Thanks to this very helpful message board, this is what we decided on for our 8 night trip to CR in late July and are looking for 'can't miss' restaurants and tour suggestions (we are game for anything, rafting, canopy, zipline, hikes):

2 nights at Arenal (Lost Iguana)
Potential restaurant - La Vaca Muca (yes/no/others?)
Potential activities - Evening hike, Tabacon Hot springs, hanging bridges?

3 nights at MonteVerde (El Sapo Dorado)
Potential restaurants - Johnny's Pizza, El Sapo Dorado and Trapp Family Lodge for breakfast. (yes/no/others?)
Potential activities - Twilight hike, Canopy Tour, Santa Elena hike?

3 nights at Manuel Antonio (Tulemar Bungalows)
Potential restaurants - Marluna, Barba Roja, Sunset Grill (yes/no/others?)
Potential activities - National Park hike, snorkeling, ATV tour, rafting?

Any help is appreciated!

To add to your potential restaurants:

Morphos in Santa Elena (right next to Monteverde)

in MA: the Claro Que Si reataurant at Si Como No (NOT the hotel's other restaurant, Rico Tico)

and if you feel like pizza while you're there, Napoli Pizza is great. (We liked it better than Johnny's in MV.)

Have fun!

We just returned from 2 weeks in CR. We loved the Lost Iguana -- the luxury suite with the lava rock shower was amazing. We got very lucky, and it was clear 2 of the 3 days we were there -- we could see all the way to the top of the volcano.

Arenal:
Restaurants:
El Novillo was wonderful. If you are driving from LI toward La Fortuna, it is a little past Tabacon on the left side of the road. It is basically a large concrete slab with a tin roof and white plastic patio tables and chairs, but the food and view are wonderful. I had a good sized and very yummy garlic steak for $8. Dinner for 4 (4 steaks, 2 salads, 3 side dishes, 3 desserts, 7 drinks) was $81 with tax and 10% grat. The only clinker in the meal was the yucca "french fries" a guide book recommended as a must try item. The lava was flowing on that side of the volcano, and we had a wonderful view of the action for 2 hours.

La Choza de Laurel in La Fortuna was also good. The charbroiled chicken was juicy and flavorful and came with fun sides. My husband had the casado with beef, which was also good, except the waiter did not ask how he wanted his beef and he did not think to specify, so it came well done (we like our meat medium rare).

Activities:
Our favorite tour of the trip was canyoning with Pure Trek. The guides were very safety conscious and friendly (offering to take pictures for everyone as they went down the waterfalls). Rappeling down 5 waterfalls was such a thrill, and I’ve never even done rock climbing before. The first time was scary, but by the third one I wanted to go back and start over so I could really enjoy the first 2 once I knew what I was doing. We would definitely do this again if we return to Arenal. The lunch they served us after the tour was very good. It was the most flavorful rice and beans we’ve ever had.

Sky Tram/Sky Trek was also a lot of fun. The tram ride up the mountain is pretty slow, so you can enjoy the scenery. The zip lines coming back down were a blast. There are 2 small practice cables first, then 6 long ones. We had an amazing view of both the trees and Lake Arenal.

Monteverde:
Restaurants: We ate at 2 fantastic restaurants in Monteverde – Sofia and Restaurante de Lucia – both had lovely décor and excellent food. They are less than ½ a kilometer away from each other on the side street that leads to the Ecological Farm and Butterfly Garden. Sabores Ice Cream Parlor is next to Sofia and has wonderful ice cream for less than $1 per cone. We had lunch at Restaurante de Lucia. I had the chicken a la’orange, which was a large portion of moist and wonderfully flavored chicken breast, served with a small potato and perfectly steamed mixed vegetables for $10. My husband had a nice casado for $6. We had dinner at Sofia. We started with mango-ginger mojitos, and a yummy appetizer stuffed with smoked cheese. My husband ordered pork loin in a fig sauce – we decided it was the best dish of the trip. I had a very good steak, but it couldn’t compete with the pork. It came to $46 for 2 entrees, 1 appetizer, 4 mixed drinks, tax and grat.

We never got to try Johnny’s. We wasted a meal at the Treehouse Café because it looked cool (the restaurant is built around a tree) and was convenient. We just wanted a light dinner, so we ordered nachos and a cheese plate. The cheese plate had one kind of cheese (or 4 white cheeses that tastes identical) cut into 4 different shapes. The nachos were tasty, but puny by US standards, especially for $8. The tab for the 2 appetizers, 2 beers, and 2 mixed drinks was $35 with tax and tip, so it was a rip off compared to other local offerings.

Activities:
Our first night, we did the twilight tour (5:30 – 7:30) at the Children’s Eternal Rain Forest. We arrived 2 hours early so we could walk most of the trails in daylight before the guided tour. During the tour, we saw a kinkajou, an agouti, 2 porcupines curled up in a tree, frogs and tarantulas. The next morning, we took a guided tour of the Monteverde Cloud Forest with Carlos (arranged by Monteverde Lodge). We usually prefer to hike on our own, rather than with tour groups, but there was only one other couple in our group and Carlos was excellent. Thanks to his good spotting and the use of his telescope, we saw several howler monkeys, two quetzals, and numerous other birds.

