La Casona del Maíz — Restaurant in Garita

Very, very delicious food with beautiful scenic views but EXORBITANT prices!

We stopped here on the way to our airport from La Fortuna per our driver’s recommendation. The establishment is open seating and doesn’t really have doors for entry, it’s a huge open area with ceiling coverage. Our waitress was friendly and patient while we figured out our order and helped us decide what to choose. It took about 20 minutes to get our food but it was worth the wait! The grilled pechuga (chicken thigh) and lomo asado smelled and tasted amazing. The meat was fresh, seasoned perfectly, and super tender. These two dishes came with frijoles molidos, white rice, a corn tortilla, and mini corn. The beans and tortilla were tasty, but the rice and corn were bland and had almost no seasoning. This was a minor complaint though, as the meat totally made up for the dish.

The other two dishes were tortas, but not your typical Mexican torta with buttered buns sandwiching meat and cheese. These tortas instead were made of grilled cheese on top of the meat of choice (we got asada and pollo) with a flour tortilla bottom. It was a cheesy, savory dish of deliciousness that the whole table favored. Unfortunately, the asada torta had really cold meat despite the cheese being melted. It’s like they thawed out the meat or had it sitting around then heated it up. It was almost inedible, so that alone brought it down by one star especially since the food was really pricey.

For 4 cokes, one lomo asado, grilled pechuga, torta de carne, and torta de pollo it was $70. Yes, seventy US dollars. The food and view overlooking the forest were great, but dang that price seemed excessive. There was the IVA tax & service fee attached that raised the price about $15.

Overall, you will get great food here (again I recommend the torta de pollo!) but it will come at a huge cost. Nice vibe, good service, and great views earn this vibrant spot five stars but it has to be brought down to 4 due to the cold meat in...

Located in Garita de Alajuela, this hidden gem truly brings out the best of Costa Rican cuisine. Overlooking a 180 degree spectacular view of the valley, hills and jungles of Alajuela, this is a homely and rustic restaurant. The service was good, in spite of our group being 50 people, and the restaurant itself being very crowded. There is, however, a lot of space, seating, indoors and outdoors, and plenty of staff. The waitresses and waiters were friendly and attentive.

The combo platter had chicharrones, beef, chicken, fried plantains, corn on the cob, tortillas, pico de gallo, frijoles molidos, rice, and a sort of corn puree. Absolutely delicious! The meats were soft and tasty, and the accompaniments were scrumptious. The beers were cold.

Absolutely recommended for an authentic Costa Rican experience, with local...

La Casona del Maiz is a casual roadside open-air restaurant with a view! As their name implies, the specialty seems to be corn, though the menu runs the gamut of Costa Rican cuisine. The Super Desayuno Campesino was a platter of breakfast dishes for sharing, including gallo pinto (rice mixed with beans), fried eggs, crispy bacon, sour cream, cheese, fried sweet plantains, beef tongue in tomato sauce, avocado, arracache picadillo (made with a local root vegetable), and tortillas. Everything on the platter was super tasty and came together in a colorful, balanced meal, and the service and value here were...