www.CostaRicaTicas.com

If you're looking for an upscale dining experience with great vistas of the city, you have a number of options: The White House, Mirador Ram Luna and others.

El Monasterio ("The Monastery") has been around for a long time and is the closest "restaurant with a view" to the Gulch,. It's reasonably priced menu is broad, and prices are more reasonable than other mountainside eateries.

Is it the best epicurean choice? Not hardly. Still, your novia will be mighty impressed.

The restaurant is located in the hills above Escazu', in the midst of a high-security gated area. A taxi from the Gulch will cost you around six dollars, and you'll need to arrange with the taxista for pickup after dinner, as taxis aren't permitted to cruise the restaurant for fares.

Dinner for three, including one cocktail and one glass of red wine each, dessert and coffee for all, and gratuity/tax came to U.S.$85.00 or so. We were pleasantly surprised at this relatively low price.

The food? Well, perhaps there are better items on the menu. We found the food to be nicely presented and adequately prepared, but wholly unmemorable. B-minus.

Service was excellent: Grade A.

Ambience: Excellent, Grade A, but I wish the table full of loudmouthed gringas hadn't been so intent on flash photography. Somebody needs to educate tourists on how to behave when fine dining.

Price, view, service all would get a cumulative grade of B-plus, but the rough drive up the hill, difficulty of transportation, relative food quality and gringa factor (not El Monasterio's fault) bring the grade down to B-minus. OTOH, this may be the least expensive dining option for a room with a view, and while other views higher up the hill will be more spectacular, this place is closer and more accessible.

Recommended. On a scale of one to five stars, with five being most excellent, I give El Monasterio four stars (****).

Will the CRT Gourmet please comment?

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Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

El C,

I have eaten at La Monasterio 4-5 times over the last couple of years. I do it mostly when I have business associates traveling CR with me, or when I entertain clients that are from the San Jose area.

The reason for this choice has been ambience/scenery and not food value/quality.

On one occasion my partner and I took suppliers from S. Korea up to La Monestario for dinner. One of the gentlemen (Koreans are known for eating seafood I wouldn't touch) turned quite pale about 3/4 the way through his lobster. He had to excuse himself to the bano for a while. After he returned, a complaint went to the manager. The manager's response was "Why did he eat 3/4 of the meal before turning white and complaining?". I guess it was a good question and I have to say the whole thing was humorous from where I was sitting (BTW, I think my suppliers enjoyed the after dinner smorgasborg at the Blue Marlin much better!).

My experiences in terms of $ versus food quality value at La Monasterio are mediocre at best. (I would mention that you can eat downstairs in the more casual bar area and still get the view).

So having said all of this, the ambience/view is the main attraction of La Monasterio for me. However, even though I haven't taken a chica up for dinner, my experience with the chicas I would be normally hanging with in San Jose (gulch gals), would be that it would be a waste of time/$.

I think El Chicote in San Jose is a great value and great quality and great presentation. However, when I took a date there, the chica didn't even know how to appreciate what was taking place.

My business partner tried to take a chica he was seeing as a somewhat regular out for a nice evening out on the town and all she wanted to eat was KFC. WTF!!!

So, El C- I think your rating is accurate. Ambience inside, view outside, and presentation of staff = A. Quality of food versus cost = C. Total rating from me = B (leaning on the B- side).

Addendum: My rating above is versus other restaurants in CR. If I were to rate La Monasterio to restaurants int he US that are catering to the same market, I would have to give it a "C" at best.

Then again, let's me not forget that an ***** epicurean experience is not a high priority on my personal list of reasons for taking the flight!!! BTW, I will be there by 12:45 thursday afternoon - already drooling.

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"An intellectual is someone who has found something more interesting than sex." – Edgar Wallace (English author) - then I must be a complete moron.

I ate there and thought it was bad. The view was blocked by clouds, which is not their fault. But, the food was just a notch above dog food. Compared to US restaurants - I'd give it a C minus - at best.

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Alpo or Purina?

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Living well is the best revenge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwUtj_YnNoY

YO Palate Profs:

Yea, I'm cheap but several years ago I was taken in by the printed popularity of this establishment so I took a solo trip up the mountain and sat my ass down for what I thought would be an excellent meal. WRONG! Yea, old Circus ordered a steak. WRONG! the steak must have come from a senior citizen steer not to mention they left me with a dull knife to cut the damn thing. The baked potato was dry and over cooked. the rice....ugh. I did enjoy the view until it started pouring cats and dogs. Well, at least I can say I was there and now I can say I won't be there again.

BTW, the waiter got pissed because I ordered one vodka with a separate glass of coke and then took out my mini vodkas and refilled the rocks glass several times. No, I did not suck down the minis directly as I usually do....I politely poured them in the glass.......sometimes even old Circus can act accordingly in public. Go figure.

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Damn if I'm going to repeat this shit again. I need a drink.
I've been drinking vodka every day for 45 years and I have certainly never found it to be habit forming.