Sean's quick and dirty Puerto Viejo and nearby area restaurant roundup.

El Dorado - The top spot on my list of favorite places for beers, cocktails and people watching. The nachos are good but defiantly not a low calorie meal (lots of cheese). Pizzas are good as well as the casados. Cocktails are decent and they have a happy hour every night where you can get 2x1 of a few select drinks.





Sunset Bar - We visited once. Seemed more like less tourist friendly, locals only bar.



PanPay - Yummy freshly baked pastries


De Paso - One of our favorites. We ate there about four times. Great, inexpensive place close to the beach with a sand floor. The best tacos we had in Puerto Viejo. The guacamole, chicken dishes, and steaks are also all good.




Dubliner Irish Bar - Nothing remotely Irish about this place as it is owned by a Rasta dude who is probably trying to lure British and Irish backpackers from Rockin' J's. I was foolishly looking forward to a black and tan but they were out of Guinness and never heard of Harp or Bass ale :(





Cafe Rico - The BEST coffee I've had anywhere! Yummy fruit salads and drinks. The huevos rancheros are also recommended. Rodger, the owner is very attentive to his customers. It also attracts some unusual people based on the sign out from that advertises "conspiracy consultations".






Restaurante Punta Uva (formally El Ranchito) - very limited menu with only 5-6 items but we were hungry so we ordered some chicken "fajitas" which in reality were deep fried chicken strips covered with thousand island dressing(!)



Stanford's - We were promptly brought our drinks along with our appetizer of guacamole and chips. The guacamole was good but the chips were pretty soggy with the oil used to fry them. We then waited for a really long time for our arroz con pollo. It was almost as if they had to wait for the rice to grow and the chicken to hatch and mature so they could make our meal. I don't know if the cook forgot or was taking a long break, getting high or what. We saw other dinners waiting quite some time as well. I guess when the tips are included in the bill there isn't much incentive for fast service. We won't be going back to Stanford's.


Bread and Chocolate - Fantastic sandwiches - jerk chicken = really good. grilled cheese and salad = wow! The chocolates are completely out of this world.




Lizard King - We ordered chips and guacamole, tacos, and enchiladas. The chips and guacamole took a loooong time to arrive (30 minutes) and then we didn't get our main courses for another 20 minutes after that. The food was all really good but I wouldn't recommend it based on the slow service.





@t E's Restaurant (Rockin' J's) - A fun place to hang out with some of the cheapest beers in town. The BEST margaritas in all of Puerto Viejo (be sure to order with a premium tequila). They also have a 50oz giant margarita for $16. The food is pretty good as well. I recommend the chicken skewers which come with a really good peanut dipping sauce. Pad Thai and the Thai peanut chicken (huge portions) were out of this world. The tacos al pastor were also good but needed some salsa or something as they were a bit dry. Quesadillas were good but smothered in a bit too much cheese.





Chili Rojo - Immensely popular spot which is packed every night. The curries are all really good but could have been more spicy. They offer a breakfast special ($4) which are good as well. They also do an all you can eat sushi ($12) on Thursday nights but I've heard from several people that the service is unusually slow and they only bring you one or two pieces of sushi at a time.





Salsa Brava - Romantic spot right on the beach. Food is decent but a bit on the expensive side. They also offer a 2x1 happy hour and live entertainment on some nights



Amimodo - THE place for Italian food. Pastas are good but a bit on the expensive side. Pizzas are delicious and reasonably priced. 2x1 select cocktails are available on some evenings.




Peace and Love - Italian pastries ($1 each) = WOW!!!!

Day 15 - Flying back to San Francisco

We were picked up promptly at 5:30am and were at the airport 15 minutes later. We paid our exit tax, checked in and were through security in about 15 minutes. We had some crappy airport breakfast and I picked up a bottle of tequila from the duity free shop.

Our flight to Houston and onward to San Francisco was uneventful and we were home by 6:30pm.

Day 14 - Bus ride back to San Jose

Woke up early and did some last minute packing. The bus came at about 7:15am and we were on our way to San Jose after stopping in PV and then again in Chauita. We also had a 10 minute rest stop in Limon.



The bus is definitely the way we will travel again to PV – fast and cheap. After we got to the Caribbean bus Terminal we quickly fond a taxi who took us to Orquideas Inn. We were ready for lunch so we headed to the bar and had some great nachos which we washed woth with some Imperials and margaritas. After thet we took a dip in the pool. The water was really cold after we had been used to swimming in the warm Caribbean sea so we went down to the Jacuzzi and relaxed for the next 20 minutes or so. After going back to our room and showering and relaxing a bit we headed back to the bar for some more drinks and to play some cards. After a while it was getting close to Kat’s bed time so we had a delicious steak dinner. It seemed like the food at Orquideas has improved significantly since our last visits. I’m thinking they must have gotten new chef. Kat went to bed early and I stayed in the bar for a few more hours before hitting the sack to get some sleep since out ride to the airport was pickling up at 5:30am

Day 13

I called Interbus to give the driver our telephone number so he could call us to pick us up when we were near by. The Interbus representative told us that they had scheduled out pick up for the wrong day and wanted us to pay again in cash if we still wanted to be picked up(!) We decided against Interbus and instead decided to take the public bus back to San Jose and then a taxi to the Orquedias Inn. We walked into town and had lunch at Bread and Chccolate (grilled cheese and salad – wow) and got the bus tickets (about $8 each) as well as some amazing Italian pastries from Peace and Love for breakfast the next morning. I was a little worried about finding a taxi early of a Sunday morning to take us to the bus station but one of the people at Rockin’ J’s said that, since the bus was coming form Manzanillo, we could flag it down right in front. We met Collin and Roberto for dinner that night at De Paso. I had a steak that was quite good! We then went to bed as we had to get up early to catch the bus to San Jose

Day 12 - Cahuita

We went to Cahuita again amd ate a yummy lunch at Restaurante LeFey. The beach was great with gentle waves and good swimming. After taking the 5pm bus back to Puerto Viejo we walked home and then hit El Dorado for 2x1 drinks and then a dinner of Good pasta and carribean chicken at Amimodo.

Day 11

We ate breakfast at Cafe Rico and then headed to Playa Cocles. The water was great! After a while I started getting hungry but the store across the street from the beach was closed so I left the wife at the beach and walked back to the house to shower and then headed to the bar and Rockin' J's (one of our favorite places). After a few hours of drinking with some entertaining British guys who have been traveling the world we walked into town and had dinner at El Dorado.