Eat like a local
Costa Rican food: what to eat in Guanacaste
Costa Rican cooking is simple, fresh and built around rice, beans, corn, plantains and whatever came out of the sea or the garden that morning. Guanacaste adds its own corn-based traditions, many dating back to the Chorotega people. Here is what to order, where to find it, and a few things to try near Playa Grande.
The everyday classics
Gallo pinto
The national breakfast: rice and black beans fried together with onion, sweet pepper and cilantro, usually seasoned with Salsa Lizano. It comes with eggs, fried sweet plantain, fresh cheese or natilla (sour cream) and a corn tortilla. Order it at any soda before a surf session.
Casado
The classic lunch plate. "Casado" means married, and the plate marries rice, beans, a simple salad, fried sweet plantain and a picadillo (chopped vegetable hash) with your choice of fish, chicken, beef or pork. It is filling, cheap and the best value meal in the country.
Olla de carne
A slow-cooked beef soup loaded with corn on the cob, yuca, chayote, plantain, potato and carrot, served with rice on the side. A Sunday favourite.
Arroz con pollo
Rice cooked with shredded chicken, vegetables and achiote, often served at family gatherings with a side of potato chips and salad.
Chifrijo
A bar snack invented in Costa Rica: rice, beans, chicharrones (crispy pork), pico de gallo and avocado in a bowl, scooped up with tortilla chips. Perfect with a cold Imperial at sunset.
Patacones
Twice-fried green plantain slices, crisp outside and soft inside, served with bean dip or guacamole.
From the Pacific
Ceviche
The beach classic. Usually corvina (sea bass) or shrimp "cooked" in lime juice with onion, cilantro and sweet pepper, served with saltine crackers or patacones. Ask for it at any beachfront restaurant in Tamarindo.
Pescado entero
A whole fried snapper with rice, salad and patacones. Order it fresh at a small seafood place and eat it with your hands.
Arroz con mariscos
Costa Rica's take on seafood rice, cooked with shrimp, squid, mussels and fish, and coloured with achiote.
Guanacaste specialties
Guanacaste is cattle and corn country, and its kitchen shows it. Many of these dishes appear at local festivals, sodas and roadside stands.
Rosquillas and tanelas
Crunchy, ring-shaped corn and cheese biscuits (rosquillas) and their sweeter cousins (tanelas), baked in wood-fired ovens. Eaten with an afternoon cup of coffee. Look for them at roadside stands between Santa Cruz and Nicoya.
Arroz de maíz
A traditional Guanacaste dish of cracked corn cooked slowly with chicken, closer to a savoury porridge than to rice.
Tamales
Wrapped in banana leaves and made with corn dough, pork or chicken, rice and vegetables. They are a Christmas tradition across the country, and Guanacaste also has its own corn tamales such as yoles and tamal asado.
Tortillas palmeadas
Thick corn tortillas patted out by hand and cooked on a clay comal, often served with fresh cheese or cuajada.
Pozol
A hearty soup of pork and corn, especially popular around festival time.
Sweets
- Tres leches: sponge cake soaked in three kinds of milk
- Arroz con leche: creamy cinnamon rice pudding
- Cajeta: fudge-like sweets made from milk, coconut or papaya
- Sopa borracha: a festive Guanacaste dessert made with roasted corn, cloves and panela
- Atol de pujagua: a warm purple-corn pudding spiced with cinnamon
What to drink
- Coffee: Costa Rica grows some of the world's best arabica. Try it chorreado, brewed through a cloth filter on a wooden stand.
- Refrescos naturales (frescos): fresh fruit drinks made with water or milk: try cas, guanabana, mango, passion fruit (maracuyá) or blackberry (mora).
- Agua de pipa: cold green coconut water, sold straight from the coconut by the roadside.
- Horchata and resbaladera: sweet rice- and barley-based drinks spiced with cinnamon, both traditional in Guanacaste.
- Imperial and Pilsen: the national beers. Playa Grande also has its own craft brewery.
Where to eat local food near Playa Grande
Sodas
A soda is a small, family-run restaurant serving home-style Costa Rican food: casados, gallo pinto, fresh fish and frescos. They are the best way to eat like a local, and you will find them in every town.
Find sodas near Playa Grande on Google Maps →
Find sodas in Tamarindo on Google Maps →
Farmers' markets (ferias)
Tamarindo holds a weekly farmers' market with tropical fruit, local cheese, empanadas, fresh juices and crafts. Days and times change with the season, so check locally before you go.
Tamarindo farmers' market on Google Maps →
Restaurants in Playa Grande and Tamarindo
For our favourite restaurants, see the Playa Grande guide and the Tamarindo guide.
Cook it yourself at the villa
Casa Perico Azul has a full kitchen and an outdoor BBQ, so pick up fresh fish, tortillas and fruit and cook your own Costa Rican feast by the pool.
