If you’re curious as to what Costa Rican food is like, we will share with you what Costa Rican cuisine is like. Learn all about delicious Costa Rican food in this article.
You can click here to go our Mytanfeet Costa Rica restaurant map to see all the places we’ve eaten at and recommend.
Costa Rican Cuisine and Ingredients
Although a lot of people think Costa Rican food is like Mexican food, it isn’t even though many Costa Rican dishes and Mexican food uses similar ingredients. Costa Rica’s food is fairly mild compared to other countries in Latin America.
Costa Rican cuisine consists of mostly rice, red or black beans and corn. For vegetables, they eat a lot of potatoes, carrots, cilantro, tomatoes, onion and lettuce. In Costa Rica, the meat is mostly pork, chicken and beef. For seafood, it is mostly shrimp and fish (a lot of tilapia and red snapper). Costa Rica cuisine also includes plenty of fresh tropical fruits such as papaya, watermelon, banana and pineapple.
Costa Rican traditional foods doesn’t have a lot of sauces or condiments. You will find that many salads don’t come with dressing, only a slice of lime.
Where to Eat Traditional Dishes in Costa Rica?
To try Costa Rican food, visit a local restaurant which is known as a “soda.” You will find them all throughout Costa Rica. Sodas are the best place to try authentic Costa Rican cuisine.
Traditional Delicious Costa Rican Food and Dishes
The casado and gallo pinto are two of the most traditional Costa Rican dishes.
Gallo Pinto
Gallo pinto is a mixture of the most traditional foods: rice, red or black beans, chopped onions, cilantro and bell peppers. This dish is commonly known as the national dish of Costa Rica. It is the signature breakfast food usually accompanied with scrambled or fried eggs, toast, fried plantains, sausage, corn tortillas and natilla (sour cream). Gallo pinto is typically served with a cup of coffee, juice and fresh fruit.
Nearly all hotels in Costa Rica include hot breakfast included in their rate will offer gallo pinto so you definitely have to try it! You will find gallo pinto in Costa Rica made with black or red beans, they are both common. And if you want to make some back at home, you can get our Costa Rican gallo pinto recipe here.
Salsa Lizano
Salsa Lizano is Costa Rica’s national sauce. It’s a bit like Worcesteshire sauce and they use it for meats and gallo pinto. Whenever I order gallo pinto, I always ask for extra sauce to put on top.
Salsa Lizano is also a fantastic Costa Rican souvenir to take home. You can find it everywhere and it’s very cheap.
Casado
The casado, translation “married” is one of the most typical traditional dishes in Costa Rican cuisine.It is not made of up one singular dish, but rather a combination plate with white rice, black beans, a meat, a salad and fried plantains/tortilla/cheese. The casado is the most traditional Costa Rican dish eaten for lunch or dinner.
The reason why these two main dishes are quite heavy is because most of the Costa Ricans back in the day were farmers or coffee pickers so they needed a lot of energy to work.
Arroz Con Pollo (Or squid/seafood/shrimp)
This is another very traditional dish. Arroz con pollo is basically like chicken rice. You will find rice with chicken at every soda normally accompanied with salad and fries. This is one of Yeison’s favorite dishes in Costa Rica and he cooked this a lot when he was growing up since it’s easy to make with easy to find ingredients.
You can also find rice with shrimp, rice with squid, rice with seafood or veggie rice. This is a typical dish found in all local restaurants.
You can get our Costa Rican rice with chicken recipe here if you want to try to make some at home!
Chifrijo
Chifrijos are the ultimate Costa Rican bar food om Cosat Rican cuisine. It’s basically a bowl of rice, beans, pico de gallo, chicharrones (fried pork rinds) and guacamole. This is usually served at local bars. However, you may not find chifrijo on the menu due to patent issues. Some restaurants have to use another name.
Pair the chifrijo with an Imperial beer (or a shot of chiliguaro) and you basically have Costa Rica in one meal! To try a chifrijo, we recommend you to visit a local Costa Rican bar. Most touristic restaurants don’t have them, or they are very expensive.
Costa Rican Tamales
When you think of Christmas in Costa Rica, every Costa Rican thinks of tamales. Tamales are a classic Christmas dish in Costa Rica and they take it very seriously. The best ones are made in Costa Rican home as mothers and grandmothers pass this tradition down to their kids but you can find tamales in the supermarket and some local restaurants during Christmastime.
Costa Rican tamales are ground cornflour, corn meal and a little bit of flour and the inside varies depending on what the cook likes. There is normally meat like pork, potatoes, rice, carrots and I’ve had ones with raisins in it. Then it’s wrapped in a banana leaf.
Most Costa Rican tamales are pork tamales. However, as there are more vegan/vegetarian Costa Ricans lately, you may be able to find veg tamales in the metropolitan cities. Read about eating veg in Costa Rica here.
Olla de Carne
Olla de carne (beef stew) is one of the few soup dishes in Costa Rican cuisine. It’s a very simple but hearty and healthy beef and vegetable stew with many traditional foods like beef, yucca, corn, green plantain, taro, yam, carrot and potato.
Since this soup is known as “hangover food” and takes awhile to make, restaurants usually only have them on weekends.
You can try to make this at home with our Olla de carne recipe!
If you like to cook, consider taking a Costa Rica cooking class and farm tour!
Costa Rican Taco
Costa Rican tacos are not like Mexican tacos at all! They roll the tortilla with the filling and deep fry it.
