Marisquería El Recreo — Restaurant in Jacó

Walking along the main street in Jaco, we had very few options for lunch given that it was New Year's Day, but we saw that Marisqueria El Recreo seemed to be very popular, and mainly with locals.

As there were only two of us we managed to get seated relatively quickly while large family groups had to wait longer as most of the big tables seemed to have been reserved.

The service was OK - they were very busy and the place was full - and the food was good. It took a little longer than expected to arrive, but under the circumstances this wasn't a problem.

One small thing was they they didn't have bottles of red wine - possibly finished off the night before - and yet they would only serve wine by the glass. This was a bit annoying as we had to keep ordering, and waiting for, refills of the 'house' wine which wasn't that great and served to interrupt the normal lunch experience as we were often trying to catch the waitress' attention instead of them giving us a bottle of whatever it was they were serving us.

One other thing, that seems to be usual in Costa Rica is when you want to pay with a card, the staff don't often bring the machine to the table - the customer has to go either to the bar where the machine 'lives', or in the case of El Recreo a kind of booth in the corner of the restaurant where all financial transactions get carried out. Cultural differences, I suppose, but we got used to it...

My friend and I were walking the strip back and forth when one of the servers noticed us and invited us in — super friendly gesture that made us stop. I ordered the Chicharrones de Cerdo and my friend got the Churrasco.

The wait was short, and we enjoyed a couple of Costa Rican beers while watching the street and the football game they had on. The food was delicious — my chicharrones were juicy, the fries crispy, and the salad simple but fresh. My friend finished his steak in minutes, so that says a lot.

Overall, a great spot with good vibes and solid food. Just shy of a perfect five, but definitely worth...

way sub par. Ordered calamares and a casado which are pretty basic plates. the meat on the casado was cold and mostly fat, sent it back. the calamares were ok ish and fewer than expected. didn't seem quite fresh either. my wife had octopus and it was ok way, way, too salty. that makes me wonder if it's to hide something. my mouth is still burning from the salt an hour later. Ramsey would have a field day with this cook. una vergüenza de restaurante la verdad. This place needs new ownership or management. no wonder the servers seem...