Café y Rest Raúl Castaño Fortuna Mirador — Restaurant in La Fortuna

WORST restaurant experience I'VE EVER HAD. Only place in La Fortuna that has HORRIBLE customer service, and I have frequented several restaurants in the area for over a month. Its a small place and was not packed or busy at all during my visit. I ordered a casado meal and a papaya smoothie. Waited over an hour for my meal, only for them to realize that they mistakenly 'threw away' my order ticket and my order never made it to the kitchen. I thought no big deal, mistakes happen. So I reminded them what my order was and ordered guacamole for the meantime because I was starving. Finished the guacamole and the meal still had not come out. i was sitting at the center of the patio table, and clearly visible to the kitchen staff during my entire visit. I quickly went to the restroom, only to come out and find that the waitress cleaned up my sitting area, took my 3/4s full drink away without even asking if I was finished. When I asked about my meal, they said they got confused and explained they thought I only wanted to order the guacamole instead of a full meal. So ridiculous. I just ended up leaving after 2 hours of waiting , still hungry to look for somewhere else to eat. The staff seemed completely dismissive of me because I was a solo female, and practically acted like I didn't exist. They were a lot more attentive to the groups and accompanied guests. There was definitely no language barrier because I'm a fluent Spanish and English speaker, and no other restaurant in La Fortuna has had trouble understanding me during the several weeks I've visited. Nor has any other establishment treated me with such disregard. Their staff is clearly incompetent, sexisit, or a combination of both. The view was beautiful and I was hoping to get a photo of my meal with the great backdrop of the volcano, only to end up leaving hungry and without photos.

Don't bother with this place if you're a solo...

We went during dinner, so maybe this place is better as a morning or afternoon spot. But I left really disappointed.

I was looking forward to this place based on the Google Reviews. But, I do not think this place is worth going to.

The problems:

We had like four different servers helping us, and we were just two people, me and my wife.

We asked for the bill 3 times and waited until the place was basically empty before they finally cashed us out.

The restaurant had some people wating, but it didn't seem busy enough to ignore us. (I've served food for 16 years of my life, so I have some experience with how busy things are)

I ordered a black coffee. I asked them if it was black coffee or an espresso, and they said it was coffee. They gave me an Americano. I figured it was a language barrier and asked one of our other 5 servers to switch it for a normal black coffee. They said it's the same thing with just more water (an Americano is half Espresso half water)

Our food was pretty bad.

My wife had one of the specials. It was rice, shrimp and octopus. The Octupus was rubbery and overcooked. The shrimp was pretty bland.

I had a feeling from the vibe of the place that the food wasn't going to be amazing, so I had a cheeseburger. They asked if I wanted it medium rare or medium. I told them medium rare and my meat was well done.

I understand that hamburgers isn't really a Costa Rican thing, so I can't be too judgemental on it

The positive :

My wife had a passion fruit margaritas and it was pretty good.

We were very disappointed with this Cafe. Not worth eating dinner there. Hopefully...

We had a lot of great food while in Costa Rica but this was by far my favorite place. Great service, great coffee, great food. The first day I had a special of the day surf and turf. The steak and veggies were amazing. The shrimp was good but I’m not a fan of grilled shrimp. The cafe de leche was a finish to the meal. We had a large party and everyone loved their food. We ordered everything from a chicken sandwich to a tomahawk steak and all of the food was amazing. They had a face painter there that day for the kids and my daughter was soo happy. I can’t even remember all of the desserts people ordered but they were also yummy.

The food was so good we went out of our way the next day before we left to go back for lunch. I got a burger with fries and it exceeded my expectation's. The kids decided to go with chicken sandwiches again. My wife got a salad with chicken was very, very happy. I decided to finish the meal with a cappuccino (also delicious). I got a bag of coffee for home and can only hope I can make it remotely close.

Oh and the view...