Costa Rica is beyond beautiful, no one will argue that. Plus there are monkeys and sloths!
Thankfully, there are also plenty of vegan food options for us hungry travelers. Traveling as a plant-based eater can sometimes feel challenging, particularly if there’s a language barrier. And while Costa Rica isn’t known for being especially vegan-friendly, I was able to find more than enough to eat! This is a long post, but there was just so much vegan food in Costa Rica, and I didn’t want to leave any of it out!
Here are some of my favorite vegan meals in and around San Jose, Costa Rica:
Let’s start with Falafel House, the only restaurant we ate at more than once. It’s a small, modern spot located right off Avenue Central, steps from Mercado Central, San Jose’s Central Market. This is prime tourist location, and if you’re in San Jose you’ll almost certainly find yourself nearby. This restaurant is small but friendly AND the menu has vegan items clearly marked. And they serve wine, which might be even more important, ha!
The first time we visited was for lunch, and we both had the Falafel Bowl, with jasmine rice, lentils, hummus, salad, pickles, beets, eggplant, and roasted onion, with tahini. It was enormous and honestly, the two of us could’ve split one.
Just look at the tahini-smothered falafel!
As we were preparing to leave, one of the gals who worked there came in carrying three cakes. And they were all vegan! Unfortunately, we were too full to partake, but we kept thinking about them, and a couple of days later we were back.
This time I went for the eponymous Falafel House Pita Wrap which, as you can see, came with a top of pita chips and hummus. It was delicious, but again, filling.
And this time we went for the cake. We meant to order one slice to share but somehow ended up with two slices of the Green Tea Cake. This was, of course, after me repeatedly confirming that it was vegan. “El pastel es vegano, si?”
Not the best picture because it was late at night… but it was actually green. And it was delicious! A little dry (I’m assuming it was the same cake from two days prior?) but still yummy.
We stayed at the absolutely adorable Hotel Aranjuez in the Aranjuez barrio of San Jose, and I absolutely recommend it. It’s SO Costa Rica, and perfectly situated in the city for walking to museums, shopping, and food. And even though this is a food blog, let me show just a couple pics of the hotel, which was actually 4 or 5 historic houses that had been connected. There were so many hallways and walkways and courtyards, and it was actually a little fun to get lost in. This was the courtyard near our room:
And this was the beautiful, serene restaurant where they served an amazing breakfast every morning, included in the price of our room, that had tons of vegan options (more on that in a second)…
But first…
This guy visited us every morning at breakfast!
Costa Rican squirrels are just about the cutest thing!! Okay, back to the food. Here’s a look at a typical breakfast we enjoyed at the Hotel Aranjuez:
Fresh fruit, pickled veggies, fragrant beans, and rice, and many many bread options with fun jams. Passionfruit, mango, and other jams you don’t often see in the US. Oh and the coffee is ALWAYS good in Costa Rica.
The hotel also has a fancy-schmancy restaurant called 11-47 that is only open for a couple of hours each night and requires reservations (made at the front desk). It’s a tiny spot but beautifully done. That’s the actual, entire kitchen right there behind that counter!
Their menu has a few things that are marked at vegan, and a couple otheres that can easily be made so. For my appetizer I had the Vegan Ceviche, with avocado, mango, radish, and a crisp delicious sauce, with fried plantains for dipping.
Dinner was a Strawberry Avocado Salad (which I think may have also been listed as a starter on the menu, but I wasn’t hungry enough for an entree) topped with homemade granola. The menu also included some really fun cocktails.
We only ate there once because of our schedule, but I would’ve gladly gone back in time had allowed. I’m not showing Mom’s meal because it was vegetarian (not vegan) but it looked like something from Top Chef the way it was plated. SO FANCY! You can actually see a shot of it in the background of the Ceviche pic.
About a block from our hotel was the cutest little coffee shop called Kaps Cafe (there’s also a hostel nearby with the same name, but the cafe is separate). Look how cute!!
We were there in between mealtimes and just had coffee (with a splash of whiskey of course) but according to Happy Cow they do offer vegan food and baked goods.
Also right near our hotel was a wine bar and restaurant where we had a nightcap at least twice three times. Restaurante bar Castanuelas didn’t offer any vegan food options from what I could tell but it was a fantastic place to stop for a glass of wine. Look how pretty and quaint it is!
Arbol de Seda was on our list but it closes early (5:00) so we were only able to make it there once. It’s all-vegetarian and all delicious! And even though many of their dishes come with cheese, they do have queso vegano to substitute for you!
I forget what these were called, but they have basically Loaded Potato Wedges… like nachos. But with potatoes, which is like heaven for me. Tons of vegan cheese, guacamole, tomatoes, scallions… what you’d expect. The serving size was enormous, this could’ve fed two.
But that doesn’t mean I didn’t save room for dessert… Passionfruit Cream Pie to be exact!
Located across the street from the National Museum of Costa Rica (which, incidentally, I don’t really recommend. If you’re only going to visit one museum, do the Gold Museum) is Nuestra Tierra, a fun, vibrant restaurant featuring traditional Costa Rican food and live music. Not a lot of vegan options but it was our first day, we were exhausted (we had taken the red-eye from Denver to CR and so hadn’t slept really in 36 hours), it was cold and rainy, and we just wanted something to eat to help us stay awake until a reasonable hour, so we had the Patacones Platter (fried plantains) which came with guacamole, bean dip, and salsa. And wine. Lots of wine.
Annnnd finally, our last night in Costa Rica was spent in Alajuela, a neighborhood on the other side of the city, very close to the airport (we had an early flight). Another great neighborhood, although not as many restaurants/bars/museums as Aranjuez IMO. But what Alajuela DOES have is a restaurant called El Chante Vegano, which is 100% vegan!
We started with the Patacones (have I mentioned I am addicted to plantains?) which again came with the black bean dip and salsa:
For her entree, Mom had the Buffalo Cauliflower Tacos, which were breaded and SO GOOD (I got to try one):
I had the Super Nachos (as with the loaded potatoes I ordered earlier in the trip, I was craving nachos for these entire two weeks) which had soy meat and the usual toppings, but they were just meh. Maybe it was the 14 lbs of lettuce? Or the lack of seasoning. Or maybe it was just me and my craving was for some specific nachos. IDK. Regardless, I wouldn’t recommend these.
It could also just be that I was grumpy because this restaurant didn’t serve alcohol??
Okay, that’s it for Costa Rica! Next up, I’ll share my food adventures from Panama!!
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