If you’re curious as to what exactly Costa Rican food is like, check out this post. We eat local food whenever we are traveling around Costa Rica so we wrote this post to share our favorite Costa Rican dishes. Below you will learn about Costa Rican food and what we recommend you to try!
Traditional Costa Rican Food: Chifrijo
Chifrijos are the ultimate Costa Rican bar food. It’s basically a bowl of rice, beans, pico de gallo, chicharrones (fried pork) and guacamole. This is usually served at local bars and though it may not be on the menu (there are some patent laws regarding the name), you can ask the waiter.
Pair the chifrijo with an Imperial beer (or a shot of chiliguaro) and you basically have Costa Rica in one meal!
To try a chifrijo, we recommend you to visit a local Costa Rican bar. Most touristic restaurants don’t have them, or they are very expensive.
Olla de Carne
Olla de carne (beef stew) is one of the few soup dishes in Costa Rica. It’s a very simple but hearty and healthy soup with beef, yucca, corn, green plantain, taro, yam, carrot and potato.
Since this soup is known as “hangover food” and takes awhile to make, restaurants usually only have them on weekends.
You can try to make this at home with our Olla de carne recipe!
If you like to cook, consider taking a Costa Rica cooking class and farm tour!
Costa Rican Taco
Costa Rican tacos are not like Mexican tacos at all! They roll the tortilla with the filling and deep fry it.
They put shredded cabbage with ketchup and mayonnaise on top and it’s usually filled with beef or chicken. You can find this in some Costa Rican restaurants and it’s usually under the fast food/snacks section.
Patacones
Patacones are smashed fried plantains and they’re probably one of the best things to eat in Costa Rica. You can order them with guacamole, pico de gallo or beans.
We usually order this as an appetizer with guacamole or mashed beans. The patacones in Puerto Viejo are amazing and we also had really good ones at Soda Tipica Las Palmas in Montezuma and Soda Tiquicia in Santa Teresa.
Chorreadas
These are Costa Rican corn pancakes that are eaten as a snack or for breakfast. These are delicious paired with coffee as they are normally made sweet or you can eat it with natilla like the picture below, a type of sour cream.
Chorreadas is like a pancake but made with ground corn which you pan fry until it turns a crunchy golden brown. We’ve had good ones at Soda Sabor Tico in Monteverde.
Churchills
Churchills were invented in Puntarenas and this is a must if you love sweets. It’s a more intense variation of the Costa Rica copo withice cream with kola syrup, condensed milk, powdered milk and barquillos (the straw cookies). You can also try a copo or granizado which is the same thing without the ice cream.
You can find them in every beach town and most cities. It’s super popular in Caldera, the local beach about 45 minutes from San Jose. If you drive by there, you’ll see lots of copo and churchhill stands and a big chuchhill statue!
Rice and Beans
Rice and beans are from the Caribbean side of the country, making it completely different than the typical gallo pinto breakfast dish. The locals use coconut milk in the rice and beans, pair it with patacones and slow cooked chicken or fish. This is one of my personal favorite Costa Rican foods!
Add a bit of the Caribbean hot sauce and you have the best Costa Rican food to eat on the Caribbean coast.
Crema de Pejibaye
If you love rich soups, then you must try crema de Pejibaye. Pejibaye, or peach palm is a type of fruit native to Central America. It kind of looks like a really small coconut but the inside is a soft, kind of grainy fruit that tastes a bit like sweet potato.
They make this into a cream soup so it’s quite rich but full of nutrients as pejibaye is very healthy. We had this one at Sr y Sra ESE in San Jose.
Chilera
This is the Costa Rican version of pickled vegetables. You can find this in nearly all sodas and if you don’t see one on your table, ask your waiter. Each soda makes their own so they’re always different but if you like the pickled/vineger flavor, you’ll love the chilera!
They usually use onions, cucumbers, carrots, cauliflower and Panamanian peppers. Most local restaurants make their own chilera.
