Dragonfly Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Tamarindo

I have been to Tamarindo more than once but our meal at Dragonfly was the best ever. I reserved by email from home two weeks before arriving in Costa Rica. First the food, tuna steaks were perfectly cooked and served with fresh vegetables. The Mahi Mahi pineapple salsa special was also delicious: nicely grilled and seasoned but still soft and moist. We tried the recommended local special to start; sort of sweet potato and shredded chicken croquettes served on a sauce of fresh ratatouille with pesto sauce. All food was amazing but portions almost too large. And there are the staff. Flora was our waitress and was a star. She could describe in detail all of the dishes, knew where the ingredients were from and could compare different dishes and make recommendations. A sign of well trained staff. Not only that but she was extremely attentive and just very pleasant. Even the girl in the blue t shirt whose job was to keep our glasses filled with chilled water had bought her A game. All four of us ordered a different cocktail and they arrived within minutes and were also just as we expected them to be or better. And then there was Felipe, another server we chatted to as our teenage girls had coincidentally encountered him in the ocean earlier that day when he had shown concern they were in distress out deep in the water. Dragonfly is among the more expensive restaurants in Tamarindo but go there for a special meal or treat, the atmosphere is lovely, food divine and the staff are angels,...

I'll preface this review by saying that, I've travelled to numerous countries and eaten at many restaurants, and typically don't leave reviews.

That said, I wanted to take an opportunity to leave a review for Dragonfly Bar and Grill.

My sister and I are travelling through Costa Rica, and spending a few days in Tamarindo. After seeing the reviews online we decided to try this place out.

Firstly what I will say is, it's a tasteful restaurant, there was live music the night we went, the food was great and the service was good.

The reason I am leaving a 3 star review instead of 5 is solely due to the fact that we were seated in the furthest table back in the restaurant (behind the bathroom, with the mosquitos), due to us not having a "reservation".

Normally we would understand, however, when we entered the restaurant there were multiple empty 2 person and 4 person tables. We asked about them and were told they were all reserved. Throughout our dinner, we received stares from other folks in the restaurant as they probably too wondered why we were placed at the furthest table with many others empty.

Not only did no other people occupy these tables, but by the time we left there were 5 empty two person tables in total.

It might seem like I'm making a big deal out of nothing in particular but it just seemed odd and coincidentally (or not), we were the only two non-white individuals dining at the restaurant.

Hopefully you get to have a better experience while...

Our dinner started out well. Live music, and excellent starters. Tuna tartare and kale salad were quite good. Then the entrees came. I ordered their special, Blackened Mahi-Mahi and grilled Shrimp with grilled asparagus, jasmine rice and veggies. The grilled asparagus, rice and veggies were perfect. But the main course, both the Mahi-Mahi and shrimp, were terribly over cooked and dry. I nearly choked on the first mouthful of shrimp I ate - expecting it to be juicy and tender, but instead met with chewy and rubbery. I continued to eat - mostly the rice and veggies. When the waitress approached me and saw I wasn’t eating much, she looked at me questioningly. Disliking making a scene, I told her that the rice and veggies were good, but the fish and shrimp were over cooked and dry. Then, mistakenly, I added, “it’s okay, I’ll live with it.” But you should never “live with” a $50 entree. A $50 entree should be amazing. Here’s what should have happened if the restaurant properly trained its wait staff to handle this and prevent reviews such as this. The waitress should have immediately offered to replace my meal and take my plate. You don’t serve a $50 entree and accept a, “dry overcooked” report back from a customer. So all in all, these two big mistakes causes me to not recommend their cooked...