San José has a variety of restaurants serving cuisines from all over the world. You can find superb French, Italian, and contemporary fusion restaurants around the city, as well as Peruvian, Japanese, Swiss, and Spanish spots. The greatest concentration and variety of restaurants is in the downtown area, as well as in the nearby suburbs of Escazú and Santa Ana. If you’re looking for cheap eats, you’ll find them all across the city in little restaurants known as sodas, which are the equivalent of diners in the United States.
Fruit vendors stake out spots on almost every street corner in downtown San José. If you’re in town between April and June, you can sample more varieties of mangoes than you ever knew existed. Be sure to try a green mango with salt and chili peppers—it’s guaranteed to wake up your taste buds. Another common street food is pejibaye, a bright orange palm nut about the size of a plum. They’re boiled in big pots on carts; you eat them in much the same way you eat an avocado, and they taste a bit like squash.
Aside of the restaurants we have full reviews for on this website, don’t miss out on the sodas in the Mercado Central, located between avenidas Central and 1 and calles 6 and 8. Here you will find no frills breakfast and lunch counters with hearty traditional meals like lengua en salsa (beef tongue in sauce), chorreadas (corn pancakes), and gallos de chile relleno (fried and stuffed peppers served over corn tortillas).
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.
