Wheretoeatafterthedawnsession
Breakfast with sand on your feet, lunch under a palm, dinner with the table in the sea — the north coast eats well and cheaply if you know which door.
Eating in a surf town
Three meals shape the day here. Breakfast is early and big, after the surf and before the wind. Lunch is often a plate of the day — rice, beans, chicken or fish, a salad — from a comedor on the main road for a few dollars. Dinner is the event: the beach restaurants put their tables on the sand and the whole town turns up.
Below are the places we go back to, grouped by the meal they do best. Names and prices are checked each season.
After the dawn session
The plate of the day
Four things worth knowing
Dinner after seven
The beach restaurants fill from seven; the breeze drops and the lights come on. Earlier is quieter and cooler.
Cash for the small places
Comedores and beach stalls are cash only; the beach restaurants take cards. A 10% service charge is usually already on the bill.
Ask what came in
The catch changes daily: dorado, wahoo, snapper. “Pescado del día” is the safe order.
Bottled, always
Ice in the good restaurants is made from purified water; at the stalls, skip it.