La Brasa Argentinian Grill — Restaurant in Nosara

Boy if I could leave 0 stars.

From the outside looking in this place looks excellent, the menu has wonderful options. Especially for people that like to eat meat considering the area has a lot of vegan restaurants. My girlfriend and I tried eating here the first night we waited in line and nobody acknowledged us so we walked to the front and grabbed somebody which seems pretty common in Costa Rica (not a big deal). The server explained to us that they had no availability in the restaurant for the night but explained to us that if we wanted to sit in the common area they shared with other restaurants that he would still serve us. Awesome, We both thought. so we sat in this little bar area at the edge of a roof where it was raining sideways on both of us at which point we were soaked which didn’t really bother me because it was still warm out, however we sat there for 20 minutes and we never saw him again so we calmly walked to the front and returned our menus where we both decided we would try again the next day.

So the next morning my girlfriend and I head over to make reservations before we start our adventures for the day but the restaurant was closed. However there were a few people working in the kitchen so I asked if I could make reservations for that night. She assured me I could, so I wrote my name down, the number of people I had in my party and my phone number for 7:30 that night. So what happened when we showed up at 7:30 that night? The same server was there from the night before told us they were booked and I explained to him I made reservations for 7:30 he asked for my name and told me it wasn’t in his book for reservations. My girlfriend and I calmly left even though we were both frustrated we didn’t say a word about it and decided the next day we would call right when they opened and try again. So that’s what we did!

The third night we show up and guess what?! WE GOT TO SIT DOWN, WEEHOO! We drank a few glasses of wine each and had a delicious appetizer (some melted cheese giddy up I don’t really recall) so everything was going good. When we ordered our mains I got their special which was a tomahawk steak and I was pumped. I’m not a meat connoisseur By any means. I like a medium rare steak and if anything slightly on the more rare side. However I know how difficult it is to cook a perfect steak because I cook a lot of them myself so I never ridicule anybody for slightly over cooking or undercooking meat, it’s hard to perfect! But oh boy when I got this thing I can’t even paint to you in words how overcooked this thing was. I could barely cut through it because of how charred it was. I felt if I rubbed the meat between my fingers the particles of the muscle fiber would start to float away like dust, battleship grey from wall to wall on the meat. THE WORST STEAK IVE EVER BEEN PRESENTED IN A RESTURANT SETTING HANDS DOWN. I can’t remember the last time I sent food back but considering everything we had gone through to eat here I was no longer going to bite my tongue. I did snap on the server a little bit which I regret (if you’re reading this I love you my mans and I’m sorry ✊) they later brought me a new steak in about 5 minutes. I cut into it and it was completely purple..... RAW hardly even seared on each side of the steak. The server came over agin to check on us and all I did was turn the steak towards him to see it and he didn’t say a word. I actually didn’t even have a bite of it and at this point all I wanted to do was leave. So I asked for the check and you bet when I got it they charged me for both of the steaks!!!!! What a...

La Brasa does food right. Simply said.

We experience all types of different cuisines at all different levels of premium, we are truly foodie people in all senses - and La Brasa delivered on the best overall culinary experience we’ve had so far in Nosara.

The details in the service from the complimentary focaccia to the fresh chimmichuri and pickled veg at the table to the warm smiles and deep care of the people who work there all contributed to a great experience.

We ordered a beef empanada to start, and I will say it was the best empanada I’ve had in my life. Crispy but fluffy on the outside, filled with warm moist beef-based filling that simply tasted great. Oh and the plating is awesome too.

For our main we ordered the T-bone steak, with baked potatoes, grilled veggies, and Romano salad. We enjoyed it from start to finish, it was all well executed and what added was able to see the roaring fire where it was all cooked.

My only two points of critique on the meal:

I felt that the t-bone could have been more salted, however there was salt at the table that we added on our own ordered medium rare, and it was definitely slightly leaning to the rare side - which isn’t the first time I thought that down here in Costa Rica

All in all our meal total came out $78 all-in, which we were happy to pay considering the experience we had. It’s definitely a fine dining experience, and they delivered on it through...

The restaurant is beautiful and very nice, however the service, like all of the service I have experienced in Nosara, is not nearly up to par with what I am used to/expect being from the United States Took over an hour for our food to be ready, and the restaurant wasn’t very busy this particular evening. The presentation of the food was stunning, and most of it was delicious, vegetables, potato wedges, burgers, chicken schnitzel, salad were all great. The steaks however, were mediocre. All overcooked and quite chewy, which is disappointing when coming from a steakhouse that specializes in steak. The Tomahawk steak, which translates to around 50 USD, weighed 2lbs but was 50% fat. So more like one pound of actual steak that you’re getting. And it was very chewy, along with all of the other steaks. For such a nice place, the prices are very fair, which it’s surprising because so much of the food here is overpriced. Overall the food here (with the exclusion of the steaks) are good here, and so are the prices. However, don’t come to this restaurant expecting one of the best steaks...