Costa Rican Food: Traditional Dishes, Drinks and Where to Eat

Costa Rican food is simple, filling and built on rice and beans. Expect mild home cooking, not spicy heat, and plates made from what grows locally.

The dishes to know first are gallo pinto (rice and beans for breakfast), the casado (the everyday lunch plate), arroz con pollo, tamales at Christmas, olla de carne and sopa negra (soups), and the bar snacks chicharrones and chifrijo. On the Caribbean coast, add rice and beans cooked in coconut milk and rondón, a seafood and coconut soup. Most of it is cheapest and best at a soda, a small family-run diner, where a full lunch plate typically costs about $5 to $11.

This guide covers the traditional dishes, regional specialties, snacks and drinks, plus where to eat and what it costs.

Dish	What it is	When to eat it
Gallo pinto	Rice and black beans fried with onion, sweet pepper and cilantro	Breakfast
Casado	Rice, beans, a meat or fish, salad, plantains and a side	Lunch
Arroz con pollo	Rice cooked with chicken and vegetables	Lunch, parties
Tamales	Corn dough with pork and vegetables, boiled in banana leaves	Christmas
Olla de carne	Beef soup with root vegetables, corn and plantain	Weekends
Sopa negra	Black bean soup served with a hard-boiled egg	Lunch, cool days
Chifrijo	Rice, beans, fried pork and tomato salsa in a bowl	Bar snack
Rice and beans	Caribbean rice and red beans cooked in coconut milk	Caribbean coast

The basics

What Is Costa Rican Food Like?

Costa Rican cooking leans on rice, beans, corn, plantains, root vegetables, fresh fruit and simply cooked meat or fish. Seasoning comes from onion, garlic, sweet pepper and cilantro rather than chile. If you want heat, ask for chilero, a vinegar-based pickled pepper sauce many sodas keep on the table.

The other bottle on almost every table is Salsa Lizano, a thin brown sauce that’s slightly sweet and tangy with a little cumin and black pepper. It dates to 1920 and is now made by Unilever. Costa Ricans put it on gallo pinto, eggs, rice and tamales. Supermarkets sell it, and many visitors take a bottle home.

• Meals: a filling breakfast, lunch as the main meal, and a lighter dinner.
• Corn tortillas come with many meals, often thick and handmade in rural areas.
• Natilla is a mild, thin sour cream served with breakfast and tortillas.
• Afternoon coffee, or merienda, is a daily habit, usually with a pastry or bread.

Classics

Traditional Costa Rican Dishes to Try

Gallo pinto

Gallo pinto, “spotted rooster,” is widely considered the national dish. Cooks fry day-old rice and black beans with onion, sweet pepper, cilantro and a splash of Salsa Lizano. It comes with fried or scrambled eggs, fried sweet plantains, natilla, cheese or tortillas. Every hotel breakfast and soda serves it, and the local phrase más tico que el gallo pinto, “more Tico than gallo pinto,” says a lot about its place in daily life.

Casado

The casado, “married man,” is the standard lunch plate: white rice, black or red beans, a protein (chicken, beef, pork or fish), a small cabbage salad, fried sweet plantains and often a picadillo, a chopped vegetable hash made with potato, green papaya, chayote squash or other vegetables. It’s the best-value meal in the country and the easiest way to eat like a local. Order it with fish near the coast.

Arroz con pollo

Rice cooked with shredded chicken, onion, garlic, sweet pepper, carrots, peas and cilantro, colored yellow-orange with achiote (annatto). It’s a family and party dish, and sodas often serve it as a daily special with salad and fried plantains. It’s a good choice for kids and anyone wary of new flavors.

Tamales

Costa Rican tamales are wrapped in banana leaves, not corn husks, and boiled. The corn dough usually holds pork or chicken with rice, potato, carrot and sweet pepper. Families make them in big batches in December, and they’re sold in pairs tied together. Some sodas and bakeries sell them year-round, but December is when you’ll find them everywhere. Our guide to Christmas in Costa Rica covers the tradition.

Olla de carne

A big pot of beef soup with chunks of yuca (cassava), chayote, sweet potato, carrot, corn on the cob and green plantain. The broth is light and mildly seasoned with onion, garlic and cilantro, and it usually comes with white rice on the side. It’s a weekend family meal, and many sodas serve it as a lunch special on certain days.

Sopa negra

Black bean soup cooked with onion, sweet pepper, garlic and cilantro, served with a peeled hard-boiled egg in the bowl and white rice on the side. It’s cheap, filling and usually meatless. See our sopa negra recipe to make it at home.

