Country Information

Restaurants in towns and cities serve a variety of foods including Chinese, French, Italian, Mexican and North American. Food usually ranges from satisfactory to sublime. In San José, options range from expensive and exemplary gourmet restaurants to cheap sodas (small, simple restaurants) serving local food, including set lunches called casados at bargain prices.

National specialities:
• Casado (a fixed daily lunch, usually featuring rice, beans, stewed chicken or beef, fried plantain, salad and cabbage).
• Olla de carne (soup of beef, plantain, corn, yuca and chayote).
• Sopa negra (black beans with a poached egg).
• Picadillo (meat and vegetable stew).
• Bocas (savoury snacks served at bars or before main meals in restaurants).

National drinks:
There are many types of cold drinks made from fresh fruit, milk or cereal flour, for example:
• Cebada (fermented barley; an indigenous beverage).
• Pinolillo (corn and cocoa).
• Horchata (liquid corn meal or ground rice with cinnamon).
• Batidos (fresh fruit shakes made with either milk or water blended with ice).
• Pipas (fresh coconut water served in the husk).
• Local lager-style beers such as Imperial are a perfect cure for hot days.
• Coffee is good, but many local restaurants serve lesser-quality domestic brand coffee.

Tipping: Tipping is not necessary but is acceptable if the service was particularly outstanding. Restaurants add a 13% sales tax plus a 10% service charge to the bill.

San José especially has many nightclubs, venues with folk music and dance, theatres and cinemas. Elsewhere nightlife is mostly restricted to tourist resorts by the beach.

Special purchases include wood and leather rocking chairs (which dismantle for export), as well as a range of local crafts available in major cities and towns. Local markets are also well worth visiting. Prices are slightly higher than in other Latin American countries. Best buys are wooden items, carved masks, ceramics, gold pre-Columbian replica jewellery and leather handicrafts.

Shopping hours: Mon-Sat 0900-1800/1900. There may be variations between areas.