily recognisible because it is big and it has bright yellow lights all over the front of the restaurant.

The food you can get here is cheap and pretty simple. From hamburgers and french fries to a typical rice and beans place and a huge tortilla. For a tortilla that is big enough to serve as a decent dinner you pay about 4 dollars and a plate of fries is another 1 dollar.

In the morning this place is also opened as soon as the first busses start driving. Then it is very useful to buy yourself a quick breakfast and a hot coffee.

You don't have to pay to the waiters but at the -secured- counter in the front of the restaurant. This is maybe a good indication of how the service-level is here; pretty poor. The waiters to what they have to do, but it is clearly visible when your questions are not appreciated... :(

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WE stayed three nights and really enjoyed our dinner here each evening . They have a pizza oven and the pizzas are very good . We also had a great peppercorn steak which we enjoyed.

The only drawback is the staff weren't the most friendly and didn't know anything about wine ..Just referred to it as red or white.

This seemed to be a very popular spot with both locals and tourists. It is a small open-air establishment offering a variety of local and not-so-local items. It may look a little dingy but nothing displeasing, unless you are quite a priss. Just find an empty table and seat yourself. After you eat, go to the little booth at the front entrance and tell the person (it was a young woman) what you had and pay there. You can even buy small snacks, gum, or cigarettes from the booth.

Prices are quite inexpensive for good portions of acceptable food. I had a personal pizza with ham & cheese (yeah, I know - how local & original) and a banana batida. The pizza was decent - nothing to rave about. The batida was a good alternative to the usual ice tea or water.

If you want something good enough and inexpensive, this is definitely a fair choice, especially for the budget conscious.

This was good place to stop in and grab some breakfast (the lunch/dinner menus looked good too). It has a nicer setting with rich wooden tables and bar seating inside and along the sidewalk outside. Staff and other patrons were very pleasant.

Favorite Dish: I had the Desayno Tipico that included huevos, natilla, rice & beans, fresh tortilla, block of griled cheese, and beverage. This was a really great breakfast for under $5!

Huevos: I had the scrambled eggs (huevos revueltos), which were quite tasty. They had a hint of onion in them, but not actual onion. It may have been the grill that was used. I loved them.

Natilla: sour cream, but much different than that in the US. I actually like this version of sour cream. It was richer and butter-like in consistency.

Rice & beans: good, on par with everything else.

Tortilla: quite fresh & delicious

Fried Cheese: this a small block of goats cheese that was fried on the grill/griddle. Not fried cheese like in the US with breading and deep fried. This quite a unique treat and addition.

Cafe Con Leche: Among the best I had while in CR!

There are a number of open-air cafes in La Fortuna. We especially enjoyed the fresh fruit (never got sick unlike fresh fruit in Mexico which should be avoided) and we also enjoyed the sailor's rice every restaurant offered. Sailor's rice is rice with a mixture of the day's fresh catch of fish. Add a little tobasco and it is awesome. Oh and did I mention cheap, $5-$7 per person at almost every cafe.

Hotel Los Lagos (www.hotelloslagos) provides a tasty buffet with the stay at their resort. It generally consisted of cooked meats and sausages, potatoes, eggs, pico de gallo, breads, fresh juice, cereals, and of course fantastic Costa Rican coffee.

All along the streets of La Fortuna are small cafes. Most are open air, covered so you can still eat when it is raining. And the food is volcano themed, as you can see from the rice with the carrots that look like lava. How cute is that. A typical dish such as this, with fresh fish in the rice, potatoes or fries, veggies, would be about $5 per person. Can't beat that price!