My family and I will be staying in San Jose the night before our flight home. We are staying at the Don Carlos - recommended many times on this site. I'm looking for a restaurant to celebrate my husband's birthday. We are a party of 6 - us and our two adult sons and wives.

Many options...1-La Piazzeta in Paseo Colon...2-El Chicote in La Sabana (steak house)3- Il Fogo La Sabana ( Brazilian steak house)4-Sala e Pepe Escazu (Italian)5-Cafe Mundo International menu (Close to Don Carlos)

I really enjoyed the food at Grano de Oro. We want back again, actually! Great service and amazing food.

For a wonderful typical meal for your last night I would highly recommend Tiquicia Restaurant. Located up in the hills of Escazu with a wonderful view of the city lights. It is visited by locals and tour companies who know the locals know where the good food is. Reservations are recommended. The desk at the Don Carlos can help with that.

I have to agree with Lawchick about Hotel Grano de Oro. The restaurant there would stand up here in New Orleans. Great spot.

Another choice is Lucas Steakhouse, located in El Pueblo. This is a five minute taxi ride from Don Carlos. They do Argentine style steaks. Their plantains are very sweet too. This is more of a basic steakhouse, then elegant bistro. But still lots of fun. You can stroll through El Pueblo too. Many bars, discos and restaurants. It can be a lively place, especially on the weekend.

A note here. When you leave El Pueblo, don't take a taxi that is inside the compound. They will charge you triple! Just walk outside, and catch one there.

Also, the gift shop at Don Carlos is a great place to shop. Good selection and prices.

I hope this helps! Let me know if I can offer more advice.

Warm Regards,
Pat Hewitt
(Travel Professional)

We live on the edge sometimes and one thing that we have done on a few occassions when we have stayed in the city is to just have the hotel get a taxi driver for us and once in the cab we ask the driver to take us to a place he would take his wife/girlfriend to for a special meal. We have ended up in some really good places and one driver took us to a rib joint (what a guy!) Totally unpredictable and fun. We don't like to have our trips choreographed minute by minute. Sometimes the unexpected things are the ones we remember the most.

An Argentina chain that we have grown to really enjoy is Nifu Nifa. Great if you like steaks. They brought us out a platter that showed all the different cuts of meat they cook and we picked what we wanted. They had a great salad bar as well.

Pat, If I remember correctly, Lucas has been around for quite awhile. I think we ate there the first or second time we stayed in the city.

Thank you all for your responses. I had narrowed my choices to Cafe Mundo and El Chicote , but have since heard that Cafe Mundo is closed on Saturdays an Sundays, which is hard to believe. We will be in San Jose at Don Carlos the night we arrive (Sat) as well as our last night(Sat), so I do appreciate the additional suggestions. I'll check them out today!! Suzie2, I like your idea about just letting the cab driver surprise us - we will be in Arenal 4 nights, and the only place I'm planning on is El Novillo.

A GREAT place near your hotel would be Bakea and another near the San Pedro mall is Jurgens mmmm...