Tamarindo Restaurants

Someone told us that there are forty five restaurants in Tamarindo.  There is quite a variety and every one that we have tried has had good food at reasonable prices.

One of our favorites is called Nabbana.  It is in the center of town right on the beach.

Their menu located out on the street is in three languages—Spanish, English, and French.  Here is part of the English portion that shows prices in dollars.

Here is part of their drink menu.  As you can see, the prices are comparable to back home—maybe even a little better compared to Bella Vista and good ole dry Benton County.

We particularly like the pizza restaurants that cook their pizza in open ovens.  Gail and I shared a pizza the other evening with friends at a restaurant called La Esquina. 

They make the pizza outdoors and place it in an open oven, fired with wood, to cook.  The crust is thin and when done cooking, the edges are crisp and even burnt a little bit.

There is a local lady who serves lunch every day out of the trunk of her car.  For $4 you get a meal of chicken or pork, rice, coleslaw, black beans, and some kind of cooked vegetable.  We brought it home and it was enough for both of us.

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Another of our favorites is Nougi’s.  It is right on the beach and has very good fish 

If you walk down the Playa Grande beach a ways, you find a restaurant called Rip Jacks.  We had a Chef Salad there one day for lunch that had a chicken breast on the top of it with the spicy flavor like chicken wings.  It was great.

When we got there we had no problem finding the menu.

The bathroom was full of beautiful fresh flowers.

We have also found a place called the Kahiki that has Mexican food but also has a gentleman from Canada who sings and plays the guitar.  His name is Brian Dale and he will play any song you request—he knows them all.  He says he is a mediocre singer and guitar player (I argue with that) but his greatest skill is that he can remember songs.

(We also watched the Indiana/New Mexico basketball game from there.)


There are Chinese restaurants, Italian restaurants, Brazilian restaurants, Thai restaurants, Columbian restaurants, Sushi Bars, and many others.  Most are not fancy and open air. 

 We also go on a regular basis to a place called Witches Rock to listen to the music. They have different kinds of music on different evenings of the week.  They also serve food.  One evening Gail and I ordered a half order of Nachos and could not eat it all.  After that we totally agreed with their sign.

The other morning we had breakfast at a place called the Vodoo.  This is a nightclub, a bar, and a restaurant.  It is pretty nice.  Our breakfast was scrambled eggs, little fried potatoes about the size of marbles that were spicy and wonderful, Bacon, orange juice, bread,  and coffee.  All of this cost $6.80 (or 3400 colones).

We ordered cream with our coffee.  Part way through the meal Gail said “Look at our cream.”  The wind has been blowing strong the last week or so and the sand and dust is in the air everywhere—and in our cream.

A little gritty but doesn’t change the flavor of the coffee at all.


As I said, there are forty five restaurants in Tamarindo.  This is only intended to provide a sample.  We have yet to be disappointed with the food, the service, or the prices.