We did the Selvatura Walk Ways on our second morning. We figured $40 for 2 people wasn’t a horrible price since it included transportation from and to our hotel and the round trip fare to the nearby Santa Elena Reserve would cost us at least $16. In retrospect, we should have skipped it. The Walk Ways offer a neat perspective on the forest canopy, but they are too close to the zip lines, so there are no animals in the area because of the noise. I wish we had done the Hanging Bridges in Arenal instead. The Selvatura shuttle back to town only runs every 2 hours, so we had to leave at 1 pm to make it back in time for our horse riding tour. After finishing the Walk Ways, we only had 2 hours left for the Santa Elena Reserve. As a side note, the gift shop at the Santa Elena Reserve had the best prices for carved wood items.

I loved Tramonti's pizza in Monteverde. Most hotels include breakfast, so it's usually easier to eat at your hotel.

Sandy

My wife and I just returned from C.R. and I can speak to a few restaurants we went to. In Arenal, we ate at the La Choza de Laurel, and the grilled steaks here were excellent. We also ate at the Volcano Lodge restaurant, which was decent. In Manuel Antonio, we ate at the Marlin, Barba Roja, Mar Luna, and the Sunspot. The Marlin and the Sunspot were our favorites. The Marlin was more of a casual place with great seafood while the Sunspot was our romantic honeymoon dinner. The food here was also very good. The smoked pork chops at Barba Roja were excellent, but the Mahi-Mahi with Mango was so smothered in Mango, you could not taste the fish. We also thought Mar Luna was overhyped by everyone we talked to. The meal here was just so-so. The seafood here tasted like it was just thrown on the grill without any type of seasoning or marinade. If you have any other questions about these places, let me know.

Ken

Wow....everyone has such great information....this is going to make our trip a pleasure. It sounds like we will be eating well along the way! Thanks!

We also enjoy the Rico Tico restaurant (especially for breakfast and lunch) at Si Como No. Haven't tried Clara que Si, but am sure it is, as a previous poster suggested, very good as well.

In La Fortuna, if you want a little splurge, go to Restaurant Nene. It was fantastic, on a little side street, and we had the place to ourselves. Great food, wine, and service.

We also ate at La Choza de Laurel and enjoyed it (but don't get their house wine, opt for beer here instead).

In Monteverde, we really enjoyed our meal at Johnny's (didn't get pizza), and we ate lunch at a very cute restaurant down the road from there on the left hand side whose name I can't remember at the moment. Very good salads/sandwiches, you can't miss it.

another vote for El Novillo in Arenal - my favorite in Arenal! Chazo de Laurel was also good and deserving of a stop...

As for activities, definitely SkyTram/SkyTrek and Puretrek. They are both awesome and managed by very professional people. Tabacon Hot Springs was amazing, beautiful and fun but definitely crowded. I don't recommend the ATV to the Waterfalls, that was boring...hope this helps!

You will love Tulemar and you can walk to Barba Rojas, huge portions, great fish. Just past BR is (was?) Karolas. We went back a second night to Karola's, loved it. For a great breakfast try Cafe Milagro, also walkable and across the street from Karola's

Karola's is gone.

You're kidding--Karola's is gone? What happened to it! I was looking forward to taking some traveling companions there next month.

Lisa in Manuel Antonio--if you're "Fodoring"--what's the story on this?

check out my la fortuna restaurant recommendations here:

http://costa-rica.typepad.com/la_for..._fo/index.html

johnny's pizzeria in monteverde gets my vote:

http://costa-rica.typepad.com/photos...onteverde.html

and i'll second morpho's in santa elena.
i also liked bamboo jam in manuel antonio- live music and the views from the bar at el avion -the plane- are sensational:
http://costa-rica.typepad.com/photos...ionsunset.html

In Manual Antonio our favorite restaurant, for consistently good food at reasonable prices and fun atmosphere, was the more casual restaurant at the HOtel Si Como No...Rico Tico Bar N' Grill. Although we tried various other restaurants in Quepos and Manuel Antonio, this is the only one I can recommend.

In Monteverde we loved the food at El Sapo Dorado and Johnny's Pizzeria (which is more gourmet than it sounds!). What I mean is, for Costa Rica, where food isn't the primary focus, these 2 restaurants had some of the best food we had in Costa Rica.

In Arenal, we were so busy with activities we didn't shop around much for food but ate where it was convenient. Ended up eating dinner twice at the Lost Iguana because dinner was decent, and the volcano view was good, nice atmosphere with the plants all around you. Also one night we went up to ARenal Observatory Lodge for the dinner buffet, just for variety, and that was fun too.