Chicharrones

Costa Rican chicharrones are chunks of fried pork, often with meat still attached, rather than only crispy skin. They’re served with lime, tortillas, fried yuca or tomato salsa, and they show up at bars, family gatherings and roadside stands. Puriscal, west of San José, is known for them and hosts a chicharrón fair.

Chifrijo

The name combines chicharrón and frijoles (beans). It’s a bowl of rice and beans topped with chicharrones and a fresh tomato, onion and cilantro salsa, often with avocado and tortilla chips. Miguel Cordero created it in 1979 at Cordero’s Bar in Colima de Tibás, north of San José, and it’s now standard bar food across the country. It pairs with a cold beer.

By region

Regional Costa Rican Dishes

Caribbean coast: rice and beans, rondón and patí

The Caribbean province of Limón has its own Afro-Caribbean cooking, with coconut, thyme and Scotch bonnet chile. Rice and beans is rice and red beans cooked in coconut milk, often served with chicken or fried fish in sauce and sweet plantain. Rondón is a soup of seafood and root vegetables in coconut milk. Patí is a flaky pastry filled with spiced ground beef, and pan bon is a dark, sweet bread with dried fruit. Look for them in Limón, Cahuita and Puerto Viejo, and read more about Afro-Caribbean culture in Costa Rica.

Guanacaste: corn dishes and pozol

The dry northwest has a corn-based tradition with roots older than the colonial era. Pozol is a hearty pork and corn soup, arroz de maíz is cracked corn cooked with chicken, and rosquillas are small, crunchy corn and cheese rings sold at roadside stands. The region’s corn drinks and desserts, like atol, are worth trying if you see them.

Both coasts: ceviche

Costa Rican ceviche is raw fish, usually corvina (sea bass), or shrimp cured in lime with onion, sweet pepper and cilantro, served with saltine crackers or plantain chips. It’s on most beach-town menus. Eat it where turnover is high.

Snacks and sweets

Snacks, Sides and Desserts

• Patacones: green plantain slices fried, smashed and fried again, often with bean dip.
• Maduros: sweet, ripe plantains fried until caramelized. They come with most casados.
• Empanadas: corn or flour turnovers filled with beans, cheese, potato or meat.
• Chorreadas: sweet corn pancakes served with natilla. Try our chorreadas recipe.
• Pejibaye: boiled peach palm fruit, eaten with salt or mayonnaise, sold at markets and roadside stands.
• Arroz con leche and tres leches: rice pudding and milk-soaked sponge cake, the two most common desserts.

Drinks

What to Drink in Costa Rica

• Frescos and batidos: fresh fruit drinks made with water (en agua) or milk (en leche). Common flavors include blackberry, pineapple, mango, soursop and passion fruit.
• Agua de pipa: coconut water drunk straight from a green coconut, sold cold at beaches and roadsides.
• Agua dulce: a hot drink made from tapa de dulce, unrefined cane sugar, often with milk.
• Coffee: served strong, often brewed in a chorreador, a cloth filter on a wooden stand. See our Costa Rica coffee guide and the history of the chorreador.
• Guaro: a clear sugarcane liquor, usually Cacique brand, mixed into a guaro sour. Read more in what is Cacique guaro.
• Beer: local lagers like Imperial and Pilsen are on every menu, and craft beer is easy to find in San José and beach towns.

Tap water, and the ice made from it, is safe in most of the country. Our guide to drinking water in Costa Rica explains where to stick to bottled.

Where to eat

Where to Eat Costa Rican Food and What It Costs

The best traditional food is at sodas, small family-run restaurants with short menus and home cooking. Look for a chalkboard with the day’s casado options and a room full of local workers at lunchtime. Our guide to pulperías and sodas explains how they work.

• ₡2,500–₡5,000Casado at a neighborhood soda, about $5–$11
• ₡5,000–₡7,000+Casado in tourist towns, about $11–$15 or more
• 13% + 10%Sales tax and service charge on restaurant bills

Prices change with the exchange rate and location, so treat these as a rough guide. Restaurant bills include a 13% sales tax and a 10% service charge, so check if menu prices already include them. Extra tipping is optional; see tipping in Costa Rica.

• Markets: San José’s Central Market has dozens of small sodas serving traditional food at local prices.
• Farmers markets: weekend ferias are the place for fresh fruit, tortillas, tamales and snacks.
• Bars: order bocas, small plates like chifrijo, ceviche and patacones, with drinks.

Good to know

Costa Rican Food FAQ