Restaurante Isolina — Restaurant in Carmen

So good you’ll have trouble eating anywhere else! This place in Escalante is such an incredible find. And, that’s tough in a city that has truly INCREDIBLE food overall (said by a professional chef here) and in the neighborhood known for having some of the best food of that great food in SJ (escalante).

The attention to detail, beauty of this place, food quality, staff knowledge, warmth and kindness of the staff, interesting menu, local and sustainable ingredients and beautifully-crafted decor alone make this place just utterly wonderful and a complete joy. But then the food just comes and knocks it out of the park. Wow. Beautifully made from truly local ingredients and most importantly, made well. It’s easier to make things look good than taste good and this place excels at both. The chefs here have a real knowledge of flavor combining which makes this place special and above and beyond! Local cured ham outperformed some of the best San Daniele prosciutto I’ve had (and for our restaurant we go through a lot of high-end 2-year aged prosciutto). On the local cured ham plate were these fried puffed pastry crisps that were magic when paired with the strawberry jam, arugula, & cured ham. What a thoughtful combination! Then the creamy & salty olives on the board just melded perfect to match the sweetness of the ham & strawberry. And EACH plate we had was like this. Perfectly crafted, specially made, thoughtfully designed. For the quality, this place was a great value and outperformed some very incredible restaurants we frequent in NYC. Please, someone put this restaurant on the best-of list!

The cocktails here of equal incredible quality with special, unique ingredients and pairings from their famous Mezcal drinks that the owner brings back from Mexico himself to their amazing coffee offerings and very very good wine menu (we tried a few of their wines and all were above and beyond and a great price for the quality).

We tried almost their whole menu from eating here 3x and wish we could have eaten here even more! Standouts are any of their lamb or beef entrees—the most tender meat (& local) you could imagine! And great portions to boot. I think the chefs here excel at meat dishes and vegetable dishes with incredible combinations so we enjoyed those most. Another standout was the tender beef tongue, sliced then seared with a beautiful sauce served on lettuce leaves with fresh lime oh my gosh. Oh and the pork ribeye with peanuts!!!! And the salad with local vegetables, cherry tomato, celery seeds, dried and fresh fruits and toasted coconut and almonds in a lightly blue cheese sauce was mind-blowing and possibly the most interesting and delicious salad I’ve had in a restaurant.

The staff are clearly passionate and knowledgeable about food and are also just kind, caring people who we loved seeing when we arrived. Mizael, the manager, knows the ins and outs of EVERY ingredient & its history, no matter how small. He was such a wonderful host who made our time here magical. He took very good care of us and was so thoughtful to do a little tasting with us and sent us my favorite beef tongue plate on the house— what great hospitality!

The garden in the back is glorious and is such a romantic place to enjoy a dinner! PS we’ve never been huge into orange wine but they offer the best we’ve ever had and loved every sip! They heavily vet all of their drinks so I think it’s probably impossible to choose wrong here!

Best restaurant in SJ in my opinion and we did go to the top 3 while visiting.

This place will be one of your highlights….still thinking about it back in...

We ordered 4 Dishes + 3 drinks + desserts and We had an extremely disappointing experience at your restaurant. To begin with, the croquette we ordered had cheese inside that was still frozen, making it unpleasantly cold and immediately revealing it was a frozen product. Despite having to wait a long time between the starter and the main course, there was no apology for the delay. When the croquette was finally re-prepared, it took so long that we were already about to leave when it was served.

We decided to give the main course a chance. While the octopus dish was good, the “catch of the day” was dry and underwhelming. As for the cocktails, we ordered three. The martini and the final cocktail were decent, but the mezcal cocktail tasted watered down and lacked flavor.

Despite these issues, we stayed to try dessert, only to wait another 20 minutes with no sign of it. When we asked to cancel the dessert, we discovered that the order had never even been placed. We ended up having to go somewhere else for dessert and additional food.

We will not be returning to your restaurant. If you come here expecting great reviews and high standards, be prepared to wait at least 20 minutes for every dish, accept the possibility of mistakes, and risk being served dishes that are poorly prepared or cold. For a restaurant with such a beautiful setting and premium prices, it’s shocking and deeply disappointing to receive such inadequate service...

Update: came back to San Jose a day early just to eat here again because it was so amazing the first time. The second time didn't disappoint. The service was absolutely excellent (thanks D!) And the food was divine. I got the chicken wings (best i have EVER had), the sweet potato, and the insanely amazing Copey dessert again. Definitely this is my favorite restaurant in Costa Rica but maybe also in the world!

My meal at Isolina was the best meal that I've had in a very long time. From start to finish my experience at Isolina was simply incredible. The attention to detail, the friendliness of the staff (thank you Jose and Dani and Alito), the quality of the drinks and food, the decor...I could go on and on. The price was extremely reasonable for the quality as well. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal (hashbrown, octopus, costillas, and the INSANELY delicious Copey desert - my jaw literally dropped at my first bite; my drink (mayahuel) was also excellent - thank you Dani!). Honestly, that dessert was maybe one of the best I have ever had. I could not have asked for a better meal on my last night in San Jose. It's hard to find any negatives but my only feedback would be to space out when the different plates come out as I was still enjoying my hashbrown when the octopus came out and I was torn to try to eat both at...