They put shredded cabbage with ketchup and mayonnaise on top and it’s usually filled with beef or chicken. You can find this in some Costa Rican restaurants and it’s usually under the fast food/snacks section.
Costa Rican Ceviche
Costa Rica’s version of ceviche is simple but fresh. It’s raw fish cooked in fresh lime juice and garnished with chopped cilantro, bell peppers and red onion. It’s usually served with tortilla chips or patacones.
A lot of Ticos like to eat ceviche with ketchup and mayonnaise. It’s usually not spicy.
Patacones
Patacones are smashed fried green plantains, very commonly found in local restaurants as green plantains are a staple food in Costa Rica. They are normally under the “entradas” or appetizer section on menus.
You can order them with guacamole, pico de gallo or beans.
Chorreadas
Not to be mistaken for corn tortillas, these are Costa Rican corn pancakes that are eaten as a snack or for breakfast. These sweet corn pancakes are delicious paired with coffee. You can eat it with natilla like the picture below, a type of sour cream.
Chorreadas is like a pancake but made with ground corn which you pan fry until it turns a crunchy golden brown.
Churchills
Churchills are Costa Rica’s version of shaved ice. They were invented in Puntarenas and this is a must if you love sweets. It’s a more intense variation of the Costa Rica copo with ice cream with kola syrup, condensed milk or evaporated, powdered milk and barquillos (the straw cookies). You can also try a copo or granizado which is the same thing without the ice cream.
Churchills are also very popular in Caldera, the local beach about 45 minutes from San Jose. If you drive by there, you’ll see lots of copo and churchhill stands.
Rice and Beans
The Caribbean coast of Costa Rica has its own Costa Rican cuisine as it has more Caribbean influences. One such dish is rice and beans, which is not gallo pinto! Their rice and beans is made with coconut milk. It’s commonly eaten with patacones and slow cooked chicken or fish. This is one of my personal favorite Costa Rican foods!
Add a bit of the Caribbean hot sauce and you have the best Costa Rican food to eat in places like Puerto Viejo de Talamanca and Limon.
Sopa de Pejibaye
If you love rich soups, then you must try sopa de Pejibaye. Pejibaye, or peach palm is a type of fruit native to Central America. It kind of looks like a really small coconut but the inside is a soft, kind of grainy fruit that tastes a bit like sweet potato.
They make this into a cream soup so it’s quite rich but full of nutrients as pejibaye is very healthy.
Sopa Negra (black bean soup)
Black bean soup (sopa negra) is one of my favorite traditional dishes to make at home since it’s super easy with readily found ingredients and healthy.. You can find it at most local restaurants and they always serve it with a hard boiled egg.
If you want to make it at home, you can get our sopa negra recipe here.
Chilera
Chilera is the spicy pickled vegetables. You can find this in nearly all sodas and if you don’t see one on your table, ask your waiter. Each soda makes their own so they’re always different but if you like the pickled/vineger flavor, you’ll love the chilera!
They usually use onions, cucumbers, carrots, cauliflower and Panamanian peppers. Most local restaurants make their own chilera.
Gallo
A Costa Rican gallo is kind of a snack and it is very common in barbecue restaurants. It is basically a tortilla with a meat, either beef, pork or chicken but they also have them with beans and cheese.
You won’t find gallos at every soda in Costa Rica however. We have only seen them at places that have more meat dishes or very typical restaurants.
Ceviche de Banano Verde
Ceviche de banano verde is made with green banana, lettuce, onion, celery, sweet pepper and lime juice. It’s eaten as an appetizer and you can eat it with chips.
This is an excellent dish for vegans as it’s made with green bananas, onions, celery and other veggies.
Rondon
Another Caribbean dish to try is rondon, a rich coconut milk soup with fish and veggies like corn, yuca, Panamanian pepper and potato. This is a hearty soup, perfect for rainy days in the Caribbean.
You can find this at all the local restaurants in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, the main tourism hub of the South Caribbean.
Trits Ice Cream
We love Trits Ice Cream which is essentially an ice cream cookie. They have also made an ice cream flavor!
You can get Trits ice cream at any supermarket or small grocery store. It’s so good! One of our favorite Costa Rican snacks for sure!
Arroz Con Leche
Costa Ricans love arroz con leche eaten for dessert which is basically a rice pudding. The Costa Rican version is normally made with evaporated or condensed milk, cinnamon and raisins.
You can commonly find arroz con leche in the dessert section of local restaurants.
Empanada
Costa Rican empanadas are another one of our favorite fast food snacks. They fill the empanada with meat and stuff it with cabbage.
Many times they will put ketchup and mayonnaise on top.
Spoon Chocolate Cake
This isn’t really a dish since it’s a dessert but I couldn’t leave this one out. Spoon also makes their own desserts and pastries. Their chocolate cake is one of my favorite cakes.
The frosting is thick and gooey and my favorite is the chocolate. If you’re visiting outside the Central Valley cities like San José and Heredia, you can buy Spoon cakes at supermarkets like Auto Mercado or Mega Super. If you’re in San José, we highly recommend visiting their sit down Spoon restaurants as they also have breakfast, lunch and dessert.
Costa Rica Vacation Checklist
- First time to Costa Rica? Read our First Time in Costa Rica guide.
- Not sure how to move around Costa Rica? Read our How to Get Around Costa Rica guide to find the best transportation method for you.
- Click the link to get our detailed Costa Rica Packing List so you know what essential items to bring.
- Do not forget to purchase Travel Insurance for your trip to Costa Rica.
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