We went in July 06. As they say, Tico food is pretty basic, and everything comes with rice and beans, even breakfast. As far as we could tell, restaurant food most places was good at best, but mostly just OK. Eat cheap meals at your average roadside restaurant; the food was just as good and often better than the spendier places. We had a memorable meal in La Fortuna, by the Arenal volcano. It's the little outdoor steakhouse mentioned in all the guidebooks, about 2km outside of La Fortuna. It's a big blue and white open-air place with a parking lot. It's very good steak. Shockingly, they also had Chilean wine that was pretty good for $8 a bottle. We stuffed ourselves and drank one bottle (plus two glasses) of wine for a total of $45. (Note: avoid wine in Costa Rica in all but the most expensive restaurants.) What makes the steakhouse exceptional is its view of the volcano. In the pouring rain and the heavy cloud, we all stared up into the darkness in the general direction of the volcano. You'd hear someone say "look!" and the restaurant staff would hustle to turn out all the lights so people could see the lava. We'd see a few explosions, or catch a few seconds of it flowing down the mountainside. Then it was gone and everyone returned to their steaks and wine. Our second memorable meal was at a remote eco resort called Bosque del Cabo on the Osa peninsula. They had OUTSTANDING food, three meals a day that impressed and delighted all of the foodie guests. For an example of one particular meal, some of the guests caught some sort of big snapper one morning. The kitchen served it up as ceviche and sushi during happy hour, then baked it in a salt crust and served it to everyone for dinner. Very yummy and cooked to perfection.