Nuestra Tierra, San José

This restaurant is a good, friendly and casual, approachable restaurant that serves Costa Rican country cooking in plentiful portions. Grilled meets, rice and beans, lovely fresh thick tortillas with cheese. Good food, and in a nice atmosphere on a pretty busy street corner in downtown San Jose. The restaurant is busy and patronized by locals. This may have changed in the last year or two, but as it's right near the main areas of the center, so easy to stroll past and check it out.

Favorite Dish: I loved the thick charred tortillas which were made on the premises.

A nice, huge restaurant on a busy street corner on the east side of the city. Kind of touristy, with traditional dancers dancing during the busy dinnertime. Good enough though. Grilled pollo w/rice & beans and a potato salad I think.

On February 13, 2007, someone at this Restaurant took our Visa number and charged over $1100 to our acct. It was the only stop we made in San Jose and the only place we used that card in San Jose. The Fraud charges started that same day.

Open 24 hours per day this is a great way to ease into Tico cuisine. Some of the local “Soda’s” look a bit suspect, but Nuestra Tierra is clean and appealing. Overflowing with attentive staff in costume, there are bundles of onions and peppers hanging from the rafters to add to the eye candy.

I wanted to taste typical Costan Rican food even once during my stay so I popped into Nuestra Tierra, which was convininetly located on my way from the hotel to the city Centre. I liked the atmosphere there. The tables are rough looking and therefore give impression of the authenticity. Peppers and onions were hanging from the ceiling. My waiter was really friendly and helpful and made me feel like I were the only customer in the restaurant.

Favorite Dish: I made a mistake and didn't ask if the main dish consisted of salad and ordered salad as a starter. When I saw the portion I thought I could never finish it. It was huge. The plate in shape of oval was about 40 cm x 25 cm full of different vegetables and eggs. No way that I could have eaten all that. I wasn't finished when the main course arrived. It was on the similar plate and there was fish, rice, French fries and loads of salad! At that stage my stomach was crying: No more food please! Bravely I ate most of the fish, which was delicious and as much as I could of the rest. The waiter couldn't understand why I didn't want dressert. Usually I eat less than that in a week. I also got my punishment as my stomach was aching all night long and I didn't eat much on the following day.