Lava Lounge — Restaurant in La Fortuna

We were originally trying to find this spot and stumbled upon La Fortuna Bar & Grill. However, walking towards the taxi station across the park, along the way, we noticed a sign outside the restaurant that read "vegetarian meal" which drew us into the restaurant. Upon entering, we noticed a second sign, it read "Lava Lounge" and we immediately got excited as all the local taxi cabs recommended this place, mostly because I kept talking about loving all the local dogs. One particular taxi cab said that the owner runs a shelter for animals. We could not find it originally as we thought the locals were saying "Labalongue".

Anyways, I first have to mention that we immediately noticed the most important sign of all, "A portion of all sales to local dog rescue. Donate here" followed by two stray dogs and a cat inside the restaurant. We opted to sit next to the cat who was a local to the restaurant for years.

What I loved about this place was that although expensive, none of the staff members seemed to mind the boyfriend I feeding the animals.

Keep in mind, as a few reviews have mentioned, they are quite pricey compared to the local restaurants around and sodas, but also, be reasonable and expect to pay a lot for food and drinks around Downtown La Fortuna as it is flooded with tourists. A touristy area will call for overpriced food and drinks. We did not mind paying extra also knowing that a portion of their sales is donated to animal shelters.

The boyfriend ordered the tuna steak special with mixed veggies and I got the BBC cocktail. Pretty good for the price.

The service was good in our opinion and we did not feel as if it was slow but we were also here around 9 pm on a weekday night.

All in all, the food was good, the service was great, the animals were fun to be around, and we also did not get kicked out for feeding the animals. I mean, what establishment keeps stray animals around? That's awesome! At the end of our meal, we wanted to buy a shirt to donate but they did not have our sizes so we ended up donating $20.

Note: They do have vegan &...

Ending our trip in Costa Rica, and this was by far the worst dining experience I had. The service was abysmal! Despite the restaurant not being busy and there being a lot of servers standing around chatting. They hardly checked on the patrons. We were sat down and we asked for waters. The server left so we could look at the menu, we waited for over 10mins for him to return to take our order, we requested water again. 15 mins later I finally went up to ask for water from the bar. I ordered two drinks and my friend ordered some food. My two cocktails had zero alcohol! it tasted like sugar, water and mint. I was very annoyed because the drinks were pretty pricy(like downtown New York pricey), after i finished my drink my friend’s food still hadn’t arrived. Our server stopped checking on us after dropping off our drinks. So we waited for another 20mins assuming the kitchen it just backed up. Once we were finally able to flag a server down, we were told they never put in the order. And that it was okay and that “these things happens sometimes” wild thing to say. We asked for the check so we can leave and dine somewhere else. And I swear to you it was like they didn’t want us to pay! We waited for another 10 mins just to receive the bill. And again they were not busy at all. Over an Hour of wait. I wouldn’t suggest this place to anyone. Just an aura is smugness from the servers.

Also they had live music, but it’s just one guy playing the...

Looks like the local guides and music are keeping this place at a 4.0. We stopped in for a burger and local draft beer. Like others, 15 craft beers on the menu but only 4 available, disappointing. Burger was quite good but arrived dry, no condiments. Not a big deal. Normal restaurants and diners usually have several available for the asking, which I did. He returned shortly with two small ceramic containers, one teaspoon each of Mayo and mustard. Standard for hamburgers around the world. Only problem is they charged us $5US FOR 2 TEASPOONS of condiments. I was suddenly transported back to old European travelling where you were charged for every little thing under the sun. Of course I didn't ask if there would be a charge, that would be insulting to a modern day professional establishment. There was no mention of an additional charge at all. Not a huge sum of money but extremely irritating to pay more for 2 teaspoons of sauce than the beer on the table. When I mentioned this to the matron at the cash register the response "oh well" cemented my opinion. Not a legit business, call this a dishonest, price gouging tourist trap. Like many others have said, skip the food and frilly drinks. If you must, have a beer and leave as little money behind as possible. Better yet, don't reward bad behavior and pass on this...