Soda Víquez — Restaurant in La Fortuna

Lovely family run local restaurant where the owners/servers greet you with happiness and remember guests when they visit again. We went twice during our stay in La Fortuna and tried out two different shakes and four different dishes. The Casado con pollo was delicious, the chicken was so flavourful. The beef nachos were solid but not the best I’ve had. The beef tacos had a lot of flavour and the Hawaiian sauce pork was interesting as the sauce was savoury with pineapple pieces. The accompaniments on the dishes were delicious, the well seasoned veggies etc. I love how they had a huge variety of condiments on each table allowing guests to try local Salsa and hot sauce or flavour to the food to their liking. The Soursop shake was delicious and the Peppermint Lemonade equally so! I would recommend getting those to try. They even provide a coconut rice pudding on the house as a free dessert. The owner was kind enough to give us a local concoction of their shot of tequila with tomato juice and boy was it delicious! Restaurant was always bustling but never a wait. This soda is better than the other well reviewed soda down the street by a mile. They accept...

The good: clean, music not too loud, staff is friendly and reasonably attentive. Beef, chicken and fish were perhaps a bit salty but otherwise prepared well enough. Drinks were cold and refreshing. The passable: beans, rice (not the typical gallo pinto), plantain and root veggies were edible but unremarkable. Other seafood dishes were very fishy and the seafood soup lukewarm. The bad: the clams were tiny and at least 20% did not open during cooking. The cream of tomato soup looked and tasted like a little tomato puree mixed with a lot of some sort of thickened water base. The cooked greens were completely dead and had no business making it onto a dinner plate. We ordered “guanabana shakes” and got a drink made from water, a little guanabana and some sugar. Bottom line: we’ve been eating typical Costa Rican fare almost exclusively for the last week and never at the same place twice. This was easily the worst. It’s probably makes it into my top ten worst eating experiences of my life. I left the restaurant feeling embarrassed. We decided to save what was left of our evening with a stop at a second restaurant. Do yourself a favor and eat...

When you come to Costa Rica you'll see Sodas everywhere, it's almost like their equivalent of a diner in the states, a nice home cooked style meal. And Víquez was no exception to that. My girlfriend and I wanted to make sure we stopped in at one of these places while we were on Fortuna to get a feel for what local food felt like. We both ordered casadas, a Costa Rican staple if there ever was one (she got the chicken and I got pork). I cant imagine order anything different, each plate gives you such variety; a protein, beans, salad, plantains and a root vegetable of some sort. So many diverse flavors, it could make your head spin. We also got mango and tamarind drinks which were perfectly fresh and sweet. Service was quick and friendly and they even cap off your meal with a little cup of complimentary rice pudding, which has a little of a coconut twist from its American counterpart. Even if you don't try Víquez, I can't help but recommend going to a soda while you stay in Costa Rica...