Veronica's

When we first arrived in Puerto Viejo we set off for some lunch and Veronica’s caught our eye with its vegan offerings (I’m not vegan, but vegan food is often delicious).

I ordered the casado (rice, stir-fried vegetables, beans and a salad) and energy shake. The casado was just ok, didn’t have much flavor and I was left hungry. On top of that you can get the same plate for half the price at one of the sodas, so I don’t recommend getting that here.

They did have dynamite home-made hot sauce though.

Final bill: $23 for two plates and two shakes.

Dinner at Lava Rocks Cafe

Make sure to ask for the bocas menu. Much cheaper food but small portions, so you might want to order multiple plates or just get a casado.

Bar y Restaurante Amigos

Incredibly slow service. We ordered two burgers (I ordered a super burger for $6) and the wait was more than twenty minutes. The burgers weren’t very good either and the fries tasted like they were from a bag.

This place does have a huge dance floor though so it’s probably a much better bar than restaurant :)

Las Mariposas Hostel

• $35/night for a private room. Apparently the rooms are normally $38 though.
• Ants all around our room.
• Bed is crazy uncomfortable.
• No safe.
• They start running a lawn-mower at 8am.
• A few blocks from the main street.

This place was over-priced given what it was and compared to similar places in Costa Rica, but the other hostels were full so we camped here for one night.

The staff and people here were incredibly friendly backpackers and we ran into many of them throughout our entire stay in Sámara. Can’t recommend sleeping here due to the cost but it’s a great place to meet people!

Isabella's Coffee

Dropped in here to grab a coffee and take a break from our long walk. I ordered a white chocolate mocha that tasted pretty gross and Laurence’s mandarin juice tasted like they hadn’t cleaned the blender between drinks.

Thaico

This is my tripadvisor review:

This place is hardly worth the time to go to, much less write a review, but I felt it necessary to attempt to further this establishment’s drunken stumble down to tripadvisor’s gutters.

First off, this place doesn’t serve Thai food other than by name. Any of the traditional flavors you’re used to expecting from Thai food are conspicuously missing from every plate. To top it off, the flavors they DO have make you want to vomit during, immediately after, and for the duration of the evening following.

This terrible experience is compounded by the miserable staff. Don’t expect to get any service while you’re here without flagging someone down, and, when you do get it, don’t expect them to listen to any complaints about the quality of their food. Our waitress, upon being informed of the meat tasting like gutter, simply nodded and walked away.

Don’t waste your time or money on this place.

Mykonos

Really bad gyro with liquid tzatziki. The two for one happy hour drinks were pretty weak as well.

Casa Blanca

A hostel off the beaten track. Half-decent rooms that get incredibly warm at night. Filthy showers with no hot water.

My tripadvisor review:

We (three) stayed here for two nights in one of the private rooms. The staff were generally nice when we checked in and throughout our stay. We chose the private room upstairs because it had a lot of light and a big window.

The room had A/C though it would have been fine to have a fan in the room.

The showers were advertised to have hot water but any time we took a shower the water was glacier cold. Turns out there is one shower that has hot water, but any time we used it the hot water would disappear within seconds. The bathrooms were also completely filthy any time we used them. Asking the staff about this we were told simply that we should “use the shower with hot water in it”. This proved quite difficult given that this hostel can have 30 people in it and only one working shower.

The location is also far from the more happening streets in the city, so be prepared for a walk or cab to any clubs or restaurants.

Malibu Frozen + Cocktails

Grabbing drinks before heading out dancing.