El Santuario — Restaurant in Tamarindo

Good evening. Last night we had an excellent dinner at el santuario in Tamarindo. The best dish was the caprese salad which had super fresh homemade mozzarella and great large fresh tomato slices.

I had a “white” pizza with fresh prosciutto cheese and rocket that was also delish but which I could eat only one slice of after finishing off that caprese salad!

They also bring you fresh made focaccia bread to start which was divine with some olive oil and pepper to dip it in.

My companion had French fries and tempura vegetables which were also delish and had two sauces to dip them in but one was too spicy for her and even a bit spicy for me. But the other white sauce was good as she finished all of it.

I also had the special $5 margarita in a flavor of my choice so I chose pineapple and was not sorry! Served on the rocks I didn’t have to be convinced to accept another one when offered. And at the end we were offered comped limoncello shots which I accepted but teri declined. Super delish all around!

We could not stay for dessert because we weee about to pop already!

We were given a significant 25% discount off our bill because we are staying at Zulu surf hotel next door and that really saved us a lot on our big meal.

Wait staff were delightful and even the bartender came to ask how the drinks were. Super nice bunch there! We are considering going back tonight but for more modest selections. However I know I’m having that caprese...

Was super excited for the variety of pasta, however the meal, and service was very underwhelming. We were seated before a table of five and three more tables of two. The waitress paid more attention to the table of five (we had 4). They had ordered drinks, and food before she came back to us and then got their food and ate and left before ours even came out. In fact the waitress came over after they left and the other tables of two got their meals and told that the person who ordered the larger pizza that their pizza would hold our meals up another 25-35 minutes if they wanted the larger one. Meaning they hadn’t even started making ours! Then when the food came out we had 7 ravioli for $18?!?! The prosciutto pizza had Oscar Mayer deli ham on it and we had to keep asking for water. A photographer then came over to video our food and us eating... At the end of the meal we were supposed to have limoncello. They gave them to all the other tables even the table with the toddler got one extra for someone to take for the toddler. The waitress purposefully ignored us as much as possible. At the end we asked for our limoncello and we’re told oh we ran out. We asked for an alternative, we ordered then she came back and said oh we did have more. Definitely not...

We walked around for 30 minutes looking for a restaurant with a good atmosphere and gluten free options. We finally found El Santuario, and we were sooo happy we did! They had live music and the atmosphere was super chill but had a high end feeling. The place is beautiful and the menu was very well rounded. Pastas, seafood, beef, gnocchi, and a good selection of appetizers and desserts. I’m not gluten free, and I was kinda mad at the free bread because it was so freaking good that I ate it all myself! I ordered the ensalata mystico (or something like that) to start and it was fresh and tasty. The Risotto con (a lot of Spanish words) was to die for! Risotto with a broccoli/asparagus cheese sauce was incredible, the asparagus was cooked perfectly, and the tenderloin medium rare was one of the best I’ve had. My friend had the Red Snapper, which was almost half the price of the restaurant we almost ate at, and she fell in love! Presentation was very nice as well. Our server, Nicole, was fabulous too. Very sweet and attentive! So far this is my favorite meal in Costa Rica and I will be recommending this place on my CR Facebook pages as well. If you’re visiting Tamarindo, you need to try this place (unless you hate good food....