Gallo
A Costa Rican gallo is kind of a snack and it is very common in barbecue restaurants. It is basically a tortilla with a meat, either beef, pork or chicken but they also have them with beans and cheese.
A very popular place for gallos is Betico Mata in Turrialba.
Ceviche de Banano Verde
Ceviche de banano verde is made with green banana, lettuce, onion, celery, sweet pepper and lime juice. It’s eaten as an appetizer and you can eat it with chips.
This is an excellent dish for vegans as it’s made with green bananas, onions, celery and other veggies. We had this one at Danta Corcovado Lodge.
Rondon
Another Caribbean dish to try is rondon, a rich coconut milk soup with fish and veggies like corn, yuca, Panamanian pepper and potato. This is a hearty soup, perfect for rainy days in the Caribbean.
You can find this at all the local restaurants in Puerto Viejo, the one at Selvin’s was really good.
Trits Ice Cream
Trits is a type of ice cream made from the Costa Rican company Dos Pinos who makes all sorts of dairy products. It’s originally an ice cream cookie and they just made an entire Trits flavor ice cream.
You can get Trits ice cream at any supermarket or small grocery store. It’s so good! One of our favorite Costa Rican snacks for sure!
Empanada
Costa Rican empanadas are another one of our favorite fast food snacks. They fill the empanada with meat and stuff it with cabbage.
Rainforest Cafe in La Fortuna is one of our favorite places for empanadas, they are huge!
Spoon Chocolate Cake
This isn’t really a dish since it’s a dessert but I couldn’t leave this one out. Spoon also makes their own desserts and pastries. Their chocolate cake is one of my favorite cakes.
I’m not a huge fan of frosting but I love theirs. It’s thick and gooey and their cakes are always good but the chocolate is the best! You can buy Spoon cakes at supermarkets like Auto Mercado or Mega Super.
Traditional Costa Rican Food
I certainly can’t talk about Costa Rican food without mentioning the three below. The casado, gallo pinto and rice with chicken are three of the most traditional Costa Rican dishes you can find in every local restaurant in the country.
Gallo Pinto
Gallo pinto, a mixture of rice, beans and chopped veggies is the signature breakfast food usually accompanied with eggs, toast, fried plantains, sausage and natilla (sour cream). Some Costa Ricans prefer tortillas instead of toast and they always pair it with a cup of coffee and juice.
Nearly all hotels in Costa Rica include hot breakfast included in their rate will offer gallo pinto so you definitely have to try it! And if you want to make some back at home, you can get our Costa Rican gallo pinto recipe here.
Casado
The casado, translation “married” is a typical dish for lunch or dinner. It’s like a smorgasbord plate but typically comes with rice, beans, a meat, a salad and fried plantains/tortilla/cheese. The casado is one of the most traditional Costa Rican dishes eaten for lunch or dinner.
The reason why these two main dishes are quite heavy is because most of the Costa Ricans back in the day were farmers or coffee pickers so they needed a lot of energy to work.
Arroz Con Pollo (Or squid/seafood/shrimp)
This is a fairly popular Costa Rican dish and just as common as casados. You will find rice with chicken at every soda. Rice and chicken, mixed with vegetables normally accompanied with salad and fries.
This rice and chicken was one of the best I ever ate with heart of palms in the salad, one of our favorites. You can also find rice with shrimp, rice with squid, rice with seafood or veggie rice.
You can get our Costa Rican rice with chicken recipe here if you want to try to make some at home! If you’re vegetarian, you can ask for a vegetarian casado or vegetarian rice.
You can read more tips on eating vegetarian in Costa Rica here.
Costa Rican Restaurants (Soda)
To try Costa Rican food, you must go to a local restaurant which is known as a “soda.” You will find them all throughout Costa Rica, wherever you go. Sodas are normally cheaper and only serve Costa Rican.
You can check out what going to a soda in Costa Rica is like in our video below!
Map
Here is an interactive map of some of our favorite Costa Rican restaurants. I’ll add more to the map as we eat at more places!
