The 9 Best Restaurants in Playas del Coco Right Now

Nine places we actually eat at in Coco and Ocotal, from beachfront sodas to slow-smoked brisket.

The best restaurants in Playas del Coco right now, in our book, are Soda La Teresita, Tortuga Bar, Villa Italia, Santorini, Le Coq, Masala, Buzzed Monkey BBQ, Cafe Corazon, and Father Rooster over in Ocotal. Between them you get beachfront casados, homemade pasta, grilled octopus, real smoked brisket, and a breakfast worth setting an alarm for.

We live in Playas del Coco, and the guests in the roughly 40 vacation rentals we manage ask us where to eat almost every week. So this list is not scraped from review sites. It is where we send guests, and where we actually sit down ourselves. Two honest caveats first. Coco is a working beach town, not a fine dining capital, and restaurants here open, close, and change chefs quickly. That is why the title says right now: we revisit this list every few months. If a favorite of yours is missing, it may simply mean we could not confirm it was still open when we updated this post.

1. Soda La Teresita

Start where the locals start. A soda is a small family-run Costa Rican restaurant, and La Teresita is the classic version of one, right on the beachfront with plastic chairs, sea breeze, and fair prices. Order a casado, the standard Tico lunch plate of rice, beans, plantains, salad, and your choice of protein. The fish casado with a fresh fruit drink is the honest benchmark for eating in Coco. The current Mytanfeet guide to Playas del Coco, updated in June 2026, still lists it among the town's reliable beachfront picks, and we agree.

2. Tortuga Bar

A beachfront restaurant, bar, and grill with a party trick we love: if you come back from a fishing charter with a cooler full of mahi or tuna, they will cook your catch for you. That alone makes it a favorite with our rental guests who book fishing trips out of Coco bay. On a normal night, stick to whatever came off the boats that morning, watch the sunset, and do not rush.

3. Villa Italia

The pasta here is made in house, and you can watch the open kitchen work while you eat. Ravioli, gnocchi, and a proper spaghetti carbonara are the dishes we hear about most from guests. It sits on the main street near the casino, so it is an easy walk from most of the condos we manage in the town center. For a date night in Coco without driving anywhere, this is usually our first suggestion.

4. Santorini

A Greek and Mediterranean restaurant on the main street that surprises almost everyone who walks in. Spanakopita, gyros, calamari, and grilled octopus, with baklava to finish. The dining room is dressed up enough to feel like an occasion, which is not easy to find in a flip-flop town. The travel guide Two Weeks in Costa Rica calls out the octopus and the baklava, and both match what we have had at the table.

5. Le Coq

A small Mediterranean spot across from Coconutz sports bar, doing wraps, hummus, and falafel. It fills the lunch gap perfectly: lighter than a casado, quicker than a sit-down dinner, and easy to grab between beach time and errands. If you are staying with us for a month or more, this is the kind of place that quietly becomes part of your weekly routine.

6. Masala

A genuinely good Indian restaurant in downtown Coco, which still feels like a small miracle for a Guanacaste beach town of this size. When guests tell us they are tired of rice and beans in week three, this is where we point them. Heat levels are adjustable, portions are generous, and it is one of the few kitchens in town that vegetarians rave about without qualifiers.

7. Buzzed Monkey BBQ

Southern-style barbecue smoked low and slow in big outdoor smokers just off the main street. Brisket, ribs, pulled pork, and smoked tacos, with local craft beer to wash it down. It is casual, family friendly, and usually has a game on. Expats from Texas have told us it passes their test, which is the only endorsement barbecue really needs. Come hungry, because the plates are heaping.

8. Cafe Corazon

Our default answer to the question every guest asks on day one: where is breakfast? Cafe Corazon sits at the end of the main street near the beach and does waffles, omelets, fresh fruit smoothies, and a house favorite called the Peace sandwich. It has historically closed one day midweek and kept daytime hours only, so check before you walk over. Get there early in high season, because everyone else read the same reviews you did.

9. Father Rooster

Technically this one is in Ocotal, five minutes down the road, but no honest Coco food list can leave it out. Father Rooster is a beachfront restaurant and bar set in a hacienda building that dates to 1917, with your table a few steps from the sand at Playa Ocotal. It is open daily from late morning through the evening. Go for a late lunch, order a cocktail and something from the sea, and let the afternoon disappear. It is the single most requested restaurant recommendation we give.

What about coffee, drinks, and dessert?

A few places did not crack the nine but deserve a mention. Java Coffee does strong coffee, acai bowls, and Belgian waffles on the corner of Avenida Las Palmas. Cafe de Playa is a beach club on the La Chorrera side that runs from lunch to sundown, good for a swim-and-lunch day. Coconutz remains the sports bar of record, Zi Lounge has live music on weekends, and Heladeria El Coco solves the gelato question after dinner. For more on how the town's food and nightlife stack up against other beach towns, see our post on what makes Playas del Coco different.

How much does eating out in Coco cost?

We will not quote menu prices here because they change too fast to trust in a blog post. The honest pattern: a soda lunch costs a fraction of a tourist-strip dinner, and cooking at home with feria produce costs less still. Most of our long-stay owners and renters settle into a mix of both. We break the bigger picture down in our guide to the cost of living in Costa Rica, and day-to-day town life in our expat guide to the Papagayo region.

Thinking about being able to walk to all nine of these? That is the real pitch for living in Coco, and it is how we live ourselves. Browse our current properties for sale, or if you want to test-drive the town first, book one of our vacation rentals and eat your way through this list. Expat Properties | CR is here in town, and we are happy to argue about restaurant rankings any time.

Frequently asked questions

What food is Playas del Coco known for?

Fresh Pacific seafood is the headline: fish, shrimp, and ceviche straight from the bay, plus the casado, Costa Rica's standard lunch plate of rice, beans, plantains, salad, and a protein. Beyond that, Coco's expat community supports a surprising spread for a small town, including Italian, Greek, Indian, and American-style barbecue restaurants within a few blocks of the beach.

Where do locals eat in Playas del Coco?

Locals lean on the sodas, small family-run Costa Rican restaurants where a casado lunch is filling and inexpensive. Soda La Teresita on the beachfront is the best-known example, and Soda Mediterranea and Soda Mar y Tierra Dona Flor are solid too. Watch where the work trucks park at noon and you will find them without a map.

Do restaurants in Playas del Coco take reservations?

The casual places are walk-in only, and even the nicer rooms in town are relaxed about it most of the year. In high season, roughly December through April, popular dinner spots and beachfront tables fill up, so it is worth messaging a restaurant on WhatsApp a day ahead. Most Coco businesses answer WhatsApp faster than the phone.

Cover photo: Liuuu _61, Pexels · Photo: Jmillan325, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons