I cook for a living in Monteverde, so this is the question I get asked most often, usually about halfway through a class when someone realises I might actually know.
Before the places, though, the part nobody explains: how eating out here works, what to order, and why your bill is bigger than the menu said.
Sodas and restaurants are two different things
If you learn one word before you eat here, make it soda.
A soda is a small family-run eatery serving everyday Costa Rican food. Plastic chairs, a handwritten board, someone’s mother in the kitchen. This is where people who live here actually eat. Portions are generous and prices are a fraction of what a restaurant aimed at visitors charges for a similar plate.
Restaurants in Santa Elena are a different proposition: pizza, sushi, steak, craft beer, wine lists, and prices to match. Some are very good. None of them are what you came to Costa Rica to eat.
My honest advice is to eat lunch at sodas and save the restaurant for one evening. Your money goes further and the food is more interesting.
What to orderThe plates worth knowing
| Dish | What it is | When |
|---|---|---|
| Casado | Rice, beans, salad, plantain and a protein | Lunch |
| Gallo pinto | Rice and black beans, cooked together | Breakfast |
| Olla de carne | Beef and root vegetable stew | Lunch, cool days |
| Sopa negra | Black bean soup with a poached egg | Any time |
| Patacones | Twice-fried green plantain, like chips | To share |
| Chifrijo | Rice, beans, pork and pico de gallo | With a beer |
| Refresco natural | Fresh fruit juice, with water or milk | Always |
Start with the casado
The name means married man, and the idea is that everything on the plate is joined together. Rice, black beans, a salad, fried sweet plantain, and a protein you choose: chicken, beef, fish, sometimes pork. Often an egg or a piece of cheese as well.
It is the best value meal in Costa Rica and the truest thing you can eat here. If you order one thing in Monteverde, order this.
Gallo pinto is breakfast, not dinner
Rice and black beans cooked together with onion, sweet pepper and coriander. Visitors sometimes look for it at dinner and are puzzled when it is not on the menu. It is a breakfast dish, served with eggs, cheese, plantain and tortillas.
Ask for a refresco natural
Fresh fruit blended to order, either en agua with water or en leche with milk. Cas, mora, tamarindo, maracuyá. They cost very little and they are one of the genuine pleasures of eating here. Skip the bottled drinks.
On spice, and the brown sauce
Costa Rican food is not spicy. It is gently seasoned, which surprises people who expect Mexican heat. The brown bottle on every table is Salsa Lizano, tangy and slightly sweet, and it belongs on gallo pinto. If you want actual heat, ask for chilero, the jar of pickled chillies and vegetables.
Six things that catch visitors out
- The tax and service charge. Costa Rican bills carry 13 percent sales tax and a 10 percent service charge. Some places build it into the menu price and some add it at the end, so a plate listed at 6,000 colones can arrive as 7,400. Ask if you want to be sure. It is not a scam, it is how it works here.
- Tipping beyond that is optional. The 10 percent is the service charge. Extra is appreciated but genuinely not expected.
- Kitchens close early. Santa Elena is not a late town. Many kitchens stop around nine, some earlier in green season. Do not plan a ten o’clock dinner.
- Bring cash for the small places. Restaurants take cards. Some sodas prefer colones, and paying in colones is usually better value than paying in dollars.
- Prices are higher than the lowlands. Everything comes up a mountain road, and this is a tourist town. A casado that costs 4,000 colones elsewhere may be 6,000 or 7,000 here.
- Lunch is the main meal. Locals eat their largest meal in the middle of the day, which is also when sodas are at their best and freshest.
Eating without meat here is easy
Easier than most visitors expect. Rice, beans, plantain, salad, cheese and eggs are the foundation of the cooking, so a casado without the meat is a real meal rather than a sad plate of sides. Ask for un casado vegetariano and you will be understood everywhere.
Vegan takes a little more care, mostly because of cheese and eggs appearing where you do not expect them. Sin queso y sin huevo covers it. Black beans here are cooked without pork, unlike some other countries in the region. For dedicated plant-based cooking rather than adapted dishes, see my note on Evy’s World below.
My picksWhere I send people
These are the places I eat and the ones I recommend to guests. They are not a ranking, and I have left out plenty of good places. Opening times change, so check before you make a special trip.
For a casado
Soda La Amistad. A proper family soda and the one I send people to first. Generous plates, honest prices, and the empanadas are worth ordering even if you have already eaten. Open from early morning until nine.
Soda Cantón 83. A family business out past Santa Elena with gardens and a hedge maze, which makes it a good choice with children. Worth the short drive. Closed Tuesdays.
Soda y Restaurante Auténtico 506. In Cerro Plano, near the petrol station. Local cooking done simply and well, with a view out toward the gulf on a clear day.
For breakfast
Restaurante Sabor Tico. Costa Rican cooking in the commercial plaza in Santa Elena. Ask for the chorreada, a thin corn pancake served with natilla, which is a Costa Rican thing most visitors never come across. There is a second, smaller Sabor Tico elsewhere in town.
Choco Café. They roast their own coffee, there is a terrace, and it opens at seven, which matters if you are heading to a reserve early.
For a nicer evening
Tree House. Built around a living higuerón in the middle of Santa Elena. You are paying partly for the setting, and the setting is genuinely worth it once.
The Jungle Monteverde. Indian, Thai and sushi rather than Costa Rican, which is exactly what some people want after a week of rice and beans.
The Open Kitchen. Mediterranean cooking, hummus and falafel and shakshuka, and open from seven in the morning through to the evening.
For coffee and something sweet
Café Monteverde, the Santa Elena coffee shop. They run a short free tasting where you can try several roasts, and they organise tours of their coffee farm. Upstairs seating looks out over the town.
For vegans
Evy’s World. The most reliable spot in town for plant-based food, with a vegan burger, a vegan tuna sandwich and a good range of pastries. It closes in the late afternoon, so it is a lunch and snack place rather than a dinner one.
Or cook it yourself
In my class we make a full traditional meal from scratch, handmade tortillas included, and sit down and eat it together. Maximum nine guests, no deposit needed.
Send a booking requestPlanning around it
If you are working out how to fit meals around everything else, my one day in Monteverde itinerary puts lunch where it actually belongs in the day. For a wet afternoon, what to do in Monteverde when it rains covers the indoor options, and there is a separate guide for travelling with children.
Frequently asked
What is a soda?
A small family-run eatery serving everyday Costa Rican food. Where locals eat, and much better value than a tourist restaurant.
What should I order?
A casado for lunch, gallo pinto for breakfast, and a fresh fruit refresco with both.
Do I tip?
A 10 percent service charge is usually already on the bill, along with 13 percent tax. Anything more is optional.
Is the food spicy?
No. Gently seasoned rather than hot. Ask for chilero if you want heat.
