11 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.

Pizza, crepes, pastas, and fresh fish are on the menu at this small, canal-side café in the center of town. Wood lattice over the windows, a thatch roof, and, not surprisingly, a small Buddha statue make up the furnishings. Ambient chill out music might be playing in the background.

This is the hot place to see and be seen on Puerto Viejo's main drag. The owners learned to cook at the knee of their Italian grandmother back in Rimini, and have concocted a menu, several pages long, of pizzas and handmade pastas. The hand-rolled strozzapreti with shrimp and zucchini is a top seller. Recorded reggae and mambo music plays in the background.

Pastas and meat entrées are on the menu, but the real draw here is the 30 varieties of thin-crust pizza whipped up and served with style by a gregarious Italian family from Ravenna. The Cuatro Quesos (four cheeses) with mozzarella, Gorgonzola, Parmesan, and fontina is the most popular. These folks do a brisk carry-out business, too. Note that prices do skew higher here than for a comparable "family pizza night" back home.

Blanca, the owner of this longtime standby at Punta Uva, cooks up a menu of rondón, rice and beans, lobster, shrimp, and chicken with sweet mole sauce. The cool breezes of the seaside setting could not be more pleasant. Selvin's keeps limited, sometimes irregular hours, especially in the off-season, so always call ahead and head out here if you're fortunate enough to be in town when it's open.

The name means "over the waves," and this is one of the few dining spots in Cahuita perched this close to the shore. Red snapper is the house specialty, but other seafood and pasta dishes are on the menu, too, along with affordable sandwiches and lighter fare. The menu has a good selection of wine and natural fruit juices. Set along the less busy stretch of Playa Negra (as you head out of town), the admittedly spartan dining area features terrific ocean views that perfectly complement the food.