Arbol. Food & Wine. — Restaurant in Quepos

Last week while in Costa Rica, our plan was to have our romantic night at this restaurant. I primarily selected this restaurant for my wife as it had "Wine" in the title, something my wife enjoys very much but I do not. I really wanted to make this night special for my wife, but found myself just stirring in my own frustration of how horrible our waiter Jorge was. Lets see where to start, maybe not necessarily Jorge's fault yet but my wife asked for a listing of wines that she could order by the glass. The quick verbal response was Pinot Grigio and Cabernet. Really??? This place has "wine" in their title and the only two wines they offer by the glass is the basics. So this was my first point of frustration.

The second point of frustration was the wine by a glass is served in this green weird lookin glass, looks like it's out of an Indian Jones movie. We were surprised to learn that if wine is not ordered by the bottle, it is served in this funky glass and not the traditional clear wine glass per Jorge. At this point I'm considering leaving as I'm upset that this place is not living up to my expectation that I had for my wife of me making her the focal point for our evening, but my wife prevails and said lets see how it goes.

So here comes the next let down, is that Jorge never informed us of items that may not be available for the evening when he read off the evening specials upon sitting us. So when Jorge came around to take our orders after about 20minutes, my wife asked for the scallops and I requested the ribs. We quickly learned that both were unavailable from Jorge and we would have to spend some additional time making our next selection.

My final notation of frustration and one that is inexcusable. Upon the delivery of our food from Jorge my wife asked him for another glass of wine with her meal, in which he acknowledge. Well Jorge never brought that other glass of wine for my wife's meal, instead she continued to drink her water. Now I can be forgiving and understand that sometimes people forget, but however Jorge never stopped by once to check on us to see if were happy with how our meals were prepared or to see if he can get us anything. We instead were left there with no continuation of service at all. Worse of all the restaurant only had 8 tables occupied with two waiters (slow tourism during Covid).

At this point I'm just done and over this place, it completely put a huge dent in the expectations of a romantic night for the wife and I. Still not seeing Jorge and being completed with our meals I grabbed my wife hand and stood up looking for Jorge at this point to request for a manager. When finding Jorge I learned that there isn't a manager available. Find that really hard to believe being a fine dining restaurant like this one and being no manager available. I asked again if there is any one in charge that I can talk to about his (Jorge) level of service tonight. That I'm not looking for a freebie tonight, but someone needs to know about our experience. Again "no one is available." So I paid our $155 dollar tab that was (2) drinks for myself, (1) glass of basic wine for my wife, and just (2) meals, and left.

So I know this review was lengthy, but to sum it up. If you have high expectations for a romantic evening like I did with my wife and plan on kicking it off with a nice dinner. Well I would not put all your hopes and expectations into Arbol, as their capable of disappointing you just like that...

Started of great - ended up awful.

When you eat at a restaurant that considers itself “fine dining” you go in having certain expectations, mine were not met. The resort has a closed of gate down by the road as most common high end places do and we were well met with excellent service and were driven up to the restaurant in a golf cart. The last walk was a accompanied by the driver who held the umbrella for me, absolutely lovely. I have no complaints regarding my pre drink nor the appetizer, an espresso martini and tuna tartar. My friend’s Moscow mule did however taste virgin. As main course our table ordered in two different types of tenderloin; one with scallops and one with hollandaise sauce. (And one duck) Both tenderloins could well have been mistaken by cheap meatloaf and grew in your mouth when you chewed. Was only OK when drowned it in their sauce, but when does ever good meat need sauce? The sauce was however not drained and you chewed whole pepper corns and bay leaves. My friend who ordered the tenderloin with scallops were informed that they didn’t have any scallops available and that there were to be replaced with shrimps (they still had to pay full price and no compensation where offered) The courses where decorated with brightly colored green and blue sauces, that itself does not deserve one star, but come on; we’re not paying + 110$/ person for child’s food. They ordered us a taxi after dinner but had no way to escort us to their drive way in the Pouring Downfall - since their golf cart didn’t drive past 10pm. Nor could they afford to spare us a pair of umbrellas. They told us the taxi had arrived and sent us on our way, but when we arrived we still had to wait an additional five minutes outside.

So, I’m now home unsatisfied and...

Do NOT waste your money here. This place is very expensive compared to other restaurants and it is most definitely NOT worth it. We picked this place to eat some fine dining during our stay and the food was extremely mediocre. I had the tenderloin with scallops, medium rare which tasted like low quality meatloaf. The meat was bad and it was not properly cooked (over cooked) they did not have the scallops so I got shrimps instead but still had to pay full price as if I ate the scallops.

We told the server about the food and how it did not live up to our expectations, they did not do anything to make it up to us and we payed full price.

When we arrived we got a lift from the entrance to the restaurant and they told us they would take us back after the meal. Once we had payed the check they told us to hurry to our taxi and when we got outside there was no one there. They did not take us back as promised and had no umbrellas to spare us so we had to walk through PORING rain to the entrance. Once we got there our taxi had not arrived as they had said an we had to stand in the rain for 5minutes before it came (if you know about Costa Ricas pouring rain you know how bad this was).

I have never been treated this way at a restaurant before. Go to any other local place nearby and they will go above and beyond for less than...