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Although you can find decent pasta and pizza, haute cuisine just doesn't exist here. Cartago does give you a fine opportunity to eat some comida típica (typical food). On just about any street downtown you'll find a soda, and the women in the kitchen will serve you the same style of food they cook at home for their own families. One rule of thumb: the busier, the better—the locals know where to eat well.
A cut above the usual soda, this large, long-established restaurant across from the basilica has been feeding pilgrims for seven decades. Along with hearty portions of seafood, grilled meats, and typical casados, the restaurant has a popular bar and terrace.
The menu here at this upscale countryside spot is predominantly Costa Rican, with such traditional specialties as trucha (trout) and rice with chicken, along with some more sophisticated dishes, like corvina (sea bass) fillet with a coconut-liqueur sauce. The Sunday típico buffet is a great introduction to Costa Rican cooking. Decorated with vintage photos of early-20th-century buildings and landscapes, this upscale restaurant teaches a history lesson of the region. The photos also document the disastrous 1910 earthquake that rocked this area and all but destroyed the colonial capital of Cartago.
