Does anyone have restaurant recs for these three places?

It looks like there's a lot of eating at your hotel in Arenal & Monteverde---but for lunch we'll be out & about.

How's the food at Montana Monteverde and Arenal Lodge? Tabacon? Arenal Observatory?

In Monteverde, we had one of our best meal at the Hotel El Sapo Dorado - Exquiste and nice view. In MA, we tries the Bambu Jam - excellent French cuisine with a mix of exotic flavor. We went for a cocktail and dinner at Mariposa. I would definitely recommend the cocktail for the view of the sunset but dinner was good - not more than that.

New restaurant in Monteverde called Moon Shiva ... Middle Eastern and Costa Rican cuisine. (I know that combo sounds odd but it works.) It's just up a side road from Stella's Bakery and CASEM.

We had excellent pizza at Johnny's in Monterverde.

I wasn't impressed with the food at Tabacon.

Manual Antonio has lots more options, my favorite is Karola's.

Manuel Antonio -- also recommend the food at Karola's; another place we had a very tasty lunch was the Vela Bar (I think they also have an adjoining hotel).

Tabacon -- if you're staying @ Tabacon, they have a good buffet breakfast; other than breakfast, food is so-so for lunch & dinner and pricey, relative to quality. You'll do better in town (LaFortuna).

Also eaten lunch at the restaurant @ Montana de Fuego (hotel about 1/2 mile or so down the road from Tabacon). Again, food was okay (pricey like Tabacon), however their restaurant affords an excellent view of the volcano --- directly 'across the street'.

Definitely visit Karola's in Manuel Antonio. It's down a long dark path, and you may wonder if you've gotten lost, but so worth the walk!

For Manuel Antonio restaurants, you might be interested in checking out my Costa Rica #1 report. Have a great time!

Manuel Antonio--Marluna--definitely! Great fish and seafood, very casual. For a more dressy dinner, best food in MA is Sunspot at Makanda by the Sea. Also had a fabulous red snapper cooked in the wood oven at Cantina at Costa Verde while we enjoyed live music. Lunch was great at El Gran Escape. Enjoy!

Kathy

Sunspot at Makanda is excellent...lunch or romantic dinner. (great place to stay for a splurge) Be sure to make sunset at the Miraposa...stunning view and great bar. Barbra Rojas (sp?) had pretty good food and a band. There is a little restaurant down a path right behind Rojas that was really good.

Depends what you're into, but here were our favourites:

Arenal - Tabacon - we had great meals here, yes, a little pricey but very nice service.

Monteverde - Johnny's Pizzeria is a must. Also, Morphos Restaurant - cheap, excellent food but very busy.

MA - Barba Rojas - fun atmosphere, great nachos, big servings
Karola's - excellent ribs and macadamia nut pie
Almost across the road from Karola's is a cafe - name escapes me - excellent coffee and breakfast.

We had a bad experience at Si Como No - but it may be isolated.

Brent

We spent a few days at Si Como No last July. The food was always very good. . .no problem for us. I am hoping your experience was isolated!

My family had a great meal at Moon Shiva, located next to Stella's Bakery, near Monteverde. In addition to wonderful food, it served the best desserts we have had in quite a while.

Wow! This is great! Thank you all for these suggestions.

P.S. we're definitely eating at some of these nice pricey restaurants, and we'll also be checking out these inexpensive places in Monteverde.

I'd also love to hear recs for good cheap places in Manuel Antonio & Arenal.

In the Arenal area La Vaca Muca is great. It's a tico style restaurant and is inexpensive. It's on the road from La Fortuna to the volcano (on the left).
Another inexpensive place is Vagabondos. I had the best pizza there I have had outside of Italy. A local was raving about the gnocchi. It's on the same road as La Vaca Muca, also on the left.

Monteverde- I loved Moon Shiva (great curry) and De Lucia (no menu, 5 choices for the evening- good seabass).