Restaurante Buru Seaside Manuel Antonio — Restaurant in Quepos

Tourist Trap don’t do it!! We stopped by for a drink during the day and decided to return in the evening for dinner—unfortunately, it turned out to be a huge mistake vile and over priced. They had a live singer on which was so loud you couldn’t hear anything else, we got seated right near the band and the table had a massive tree trunk in the middle of it which was hard to see your friends across the table so we asked to move tables, the waiter from the start could have cracked a smile or something and the meal was genuinely terrible. One of my friends ordered a steak that was served cold, covered in a cold sauce. When we raised the issue, the staff offered to "throw it back in the pan" to reheat it—sauce and all—which didn’t make sense.

Two of us ordered ciabatta with chips, which arrived soggy. When we asked about it, the waiter explained that it was either because of the type of bread or the steam from the chips—not exactly reassuring. The chicken inside the ciabatta didn’t appear fully cooked either. Another friend also had chicken, which had black bits on it and looked undercooked.

After waiting quite a while for our meals, we were incredibly disappointed. This was by far the worst meal we had during our two-week trip to Costa Rica. To make matters worse, the staff were rude and unprofessional. None of us were able to eat our food—it simply wasn’t safe or edible. When we explained that we didn’t feel comfortable paying in full, the waiter became aggressive, raised his voice, and threatened to call the police, absolutely bully behaviour towards 4 women.

This was hands-down the worst customer service I’ve experienced. I strongly recommend avoiding this place—completely unacceptable food safety and hospitality standards.

Marlins next door have absolutely lovely staff and the food...

We've been coming to CR since 2009. Our first trip we ate at an amazing restaurant here in Manuel Antonio. Over the years that restaurant went way downhill so we decided to try Buru. Not sure why we never tried it but there was great live music coming from the restaurant and we were greeted very warmly when looking at the menu. The food was very good and the service even better. My husband is a vodka drinker (yes I know this is Central America 😅) and he asked for a vodka and cran. They didn't have cranberry so we settled on a different drink. While waiting for our drinks to come I saw our server going across the street. Didn't really pay it too much attention. A few minutes later he brings us vodka and cran with the biggest smile 🥰. He had gone to the store and bought cranberry juice. The music was lively and service obviously great. We ate there 3 times that trip. We had typico breakfast there one morning, casados one evening, and whole red snapper another and of course ceviche. All were delicious.

Fast forward to today (2 years later). We went back and we were again welcomed warmly. Food and service were still good. We had ceviche and casados (fish and chicken). During our meal we saw the same guy from our trip a couple years ago and he remembered us when we mentioned vodka and cran lol. We've always had good service from numerous staff. Usually other staff stop by our table just to talk and laugh so we've interacted with the other staff also and always have a good time. We will definitely be going back before the end...

Tourist trap - don’t go here! Walk two stores down to ‘Baldi’s Fresh’ or next door to ‘Marlin’. Over priced, terrible cook, and poor service. I never send food back unless it’s inedible - both our steak and hamburger were raw (not rare but raw), and after the re fire the food was STILL raw... The waiter proceeded to tell us it was ‘medium rare’ - that ain’t even that, it’s RAW (see the pic of what the waiter said was ‘medium rare’ after the re fire). Rather than cause an argument we took the food, stayed polite and tried to eat what we could.

The staff then delayed everything on us and took their sweet time despite the place being empty - no apologies either for the terrible food. I still gave a 10% tip for what was one of the worst $100 meals I’ve had. We are on a budget too, this was supposed to be one of our nice meals out.

I feel like a sucker… lol tourist trap.

Seriously, don’t go here so many better options in the area.

Baldi’s fresh is easily the best place on that...