www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Took a favorita to this restaurant last Friday evening. Walked in about 8:30. We were the only customers in the place. Showed the waiter my CRT VIP card up front before we even sat at the table. He asked if we wanted wine. I Looked at my date and said si. He reccomended a bottle, I said si again, (know a little about wine, and believe me, it was nothing special) he uncorked and poured, then put into ice bucket. We ordered appetizers of prossuto, cheese and salami.

Waiter came to table and mentioned evening specials. I specifically said that I wasn't in mood for seafood, but wanted pasta. I ordered a pasta off the menu and my Tica date ordered pasta as well.

About this time another bottle of unopened wine finds its way into the ice bucket. It was NEVER requested, just magicaly appears. Dinner was taking forever -more than an hour. Conversation with my Tica friend was very enjoyable and after the first bottle of wine, we're both fairly wasted. By this time, there are four other tables of customers in the restaurant, so it's still rather empty for prime time Friday evening.

Inquired about dinner, and about fifteen minutes later it appears. Somehow, the second bottle of wine in the ice bucket is open. and poured into our glasses. I never requested a second bottle and never saw the waiter uncork it. Hmmm. My Tica friends meal of pasta arrives. My meal is NOT what I ordered. It was a Filet of beef, about as tough as the infamous Lucy's face and full of gristle. My steak knife wont even cut it and i'm not exagerating. Three small shrimp split in half are also sharing the plate.

I request the bill (I've saved it and will post a copy in VIP section) and, to my suprise its for 64,083 colones or $143! They have added everything but the kitchen sink to the bill. I again pull out my CRT VIP card along with my credit card and the waiter disappears. A few minutes later the owner comes back and tells me the discount is only good if paying with cash. So their is no discount. My Tica friend is furious at how they took advantage of me and starts to pick the bill apart, at which time the staff conveniently dissapears from the empty dinning room.

What grabs my ass is they knew before we even sat down that I was a VIP member and had also been there before (same waiter as last time) and they still ripped me off. While waiting for the cab back to the gulch, we walked across the street to the steak house and noticed a full house with no empty tables, while we we're the last customers to leave L'Ancora.
Wonder if they are having cash flow problems and needed a gringo to provide a dinaro infusion?

Anyhow, won't be going back anytime soon.

Papa Nut

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The best revenge is living the good life!

Goal,

No, it's in Barrio Escalante about a five minute cab ride up the hill from the gulch in a quiet neighborhood. By the way, looking at the check now and it included a 5210 colones service charge and a 6772 colones Ventas. Makes me chuckle just looking at it.

Papa Nut

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The best revenge is living the good life!

Papa Nut
I don,t fell so bad now. The colonial got me for 39,000 colones for lunch one time. We had no wine or drinks just coke and water. I had pasta and my friend had a fish plate.

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so many women, so little time

Papa:
I certainly can not attest to what happened to you last night, but 10 of us went for dinner to Ancora last night.
All CRT VIP Members.
We all had the cheese salami appetizers, we all had alcohol no wine, some had bottled water, we all had entrees including some of the specials and the total meal for 10 persons was 99K colones. We gave the waiter a little extra as the service was exceptional for 10 persons.

We are certainly sorry you had an issue with this place, but we again had no issues last evening. Like anywhere, ask about how much the wine is before you order it and those specials too. Again sorry but we were all quite happy.

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Thank you for supporting CRT!

Admin1,
I've been there with you and the other admins in the past, and was quite impressed with the food and ambiance of the restaraunt. That's the reason I went back. Was anticipating a good meal in a romantic setting to set the mood for a great session back in the room.

What disturbs me is the VIP member, who is not a regular, getting taken. Looking at the bill, if I deducted the wine -which was 34,000 colones- the bill still came to 30,000 colones ($67) for two people for a modest meal which was ordered from the menu.

No matter how you look at it, we were intentionaly ripped off!

If I was a regular in this place, chances are it might not have happened. But the fact that the VIP card was shown before we even sat down, indicates they knew that I was affiliated with you and the other members of this board. Still, the bottom line is; they did not honor the CRT agreement and picked my pocket.

I'm dissapointed in the boards choice to minimise this experience by posting:



It's the integrity of Costa Rica Ticas that is at issue here. How a vendor honors their agreements with CRT is a direct reflection on the quality of the board.

