I mentioned in my review of Rancho Manuel that I asked Juan Carlos at the Vacation Club desk at Los Suenos for recommendations for local restaurants with Costa Rican cuisine. He also suggested a second spot, Manglar.
Here’s another shot of the seating.
There was yet another level a step lower, and the whole arrangement was comfortable. The service was attentive and friendly, as it always is in Costa Rica. Adding to the charm was the knowledge that Manglar cooks in a wood oven.
Manglar offers their own sangria recipe, which comes in a giant glass and has, as you can see, lots of fruit
and, as you can’t see, frozen margarita. I ordered one with some tequila wariness, but the dominant flavor was the sangria, with the margarita bringing it up to about wine strength. It was delicious and refreshing. Try one!
Liza went with a spicy margarita.
There are a couple of slices of raw jalapeño lurking in there, but they were too dangerous. You’ll notice the dried orange slice. It appears often in drinks in Costa Rica. I tried it in the sangria and it had a muted orange flavor. I didn’t let it sit long enough to rehydrate, so I’m not certain of its purpose.
With drinks came appetizers, starting with tuna sashimi with onion, sesame seeds, and avocado in a teriyaki type sauce.
Isn’t that an attractive presentation with the coiled avocado? I can’t remember a tuna sashimi I enjoyed more.
We also ordered some fried calamari.
Those are big rings, all from the body with no tentacles. Is that a more mature squid that I’m used to? It was a little chewy with a very crisp panko crush, and I thought the star of the dish was the dip. It was a cilantro and basil aioli that was absolutely wonderful with the garlic and oil, very fresh and just what the squid needed.
The kids started off the ordering of entrees. Ella chose a Caesar salad, as she often does. This one came with tomatoes and bacon, both of which were welcome.
Lily decided on chicken wings, which she enjoyed.
Hudson grabbed some attention by ordering a ribeye.
That brought back memories of Lily ordering crab cakes — the Maryland little-or-no filler crab cakes that cost $30 each. Anything a child wants for dinner is okay as long as it isn’t pasta with butter, chicken fingers, or macaroni and cheese. Scott okayed the order and eagerly assisted eating the ribeye.
On to the adults. Julie ordered the Mongolian bowl, which featured assertively seasoned tenderloin, dusted and stir-fried in a wok with sundry vegetables mixed with teriyaki sauce and served over steamed gohan rice.
Gohan rice, by the way, is a Japanese short grain rice with relatively high amylopectin starch that makes it sticky (why yes, I did have to google “gohan rice”). That makes it ideal for sushi and Mongolian bowls. Julie was very happy.
Liza ordered the Manglar Salad with mahi-mahi. The dish consisted of mixed lettuce, spinach, basil, strawberry, clementine orange, cherry tomatoes, red onions, grana padano, and the house balsamic dressing.
You’ll note that the mahi was served chopped and mixed with the salad, and my own first thought was that the mahi might have been chopped too early and dried out. Not to worry. This was fresh from the grill and the chopping block.
Scott ordered the lobster.
I didn’t have any, and the menu doesn’t describe the sauce, plus the table conversation at this point was pretty general, with a lot of, “Oh, this is so good!” and the like. I’m guessing that it was similar to the Caribbean sauce on my dish, which had a mildly seasoned coconut base as opposed to an escovitch, and probably included mango.
Michael and Nancy both chose the Caribbean Style Seafood Soup with Lobster.
Wow! That puts my (very good) soup at Coco’s in the shade. It contained about everything that dwells in the ocean with the broth mixed with coconut milk. It produced a lot of “Oh, this is so good!”
I went with mahi-mahi topped with shrimp and served over mashed potatoes, broccoli, and zucchini, the whole topped with Caribbean sauce.
Oh, this was good. But I repeat myself. Once again in Costa Rica, the dish came with a profusion of shrimp, here tossed with that Caribbean sauce, set atop a succulent mahi-mahi filet. The vegetables were properly al dente, and the flavor of the silky smooth mashed potatoes held its own very well. This was a fine seafood plate, less spectacular in presentation than the soup, but well wrorth ordering again.
After dinner Cacique shots rimmed with chili peppers appeared.
Cacique is Costa Rica’s national drink, so much so that it’s produced by a government agency. The cacique is a clear liquor distilled from sugar cane. Here it was mixed with a lot of fresh pineapple juice, and quite fresh and mild. The chili on the rim perked us up after our feast.
I asked the server to present the bill to Lily, who has since turned 6.
Now every $1 US is marked as 500 colón, so the final bill had a very long string of numbers. I once had that same look when I got a dinner bill, and it had a whole lot fewer digits. Actually more than once.
Juan Carlos had hit another home run with this suggestion. What else do I need to say? If you’re in the area, of course you’ll go to Manglar, and of course you’ll have a fun and memorable evening.
***
And while you’re at it, click “follow” on our front page to receive blog posts in your email box. Or bookmark us and check in from time to time. We’re on Instagram (johntannerbbq) and X/Twitter (johntannerbbq1). If you’re planning a trip, you can “Search” the name of the destination city, state, or country for good restaurants (in Europe, often close to sites, like the Louvre, Prague Castle, Vienna’s Old City, or the Van Gogh Museum, that you’ll want to visit in any event. We welcome comments and questions, and eagerly seek suggestions of places to eat and stories to cover.
