What Is a Soda in Costa Rica? Menu, Prices and How to Order

Ask for a soda in Costa Rica and nobody will hand you a can of anything. They will point you to the nearest small diner with plastic chairs and a pot of rice and beans on the stove.

A soda is Costa Rica’s everyday restaurant: a small, usually family-run place that serves comida típica, the traditional home cooking Costa Ricans eat every day. The standard order is a casado, a lunch plate of rice, beans, salad, fried sweet plantain and a meat or fish. At a neighborhood soda it costs roughly ₡2,500 to ₡5,000, or about $5 to $11. Sodas are where ticos actually eat, and for a traveler they are the cheapest reliable sit-down meal in the country.

This article covers what to order, what you should expect to pay, how ordering and paying work, and how to tell a good soda from a tourist trap.

At a glance	What to expect
What it is	A small, casual diner serving traditional Costa Rican food
Typical lunch	Casado: ₡2,500–₡5,000 at a neighborhood soda; more in beach towns
Typical breakfast	Gallo pinto with eggs: ₡1,500–₡3,000
Hours	Usually early morning to mid- or late afternoon; fewer open for dinner
Paying	Cash in colones always works; cards at many, not all
Tipping	Check the bill for a 10% service charge; small sodas often skip it

The basics

What Is a Soda in Costa Rica?

In Costa Rica, soda means a restaurant, not a drink. The word covers everything from a counter with four stools in a bus terminal to an open-air dining room on a family’s front porch. What they share is the food: rice, black beans, plantains, eggs, fresh cheese, simple stews and grilled meat or fish, cooked the way it is cooked at home.

Most sodas are run by the family that owns them, and the menu is short. Many post a plato del día (dish of the day) on a whiteboard and change it daily. Portions are large, the seasoning is mild, and the bottle of Salsa Lizano on the table, a slightly sweet brown sauce, is there for a reason: Costa Ricans put it on nearly everything.

Sodas are easy to confuse with pulperías, the neighborhood corner stores that sell groceries and snacks. A pulpería sells you the ingredients; a soda cooks them. Our guide to pulperías and sodas covers both.

The menu

What to Order at a Soda

Soda menus barely change from one end of the country to the other. These are the dishes and drinks you will see most often. For a wider look at the cuisine, see our guide to Costa Rican food.

Dish or drink	What you get
Gallo pinto	Rice and black beans fried together with onion, sweet pepper and cilantro. The standard breakfast, usually with eggs, fried plantain, fresh cheese or natilla (a thin sour cream) and tortillas.
Casado	The lunch plate: rice, beans, a small salad, fried sweet plantain, often a scoop of picadillo (diced vegetable hash) and your choice of chicken, beef, pork, fish or eggs.
Arroz con pollo	Rice cooked with shredded chicken and vegetables, often served with fries or potato chips on the side.
Olla de carne	Beef soup with chunks of yuca, potato, corn, carrot and green plantain. A cool-weather and rainy-day favorite.
Sopa negra	Black bean soup, usually with a hard-boiled egg dropped in.
Empanadas	Fried turnovers filled with beans, cheese, potato or meat. The usual snack at the counter.
Patacones	Green plantain slices, smashed and fried twice. A side dish, more common on the Caribbean coast.
Chorreadas	Sweet fresh-corn pancakes served with natilla, mostly at breakfast or afternoon coffee.
Fresco or batido	A fresh fruit drink. En agua means made with water, en leche with milk. Mora (blackberry), cas, mango and pineapple are common.
Agua dulce	Hot water sweetened with raw cane sugar, a highland drink.

A fresco usually comes with the casado or costs little extra, so order one. If you are wondering about the water it is made with, our article on drinking water in Costa Rica explains where tap water is safe.

Regional dishes worth asking about

On the Caribbean coast around Limón, Cahuita and Puerto Viejo, sodas serve Afro-Caribbean cooking: rice and beans simmered in coconut milk, and rondón, a coconut seafood stew. On the Pacific coast, sodas lean toward fried whole fish and ceviche. In the Central Valley you will find more soups and stews. Around Christmas, many sodas sell tamales wrapped in banana leaves.

Prices

How Much Does a Meal at a Soda Cost?

• ₡2,500–₡5,000Casado at a neighborhood soda
• ₡1,500–₡3,000Gallo pinto breakfast
• 10%Service charge many restaurants add; small sodas often don’t

Sodas price in colones. The colón has strengthened against the dollar, so the same meal costs more in dollar terms than it did a few years ago. At recent rates of roughly ₡450 to ₡460 per dollar, a ₡4,000 casado is about $9. Check the current rate before you budget; our guide to the best currency to take to Costa Rica explains how colones and dollars work side by side.

Location matters more than anything else. Expect to pay more in Tamarindo, Manuel Antonio, Santa Teresa and the main strip in La Fortuna, where a casado can run ₡5,000 to ₡7,000 or more. A soda a few blocks off the tourist street, or inside a municipal market, is almost always cheaper. In San José, the sodas inside the Mercado Central are a good place to start.

How it works

How to Order and Pay at a Soda

Some sodas take your order at the table; at smaller ones you order at the counter and someone brings the plate to you. If there is no menu, ask what they have: “¿Qué tienen de casado?” gets you the day’s options. When you are done, ask for la cuenta or pay at the counter on the way out. Nobody will rush you, and nobody will bring the bill until you ask.

• Carry colones in small notes. Cash is the one payment every soda accepts, and breaking a ₡20,000 bill for a ₡3,500 lunch is a hassle. Our guide to how much cash you actually need has the details.
• Cards are common but not universal. Many sodas now take cards, especially in towns. Small rural ones may not, or may have a card machine that only works some days.
• SINPE Móvil is how locals pay. You will see the number taped by the register. It is a Costa Rican bank-transfer app, and most visitors can’t use it. Our SINPE Móvil guide explains why.
• Look for “servicio” on the bill. Many restaurants add a 10% service charge. If it is there, no extra tip is expected. If it isn’t, leaving some change is appreciated but optional. More in our guide to tipping in Costa Rica.

Finding one

How to Spot a Good Soda

Sodas are everywhere: on town squares, inside markets and bus terminals, beside gas stations and along rural highways. Finding one is easy. Finding a good one takes a few seconds of looking.

• Locals at lunch. A soda full of workers and families between noon and 1 p.m. is the best sign there is.
• A short menu or a dish of the day. A handwritten board with five items beats a laminated menu in four languages.
• Prices in colones. A menu priced only in dollars is aimed at visitors.
• Food moving fast. Busy sodas turn over their pots, so the food is fresh.
• Ask. Your hotel staff, driver or guide will have a favorite, and it is rarely the place on the main tourist street.

Eating at sodas is also the simplest way to cut your food budget. Our article on saving money on a Costa Rica trip has more ideas, and the farmers markets guide covers the other place locals buy cheap, fresh food.

Good to know

Costa Rica Soda FAQ