Papa Nut

_________________
The best revenge is living the good life!

Admin1,
Could it be that you got good service there because you brought in 10 guys, are a regular and have previously presented yourself as a man of influence as admin of a board with 1500 members? What kind of service can the rest of us expect when we go there on our own or with a date? I agree Papa should have inquired about the cost of the wine, as any imported item can be quite costly in CR relative to what one would expect back in the US. Anyway, that still doesn't explain the rest of his complaints.

1) What possible excuse can there be for dinner to take over an hour to be prepared when they were the only customers in the place?

2) What possible excuse could there be for them mixing up his order when there were only 2 orders to keep straight and bring him overcooked stringy beef instead of pasta?

3) What type of place tries to inflate the bill by bringing out overpriced/expensive drinks that were not specifically requested and not making clear how much or whether they would be charged for it? That type of action is more like what I would expect in one of the strip-joints in town.

4) There was never any mention here of the payment having to be in cash to qualify for the 15% discount. Are we now to understand that this will be a continuing requirement?

I know you went out of your way to secure this and other benefits for the members of this board. It is also a benefit for the restaurant which appears to be hurting for business. If this is how they treat CR VIP members who they should know to have greater influence, I can only wonder how they treat the regular person that walks in off the street but not have to wonder why their business is off. I know you take on a lot of responsibility around here and it is appreciated, but since you have recommended this place I think it behooves you to see what you can do to straighten this out the next time you go there, find out if this is going to be their regular practice from now on and remove your recommendation from this board if it appears that the management is not prepared to take our group seriously and deliver the service they have promised.

First off, I will admit that we of course are treated with open arms with large group and we will be treated accordingly.

It also is not my intention to minimize the issue papa nut had and I'm not to explain why or how it happened.

I will say this. If a waiter shows you or reccomends a bottle of wine, would you not of course ask what the cost might be? You accepted it at face value that it was a non pricey bottle. Secondly you indicated the second bottle appeared out of no where and was no uncorked but chilling in the ice bucket. At that time did you mention that you did not want another bottle as it sat there and chilled? Remember we are still dealing with business owners of a 3rd world country and I an only attest to the attitudes and the service that I have been provided with.

I will leave the reviews to others who have visited the place who are normal members, without the admins in tow. I have reviewed many posts throughout the board from persons who have dined and they all seem to be quite happy with the level of service.

Papa, since I know you, I understand, you would not be the type of person to make an issue out of what happened over the $$, but in my opinion you should have made an effort to point out the situation to the owner who is always present and see what his reaction to it would be. If you did bring this to the owners attention then I could have an would have brought to the attention and discussed it with him.

Prolijo, I suggest you visit the place yourself and give me an honest asseement, before passing judement, and if you are unhappy or feel they don't meet up with the integrity or criteria that CRT holds them too, I will happily pay for your meal.

Our goal is to provide these discounts and services also it spells out very clearly in the discount section the discount if paid by cash or credit card
https://costaricaticas.com/discounts.php I will be happy to address the issue that you should have received a discount based on the deal in place and will bring that to his attention to you. Please email me the bill as posting it in the vip section is not necessary.

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Thank you for supporting CRT!

Papanut and Prolijo...I dont think we are trying to minimize the experience of Papanut. I think the point is, this is the first time we have had this kind of comment or experience from our VIPs for this place. I personally go to this restaurant probably more than any other in San Jose and have never had a problem.

Papanut, do you still have a copy of the bill? If so we would be interested in a copy so we can discuss it on your behalf with the owner. If you can scan and email it to us, that would help. It is obviously in all our best interests to document these experiences...but I find it hard to believe Ciro the owner intentionally ripped anybody off if he knew about this. We would like the chance to take it up with him, but I think some documentation on this would be helpful.

I also have to concur with what Admin 1 said...I always order my own wine or specials knowing what the price is before ordering, even at a trusted restaurant such as this one...and if I have a problem with the bill, I try and correct it with them there at the spot. Until you pay the bill, there is no agreement to the contract.

Give us a chance to get this rectified...or at least an explanation from the other side in this conflict...

Thanks.

Admins 1&2,
I didn't mean to sound like a budinsky. I can easily understand your initial reaction as all the reviews up until now have been quite favorable so this one appears to come out of left field. However, since I take great stock in all the member reviews here including those of Papa, who is certainly a respected poster, and have been planning to check the place out myself on my next trip, I was very curious to know what the full story was before I went there. After all, sometimes the service & product quality of places change.

