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Restaurant recommendations for Manuel Antonio and Arenal

Restaurant recommendations for Manuel Antonio and Arenal

Old Dec 7th, 2010, 05:55 PM
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Restaurant recommendations for Manuel Antonio and Arenal

Now that we have destination, hotels and car rental set, I am turning my attention to restaurants. We love good food and wonder if there are any recommendations for locations near Manuel Antonio and Arenal.
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 01:03 AM
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El Emperador at www.royalcorin.com

is good for fine dining

Kapi Kapi at MA my fav there

Happy dining,
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 07:24 AM
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Second Kapi Kapi in Manuel Antonio for fine dining.
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 08:48 AM
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Don Rufino has very good food; it's the nicest spot we've been to in the Arenal area. El Novillo has good steaks. La Choza de Laurel is known for their rotisserie chicken. If you want something cheap, Soda la Parada is good. We tried Costa Rican pizza there, and our bill was about ten bucks. In MA, we also like Cafe Agua Azul, Ronnie's Place/Mi Lugar for fresh seafood and sangria, Barba Roja, and Salsipuedes for tapas. Cafe Milagro is good if you want a Starbuck's fix. Both areas offer a lot of good choices.
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 08:34 PM
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I'm pretty sure Cafe Milagro is not serving Starbucks coffee? They have their own brand I think. I found the food pretty mediocre but that was true of a lot of places.
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Old Dec 9th, 2010, 05:19 AM
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I didn't say they're serving Starbucks coffee. If you're a coffee drinker or want some delicious espresso/coffee shakes, it's a good place to go.
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Old Dec 9th, 2010, 09:00 AM
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dr, kath, I meant to add that MA has some beautiful sunset views. Go a little early to dinner so you can check them out. Ronnie's place is a little further out than the others, but it was a cheap $5 cab ride away. My husband commented on how fresh tasting his fish was, and they said it was just caught that morning. In Arenal, a lot of the restaurants are just concrete slabs with a roof overhead, no walls. If you get a chance, try a batido somewhere - yummy fresh fruit drinks that are kind of like a milkshake.
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Old Dec 9th, 2010, 04:15 PM
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In Arenal, we also liked Don Rufino. It's right in town and walking around in town either before of after dinner is certainly worth doing to get a feel for the area.

A little out of town, we ate at Anchio and had wonderful pizza. It is an open air establishment, but totally protected from the elements.

I suppose if you want a really fine dining experience, the Royal Corin might be in order, but I find it totally out of place. It overshadows the Hotel Silencio del Campo which I think is more of a CR experience. Royal Corin could be in any resort location!
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Old Dec 9th, 2010, 04:36 PM
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I like Ronnie's for it's location, view, food and casual friendly atmosphere. Many locals were hanging out there but it's a little place.
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Old Dec 9th, 2010, 06:00 PM
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You know how you keep running into the same people in CR over and over again? We did a snorkeling tour in MA, and that night, we went to Ronnie's and saw every single person from our tour there. I guess everyone had heard the same good things we had.
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Old Dec 11th, 2010, 03:45 PM
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We also enjoyed Don Ruffino in La Fortuna and Kapi Kapi in Manuel Antonio. Most of the food we had otherwise in CR was unremarkable, but these two places hit the spot.
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Old Dec 11th, 2010, 05:53 PM
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There's a place called Gingerbread outside of Arenal that seems to get a lot of attention - sounds like a foodie type place. I've read some rave reviews of it and would like to try it.
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