The 14 Best Restaurants in Costa Rica

San José's Conservatorium runs a proper R&D lab where ideas get tested before they reach the table, which tells you something about the mood of the kitchen. It's a creative fine-dining restaurant with dry-aged steaks and a pastry chef who leans into his Asian heritage for the sweet courses. The team has a spot on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants list, and the ambition in the cooking makes that easy to believe.

The garden terrace sets the mood at this Italian restaurant in Santa Ana, where the menu reads like a Roman trattoria but the seafood section quietly belongs to Costa Rica. Ossobuco and pizza al taglio share space with local sea bream, corvina, and jumbo shrimp pulled from nearby waters. It's the kind of place that earns its crowd through the gap between what's expected and what actually arrives.

Chicharrones here are meatier and more substantial than most you'll find elsewhere in Latin America, and that alone tells you what kind of place this is: a beloved chicharronera in the hills of Aserrí where locals gather the way Ticos gather at any good party, with limes, tortillas, black bean puree, and Salsa Lizano close at hand. Come with a group, order big, and expect cold Imperials alongside the kind of afternoon that runs longer than planned.

A rustic wood cabin near Poás Volcano that draws hikers and locals alike for daytime Costa Rican cooking. Coffee comes first, naturally, then the casado, a loaded plate of rice, beans, eggs, cheese, salad, and stewed meat that functions as both breakfast and reason enough to detour off the volcano road. Gallo pinto, stuffed tortillas, and arepas round out a menu built entirely around what people in this country have always eaten.

Picaritas bags split open and loaded with ceviche, mayonnaise, and hot sauce, then dusted with Tajín: that's a caldosa, and it's the thing to order at this compact ceviche spot in Escazú. The room runs entirely blue, walls to cold bar, and the menu leans into Costa Rican style, long-marinated in lime, sweet peppers, purple onion, and cilantro, with fish, shrimp, squid, and blood clam all in the mix.

The corn-flour empanadas here have been coming out of the fryer since before most regulars' grandparents were born, served alongside the Plaza de las Garantías Sociales. This is a casual Tico snack counter where you order by filling, beans to chicharrón, and the house move is getting your empanada split and dressed with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and chilera. Morning coffee or afternoon horchata both work. Show up hungry and without a reservation.

A takeout spot run by a chef who trained at Michelin-starred restaurants in Spain and came home to make raw food instead. The menu leans on Costa Rican produce, cold-pressed juices spiked with turmeric and ginger, plant-based sushi and poke bowls, and vivid dragon fruit bowls that look almost too colorful to be lunch. The chef also teaches raw-food preparation classes when she isn't behind the counter.

Strawberry picking comes before you even sit down, which tells you exactly what kind of place this is: a rustic roadside stop on the slopes of Poás where the menu reads like a Costa Rican grandmother's weekly rotation. Chorreadas, gallo pinto, olla de carne, and a tortilla aliñada the size of a Frisbee stuffed with masa, cheese, and cream. Wash it down with a cup of local coffee or fresh strawberry juice still cold from the garden.

The setting is an old remodeled house in Barrio Amón, which fits: this is the kind of neighborhood restaurant where the menu reads like a love letter to Costa Rican regional cooking. The chef leans on local ingredients and sustainable catch, working through dishes like caldosa and arroz guacho from Guanacaste in a way that feels rooted rather than nostalgic. A casual dinner spot with serious intentions behind it.

A soda is Costa Rica's answer to the diner, and this stall inside San José's Central Market is the old-school institution among them. The family now running it carries on the tradition of antojitos, gallo pinto combo plates, and casados piled with rice, beans, meat, and spaghetti, all finished with plenty of chilera. Go expecting to share a narrow counter with locals who have been ordering the same thing for years.