I also agree with both admins that the best way to avoid some of the problems encountered by Papa is to know exactly what you are ordering is going to cost ahead of time. This means either ordering off the menu or wine list or inquiring as to price at the time the order is placed. I for one do this wherever I go.

I definitely appreciate the hard work you guys have done to secure these discounts in the first place. Unfortunately, I think you also take on at least SOME responsibility, once you post a business as a sponsor and in effect give it your seal of approval. I'm glad to know that you are planning on mentioning this to the owner upon you next visit and find out his explanation of events and possibly rectify matters particularly as to accepted forms of payments in order to help avoid any similar problems in the future. And I will defintely take you up on your suggestion as to visiting Ancora and posting my own honest review on the place next time I am in town (no personal guarantee required)

sorry to hear about your bad experience.

I was also taken at another restaurant when ordering the special "off the menu." basically, the "special" was nothing more than bistek tipico with a side of arroz con pollo, served with warm tortillas. dinner for two was almost $70.00!!!

I could have had the same meal at any other soda for a sixth of that....lesson learned. now I only order things where I can see the price on paper...a rule I follow now like the rule to never use the CC to run a tab...

I can't remember the name of the restaurant we went to, but it was pouring rain that night, and it was a sunday. nobody was in the restaurant but us. so I guess the owner wanted to make his rent money off us or something.

I always get bummed when I feel the subject of a hussle because sometimes you just want to relax and not have to keep jockeying with people...

Gentlemen...I'm just wondering what would happen if someone adamantly
refused to pay the entire bill, and walked out? What if the person
called the policia? That reminds me of two
occurences when I was intentionally over-charged or 'ripped-off'. One
time about 8:00 at night I took a taxi from the Hotel Irazu to the
Hotel Herradura. It's only a few miles, and should have cost perhaps
seven dollars. When the driver told me it was $14, I yelled at him
a little, then eventually paid him. What would have happened if I had given him seven dollars and just left?
The other occurrence was at the Holiday Inn about four years ago. One
evening I cashed a travelers check for $100 at the front desk (probably the only trip I've taken travellers checks to CR). The next
morning around 10:00 the assistant manager and manager claim they
had given me $100 too much and asked for payment. We argued for a couple of minutes, as I adamantly refused to pay. After I threatened to
call the policia, they 'backed down'. I think a lot of people in CR attempt to take advantage of 'newbies', thinking they don't know any better. I
think perhaps in certain instances, calling the policia may help, but
other times it may be a waste of time. Any opinions?

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"In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile, and the rest of us are phucked until we can put our acts together; not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely"...Hunter S. Thompson (RIP)

My first advice - Don't stay at that hotel again!

Yes I agree with you GT that one should be careful and sometimes calling the Policia is a waste of time but realize that here in the U.S. many take advantage of tourist from other countries as well. Although the police here are probably more fair, in other countries it is more of a toss up as they see you as just a walking ATM machine.

Overall I think if you pay attention to what is going on and deal with reputable people you should be allright. I know that I get ripped off here and there with the taxi drivers but I have learned to negogiate up front and also if they take me for a couple of bucks I let it slide as I know it could be a lot more.

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I'm just having fun so sue me !!!

I like things that are built for speed!!!

deleted (double post)

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I'm just having fun so sue me !!!

I like things that are built for speed!!!

Calling the police in these counties is basically a waste of time. It's like calling a 2nd grade student to come settle a difference between 2 adults. If taxis overcharge, I just tell them I know what the regular bill is, give them that amount and leave the cab immediately. None of them have chased me down yet...because they know they are wrong. I also have learned here not to sweat or get upset at the "little" hustles. A few colones over charge will not kill me.

Again, in general everyone should get pricing before using a service or ordering food and drink. Then you at least have a verbal/visual contract before exchanging goods and services.

Tman, good post. Brings to mind my frist trip to CR. Was drinking beers and shooting pool in the Best Western Jaco. Went to the bar to re-order dos cervesas and the price was less than we paid before. After walking away from the bar, the manager came over to chastise the bartender for charging us Tico prices instead of Gringo prices. Lesson learned about the double standard. It only amounted to a few dollars difference, but was an eye opening experience about how the country works.

Papa Nut

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The best revenge is living the good life!