Sabress Kosher Restaurant — Restaurant in Jacó

1st time eating at Sabress and the food was amazing. Jaco is heavily traveled but yet, reviews of restaurants highly rated are hit and miss. Many restaurants are run by locals catering to an American crowd. This gem is authentic Israeli food, which is rare to find anywhere - but least expected in the middle of jungle Beach town. The beef kabob was quartered inside of a grilled pita bread, with expertly charred edges. The multi-layered textures of crunch, chewy, and soft combined with perfectly seasoned meat is one step closer to heaven. The chef did not take shortcuts to craft the this artisanal delight. It came with a green salad, which I normally toss (literally and figuratively), but this had cranberries a d small bits of tomatoes with deliciously simple dressing. None of the ingredients were over-powering. The french fries were made better dipped into their home-made hot sauce. My app was charred eggplant with tahini sauce, with a whole pita to soak up the goodness. It was wonderful. This was the best meal of my trip and it is located on a side-street in an unassuming building. The lack of fancy decor did not detract, it only added to the value of this find. If I could make just two suggestions to the chef: 1) char the pita for dipping into eggplant like the kabob dish, and 2) serve the beautiful kabob on a flat raw wood plate - worthy of its creation. If you're in the mood for Israeli food, or haven't tried it but love Mediterranean food - go...

Very disappointed at the customer service. Think twice if you're planning any type of big order or catering!

The good: it's kosher and the portions are big.

The bad: food taste and quality was just okay, and I wouldn't have usually complained, if not for their unethical business practices: I asked for a refund on delivery fees as we changed our route and could pick it up. Two weeks ahead. The owner told me the money we sent needs to be paid taxes on so full refund is not possible. Incorrect, taxes are not paid on refunds. They also lied and said the 10% for services was government tax. When I pointed this out, they changed their tune and said they couldn't refund the full amount because of paypal fees, claiming the 5.4% applying to the full $500+ order (!!!) needs to be deducted from the $80 delivery fee refund. They wouldn't listen to any reason and threatened to cancel the entire order when I pointed out that the PayPal fee should be deducted from the $80 delivery fee. Said they would cancel a WEDDING catering TWO WEEKS before the wedding if we didn't agree to the conditions.

Fine, you can have my extra $10. I would have tipped you 5 times that if you weren't insisting on getting back your PayPal fees, which I'm sure are included in the pricing scheme already.

Additionally, I asked them multiple times for an invoice. Instead of an invoice they gave me a print out of the email I sent them for the order. Never seen anything so...

It appears that I'm the odd man out here, but I didn't care much for my dining experience here. I arrived at 5:54 PM, so I wasn't able to order a pita sandwich (cut-off is 5:45 PM), no problem. I ordered the Beef Kebab Platter. I guess I expected meat threaded onto a skewer, i.e., kebab. What I received was four small, slider-style ground meat patties that appear to have been cooked on the flat grill. The meal was accompanied by a small bowl of Hummus (good), a small bowl of salad (very good), and french fries (very good). I ordered pita bread, 1 piece, which added a couple bucks to the bill. I didn't notice until paying that this restaurant, unlike every other restaurant I've been to in Costa Rica, doesn't include tax or service charge. I spent nearly $25 for a dinner that...