San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua - Treat yo'self (food and drink)

So besides the hardy but delicious meat dinner we had at our hotel, we had many other phenomenal meals in San Juan Del Sur. In fact, we really didn't have a bad meal during our whole trip. I'm separating the food posts into two, one for higher end stuff (although we're still only talking maybe $15-20 per person, including booze). Unfortunately, San Juan Del Sur does not seem to be the most vegetarian friendly place (at least restaurant-wise), but the fruit and vegetables were certainly some of the most flavorful I've ever had, and as more hippie expats move down there, that may change.

On our first day, the group we had been surfing with headed to the restaurant/bar within the luxury resort Pelican Eyes to have a drink while watching the sunset over the harbor (see above). San Juan Del Sur's harbor faces almost exactly West, and the sunset was always framed in a really beautiful way by the hills on either side of the harbor. We had a Macua (see below), which is apparently the Nicaraguan national drink. Of course it was rum-based (everything is rum-based there) and had lots of delicious tropical fruits (according to wikipedia, it's usually lemon and guava juice but I'm pretty sure this had some grapefruit in it too, possibly orange and mango, as well...)

After the sun set, my boyfriend and I went to Josslyn's, which is right on the beach - not that we could see the beach but we could hear the waves and it was a pleasant ambiance. Now, one thing you should probably understand about me is that I really don't like most seafood, so going to ocean-side towns tends to be a bit rough on me sometimes. However, that wasn't the case this time around. I ordered a fish in garlic sauce and it was exquisite. I normally don't like most fish, but it was moist and flavorful and not uber-fishy. Unfortunately I don't know exactly what kind of fish it was. It tasted sort of like salmon except it wasn't. I believe my boyfriend ordered shrimp and he loved it. We also had drinks: a pina colada and a strawberry daiquiri, both of which hit the spot after a rather long day. I think the whole meal cost us $37 (with tip and tax and everything)

The next night we went to El Barrio Cafe, which is sort of what we had used as an "anchor" to learn our way around because the market is right across the street and it's basically in the center of the town. It was pretty crowded, although there was a Harley convention in town. Both Mike and I got the filet mignon and it was definitely in my top 5 most delicious steaks of all time. It was tender, cooked just right with that slight char on the outside and came in a creamy mushroom sauce that complimented but didn't overpower the meat. Oh, and did I mention it was $10? Yes, $10USD. Amazing.

Our third night we had our meat plates at the hotel and then our fourth night we tried to go to a Mediterranean restaurant called El Calibri because we heard it was the best restaurant in town but unfortunately they're closed Monday nights so we didn't get to try it. If you do go, chances are you'll have to make a reservation because another couple at our hotel tried to go one night but had to make a reservation for the next night because the wait was just too long. Instead, we went to El Timon, and I will say that this was by far our most mediocre meal. Another beach restaurant, we went at sunset and they had live music. You can actually sit right on the beach (though I feel like this is more for drinking and less for eating unless you don't mind sand in your food). But the fish wasn't nearly as good as at Josslyn's or at the hotel. I would say probably not really worth your time when there are so many other good places to choose from.