Marlin25 wrote:
New guy going down for first time.
If the steaks are so bad -then what's the main staple there? In other words, what do people see most in resturaunts....seafood?
Marlin,
There are places people go that are known for their cuisine and there are places people go that aren't but which have other attractions. In the former category are such places as France, Italy, Greece, Thailand, etc. In the latter category are places like most of Eastern Europe, England (for their own cusine, though they do have decent restaurants from other parts of their former empire) and CR. Does that mean you can't find a decent meal there? No! All it means is you don't go to CR for the food in general. However, if you're there anyway and you gotta eat, you can certainly find some decent places.
Sure, you have to search far and wide to find a really good steak like you would find at the better restaurants back home and will probably fail, but you can find some halfway decent places. Just don't expect Ruth Criss or Peter Luger's. The meat invariably will be a little tougher than you're used to, but on the plus side it is a lot cheaper than what you get at home (and probably less pumped full of steroids, antibiotics and other chemicals).
All restaurants in CR have a varied menu. You can get; chicken, rice and beans; pork, rice and beans; beef, rice and beans; or fish(usually corvina/sea bass), rice and beans. Thats not much of an exaggeration. As you can see,
if they have one staple it is rice and beans. At breakfast they have gallo pinto (rice, beans, cilantro, lizano sauce etc) with eggs. I like them scrambled when I'm in CR, but only because I like to say "huevos revueltas". At lunch, like I suggested, they have some sort of meat with rice and beans, what they call a "casado"(literally it means marriage). The one thing they do consistently well is chicken rice and beans, but then how can one really screw that up. You can find plenty of places that offer chicken that has been spit roasted over a coffee wood fire and is truly moist and delicious. Lunch is traditionally their big meal of the day, but if you want to seek out a more varied diet, dinnertime is probably your best shot. You can go tico and have something unusual such as "Rabo en salsa" (oxtail) or you can try a cuisine imported (with varying degrees of success) from some other country, including other parts of latin america. There have been reviews here of Italian (from pizza joints to fancy northern italian), French, Tex-Mex, BBQ Ribs, Asian (Chinese/Thai/Indian/Indonesian), Spanish, Peruvian, Argentinean and if you're not that daring the US is represented by your McDonalds and KFC type places.
If you're a salad-eater you might be a bit disappointed too. If your dish comes with a "salad" it is usually a few scraps of lettuce and tomato or more commonly some shredded cabbage. On the plus side they have some unusual vegetables that you might like such as Yucca (a starchy but highly flavorful potato-type vegetable, pejibaye (sp?)(hard to describe) and, of course the plaintain, which is commonly served fried with the rice and beans like a vegetable.
There are all sorts of interesting items to snack on through out the day or have with your meals which you probably can't find back home (unless the hispanic immigrant wave has reached your town). Such "bocas" include gallos (tortillas stuffed with beans or meat) which can fried up as empanadas, tamales, ceviche (a common marinated seafood appetizer) and a bewildering assortment of fruits. Some of those fruits you may know, such as FRESH pineapple, bananas, mangos & papayas while others you may not have heard of, such as carambola, maranon and guanabana. Those fruits can be eaten as is or served up in a delicious fresco de leche (milkshake). I particularly like the guanabana for that.
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. Best steak in the "gulch". Will have to try the Costa Del Sol steak as I almost always order their most fantastic Chicken Parmesan for around $6. As Sluthog mentioned, Faros has about the best value on that Filet...WHEN they have it. They tend to understock. Also, Gman and I have both had the Filet at the Balcone Europa right next to New York bar and thought it a good value...and nicer atmosphere than most gulch restaurants. service has always been good there also...and NOW we have the CRT discount.
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I suspect you only brought the little mini in case they ran out of vodka. 
