El Nido e’ Pulecenella — Restaurant in Cahuita

I'm sad to say this restaurant was a huge disappointment. I had heard great things about the pizza and my friend had been there twice before and loved it, however that wasn't the case tonight. We started with an eggplant parmesan - not bad but lacking a bit of flavour and the eggplant was slightly bitter. It came with a side salad that we had to dress ourselves. We were explained that they have small individual pizzas and large ones that can be made 3 different ways. We opted for the large and got 2/3rds just margarita with mushrooms and 1/3 with anchovies and gorgonzola. I personally hate both those toppings so we were all surprised when the rectangular pizza came with the gorgonzola and anchovies in the middle - pretty much defies all logic to do that and the gorgonzola had oozed all over the other 2/3rds. Only the dry outside corner pieces were safe to eat only they barely have any cheese or mushrooms. The whole pizza was generally flavourless and the crust was hard and burnt. My friend who had been there before said it was really bad and nothing like the time before when she had ordered individual pizzas which seem to have better coverage of cheese and toppings (the big rectangle is a lot of crust - in this case hard, burnt and flavourless). You know how the saying goes that even bad pizza is good? Not this one - it was so heavy and all flavourless bread that we barely ate half of it. We took it to go and gave it to our taxi driver. On to desert - we had espressos and the tiramisu ... the espresso was truly terrible - no crema on top, weak flavour...and the tiramisu had some dry spots and tasted mostly of whipped cream as opposed to a sabayon with mascarpone as a traditional tiramisu should have. Regarding service, we poured our own wine, were never given water and no one ever came to check on the table. Do yourself a favour and shell out a bit more cash and go to The Pecora Nera for a truly amazing pizza and handmade pastas with incredible service in the most beautiful dining room in town - you won't regret it. **REPLY TO OWNER'S COMMENT BELOW: I did let you know I wasn't pleased with the food but I did not go into detail out of respect to my dinner companions who didn't want any confrontation. They were not pleased with the food either but you will find most people will smile and say everything was great to be polite and to avoid confrontation - this is the North American way. My review isn't "hiding behind a keyboard" - it's how online reviews work. As an owner you should listen and take the feedback in rather than be defensive, attacking a patron and calling them a liar for an honest review. Now if you were being honest with yourself you would be able to acknowledge that, of course, it made no sense to put two strong and possibly offensive ingredients in the middle of a rectangular pizza. Dismissing this valid comment with a "you got the ingredients you ordered, even if not in the order you liked" is not owning this mistake. You would recognize that well over half the pizza was left over and the crust was far too charred. And you would recognize that you never came to check on the table once to ask if we needed anything (when I would have asked for water and hot pepper oil since it was not provided). Asking how everything was after dinner is not the same thing as checking on a table. Finally, regarding classic Tiramisu - there is no whipped cream. The creamy base is made of raw egg yolks, sugar, mascapone and a hint of liqueur (marsala usually). Raw egg yolks can be dangerous and contain salmonella which is why any good restaurant will whisk their egg yolks and sugar over a double boiler to "cook" the egg yolks and create a custard known in French as "sabayon" or in Italian as "zabaglione" - these are the same thing. Then once cooled the mascarpone is folded in. Having been a professional chef and having worked in many very high-end Italian restaurants under excellent Italian chefs I am VERY well educated on what makes an authentic Tiramisu and what makes a cheap knock-off filled with...

Almost feel bad for this one. But we came here based on reviews. So, here we go. I'll start with the good.

Was a nice place. Clean. The owner I want to say was friendly. His staff was sorta uninterested though. The crust on the pizza was proper neapolitan. Very good. 2nd best I've had in CR.

In all, it's not that it was inedible. It was good enough. But just not for the gourmet, 5 star price tag. There is also cute cats hanging around that you can pet. To me, this is always a bonus.

The bad. This is based largely on price, had this been a Soda, with soda pricing, I would have been impressed at the effort. But 5 star prices... expect 5 star expectations.

We almost left when we saw the food prices. Pizzas were 30 to 50$ canadian. Pastas were 50$ Cad. When I pay upwards and beyond 30$ for a pizza, I expect it to be fantastic. The sausage was... I dont have a polite word for it. I would be amazed if it was house made. It was straight up bland, grey with a hint of pink from nitrates. And over all unappealing. No trace spices of any kind. Not what could be labeled "Italian sausage" in any universe. The cheese was nothing to write home about. And the sauce tasted like just plain tomato sauce out of a can. No love, no seasoning. The mushroom pizza was a little soggy. But that happens with mushrooms, as they weep a lot of water while cooking. So I guess a pass on that. Most places will precook or dry the mushrooms out before tossing on a pizza. The reviews claiming this is as good as Italy... where in Italy? Rome? Italy Texas USA? Some awful tourist trap (kinda like this one)? I think my Italian friends may have thrown this pizza on the ground. Pizzas that would be insanely gourmet in comparison in Italy would be 12$ cad. And were last time I was there. At home in what is considered to be in the top 10 most expensive city's in the world, this pizza would have been 15 to 25$ and they would have blown this pizza out of the water in "authentic flavor"

For it to cost 30$ and be that boring of a pizza, in a country with 1/6th the average income and overhead is criminal.

I've been to the grocery stores here, produce isn't expensive. And everything required to make this pizza is readily available and cheap. The only thing I could see being hard to source is good flour. I'm sure, like in previous bad reviews, the owner will just say I don't know what I'm talking about.

This was harsh I know. But it's honest. Maybe I'm getting tired of bad restaurants with horrendous pricing in CR. Or maybe I'm just...

If you looking for great Italian food around Caribbean Coast surley you must visit this place. Parked our car in private spot between beautiful garden and bungalows which are part of the place. From the minute we walked in we felt nice welcoming feeling from the stuff and owner itself. Good size manu has a lot to offer from daily specials, home made pasta and pizza, cocktails, beers and wine. I would say everyone will find something to love vegetarians, meatlover and fish fans. We are pizza lovers so we choose special of the place which is half meter pizza that you can make with 3 diffrent pizza of the manu which made us very happy and satisfied. Crunchy, tasty filled with high quality toppings on light dough it was just spot on. Watching how pizza is made in italian house is really fun. Great service from the most smily person Leo is pleasure, thank you for...