Okay, so the food at the LI is notoriously bad. Okay, so one isn't supposed to drive at night...and it gets dark at 5:30 or 6 pm.

SO...what IS one to do for dinner when staying at the Lost Iguagna? Once you've made the drive into town in the daytime, is it easier to do it at night, or is it still dangerous? Are there decent places to eat that are closer to the LI that aren't all the way in La Fortuna?

Arenal or La Fortuna as actually one of the places we did drive around at night in Costa Rica - pretty straight forward. You really need to go into town or whereever to get a good meal.
There is an excellent steak house not far from Tabacon I cannot remember the name but we ate there 2x and it was great. Whatever you do do not eat dinner at Arenal Paraiso it was the worse meal we have ever had anywhere!

I believe the restaurant mentioned is called Restaurante El Novillo Steak House., tele. Rest. 460-6433. I kept their card when we ate there a couple years ago. If you are coming from Lost Iguana go past Tabacon and it's on the left before you get as far as Montana del Fuego. It was an open air place with nicely seasoned food.

Missy ... Who knows ? You might actually enjoy the food there !!!

I guess we'll see, Fathie. I think we'll be eating there the first night, due to our arival time and not having had time to cruise the area.

Driving around La Fortuna at night is very easy. We had lunch at El Novillo and it was very good so I would assume dinner would be great. I also recommend La Chozu de Laurel. On the left (next to La Brasitas which is also popular) before you get downtown. There are two restaurants both called La Chozu de Laurel that are basically owned by same family. Very good, opem air restaurant and easy to find.

I also recommend you make reservations at Ecotermales Hot Springs and have dinner there. Very nice and more quiet than Tabacon or Baldi Hot springs and great dinner. Entrance fee including dinner (except alcohol) is $29/pp, much less than other hot springs.

Dont stress about it too much , we had heard bad things about Anaconda Restaurant at Costa Verde , and all of our meals were absolutely delicious !!!! ( we all gained weight - YUM !! )

We do already have reservations at Ecotermales, including dinner. Thanks for the recommendations, everyone.

DOes anyone have Ecotermales phone number? i would like to make reservations ahead. thanks

the small restaurant at the Hanging Bridges next door to the Lost Iguana serves a very good pizza and a number of good sandwiches such as grilled chicken. It is an uphill ten minute hike over there from LI, but the scenery is wow. They close early for dinner (5pm?), but I recommend them for lunch. Also they are a lot cheaper than LI and have good service.

I have them penciled in for after our hanging bridges hike. Or maybe our hike will be long done and we'll hike back for lunch. (Maybe you don't feel guilty eating a lot if you've hiked uphill for 10 minutes to get there!)

I agree that you shouldn't worry about driving at night in the Arenal area. We ate dinner at the steak house. It was fine. We didn't find the food great anywhere in CR (except La Bosque de Paz) but everything else was so wonderful we didn't care..