3 Best Restaurants in Tortuguero and the Caribbean Coast, Costa Rica

This tiny rancho-style restaurant in the middle of a forest clearing is one of Costa Rica's top Argentine restaurants. The menu varies throughout the year and might consist of beef in chimichurri sauce, spinach crepes, curried shrimp, mussels in white wine, or grilled tuna. For lunch, options are more casual with burgers and sandwiches. All meals here kick off with homemade chips and guacamole, a house specialty. The place feels remote and, indeed, you’re a long way from most lodgings when you’re out here in Punta Uva. Take a taxi to and from if you’re without your own wheels.

For nearly 30 years, the owner of this Italian restaurant has gone to great lengths to assure ingredients are authentic, including importing olive oil and wine from Italy. You’ll be surprised at all the additional light Tuscan entrées, appetizers, and desserts the chef-owner has concocted that day. Start with bruschetta and carpaccio, and move on to fillet with Gorgonzola sauce or homemade pasta. Be prepared for a long, leisurely dining experience with attentive service, often from the owner himself, with all the flair of an opera tenor. It's worth the wait, especially when you sink your teeth into the tiramisu; this is one of the country's top Italian restaurants.

This restaurant epitomizes Puerto Viejo: lively, organic, popular, but confident enough not to seek trendiness. Ordering is by sauces: Thai peanut, Indonesian-Caribbean curry, Mexican chipotle, Jamaican jerk-style, or Malaysian-guayaba curry, which is served on vegetables, chicken, shrimp, or fish (marlin or tuna). You can't go wrong with the Caribbean pad Thai or Indian butter chicken. Live music gets going later on Saturday evening, although the place closes at 10.