PuddleFish Brewery — Local services in Jacó

We checked this place out after hiking El Mira seeing the signs to go across the street to check this place out.

Maybe we caught it on a bad day but the service was very lackluster for my family of 4.

When we arrived a big group of approx 10 came in a bit after us but somehow got their food before us… go figure. The waitress said their machine messed up and mixed our order up with the large group.. so yeah we sat around waiting for our orders while they were already eating.

We ordered two smoothies that were really good, but had to ask for the kids sodas a couple times for some reason.

Food finally came out and compare to other spots in the area, it was JUST OKAY. We had wings, a tuna burger and a regular burger. Chicken was meaty and cooked well but didn’t have much flavor at all, tuna was dry and the bread was very hard, burger was very lackluster with the same hard bread, without any kind of flavor.

The waitresses never came back around to check on us, to ask if we wanted more drinks, or even if the food was okay. Had to call them over if we could catch their attention to even get the bill to pay. For some reason, did not feel welcome here at all.

Everyone just seemed cold towards us, which is not what we have experienced here in CR….

The atmosphere is cool here, nice setup, fans for cooling, games and even...

The food and drinks were amazing. Truly best we’ve had so far on our trip. However, they played in our face and overcharged us. I got a beer flight of 4 which was labeled 4800 colones on the menu. Which is about $9 usd. My friend got 2 margaritas which were labeled around $9.50 each on the menu. I then got a full pour of the mango sour, which was labeled around $5.50. Okay so that’s about $33.50. We each got an entree- I got the wings and my friend got fish tacos. Those were labeled 7200 colones and 7000 colones (about $13.78 and $13.39) respectively. That puts us at a grand total of around $60.67. So how did we end up with a $87 check? No idea. There was an additional 13% service charge, and a 10% charge of some kind. Our waiter was SO nice so of course I just thought it was expensive and gave him my card before looking closer. He charged me then I looked closer and instead of charging me for a flight he charged each sample as a full pour. So that sucked! We had planned on coming back but we won’t now. Was disappointing, when we asked why he said “ohhh… I don’t know why I did that… I didn’t even bring those beers” like bro you said you’ve worked here for over 10 years, you know how your POS system works 😭 anyways, good food, good beer, good atmosphere, just crazy...

After living in Costa Rica for many years, I missed having Shrimp N' Grits like i used to get in New Orleans or Key West. Well there it was last night on their specials' list at my favorite Costa Rican microbrewery brewpub Puddlefish. "BBQ Shrimp N' Grits", I ordered and 15 minutes later the attractive and excellent waitress brought them to my table. Since it's my favorite microbrewery, i took advantage of the sampler menu and had 3 unique Puddlefish beers (coffee stout, summer ale, unique IPA). From the first bite on, I knew i was eating the best Shrimp n' Grits i ever had, from the Nawlin's buttery bbq style sauce smothering the perfectly cooked shrimp to the incredibly creamy and creative grits (made with polenta & quinoa-what a combo). The Shrimp n' Grits were not only "finger lickin' good", but I'm going back there tonight, because the only thing harder to find in Costa Rica than "grits" are drivers that use their turn...