Arenal dinner choice, bad!
 

Really bad experience at Don Rufino in Arenal! The food was okay but we had very slow and horrible service!

Really? We had good service there. I love that place. Have you guys gone anywhere else?

Friendly and fast service a couple of weeks ago for us. Maybe you just caught them at a bad moment?

Probably just an off nite have had good food/service there

Try El Novillo Steak House great prices

El Emperador at royalcorin.com my fav for fine dining

and great serive you will have to tip well for.

ha, funny you posted that. We took a taxi one night just to go eat there. The service we had was fine, I thought the food was well presented, but did not taste good. The restaurant in our hotel was way better.

Heads up on one thing - in CR, they often won't bring you the check unless you ask for it. I think you could sit there for hours because they don't want to rush you!

Always really liked the place myself, tasty food, service was fine on my visits to La Fortuna. Sorry to hear you did not get a good vibe.

We really enjoyed our dinner at Don Rufino. Food and service were both good and had no complaints.

Sorry you had a bad experience!

It was a bummer-they didn't bring the bottle of wine out until we were almost done w/the appetizers and then the meal didn't arrive for at least 25 minutes-strange! At least five tables were turned before them meal ended-oh well live and learn! We took a long cab ride to get to the restraunt as well and we went because of all the rec's. We are home now and all in all we had an amazing vacation, and we want to go back sooner rather than later! Thanks for all the rec's it was very helpful in our planning!

Sarahmcgoo - you're not alone. We've been there dozens of times in the past ten years and the last two times we were treated like they were doing us a huge favor. Haven't been back since. They've gotten very popular and are an arranged stop for a few tour buses (guaranteed captive 30 top). They built their well deserved reputation with great food, a good atmosphere and location and quality service. I hope they don't blow it by deciding they're too big to fail.

Did you end up going to any restaurants that you liked?

I'm sorry you had an off experience. Why not post about the restaurants you did like? You can do a business a lot of harm with negative reviews on the internet.

we (4) ate there about a year ago, and really enjoyed it.The place was packed but service and food were very good.We got our first and second bottles of wine in a timely manner.We went there based upon good reviews on this forum.I respectfully disagree with Suze. If a person has a bad experience, or a good experience, I appreciate the info.We are going back next year so I would like to know if Rufino's is slipping.The Sunday brunch at Tabacon was an outstanding feast.

I haven't eaten at Don Rufino's but had a great meal at Benedictus Steak House.

If you want good food and friendly service in downtown try Nene's. For a more contemporary California-meets-Costa Rica style menu try Lava Lounge.

And if you want something swanky, Las Ventanas at the Springs Resort and Spa is very good, and the views are amazing with floor to ceiling windows and a view of the volcano.

And for cheap, Soda la Parada is pretty good.

...and since this instance of slow service happened over a year ago, there is a good chance that it was a fluke since there has not been a flurry of complaints in the interim.

We had a funny experience there. Great dinner, but we wanted dessert and were too full, so my husband asked if they would pack a brownie to go. When we got back to our hotel which was pretty far away, he opened the container, and discovered they had put a scoop of ice cream on top!