Latest reviews from San Jose
| 78 /100 CALLE 35 AVE 9 BARRIO ESCALANTE “Nice place, with a small brew system but had guest taps. They do offer a taster flight. All house beers we had very good. The food sounded great, had a mix of American, Costa Rica, and Thai. This place is very close to several others good spot. Great idea to hit this area.“ |
| 78 /100 CALLE 35 AVE 9 BARRIO ESCALANTE “Great spot for some ticks. They had one house beer, several taps and a nice bottle/can list. The food was very good. Not to mention several other beer locations close by.“ |
| 84 /100 CALLE 1 AVENIDA CENTRAL “Stopped in with Craig and my primo... great building cool little tap room with a nice look in the open court yard below. Beer was solid and the staff spoke pretty good English. Plus they have taster flights win win for a ticker.“ |
| 42 /100 Craic Irish Pub (Bar) 83 CALLE 25 “This place has potential to be a nice craft beer location. A nice Irish pub feel, but outdated and not maintained, a dive bar feel. Big tap list of local craft beers. Unfortunately the staff had no idea what was on tap. Just labeled with a minimum few words, but most of them didn't have a beer or brewery names. This could be a great place with a little work.“ |
| 42 /100 10000 SAN PEDRO DE MONTES DE OCA “Not sure our experience could have been much worse than this one.
A small tap room and an open view into the brewery. On the board, they had 7 house beers. They had approx 10 taps, but only 1 beer available. She said it was a Porter and gave us a sample of light colored yellow beer (Golden Ale), when we told her that is NOT a porter she insisted it was the porter. I'm sure the tap handle said porter and that's all she knew. But, how could they leave this lady in charge of a brewpub when she doesn't know the difference between a porter and golden ale.
She did find 1 bottle for us. It was infected and undrinkable.
On the plus side, they have a very nice bottle list of European beers. We ended up have a few of those, so it wasn't a total loss of a stop.“ |
| 62 /100 CALLE 35 AVE 9 BARRIO ESCALANTE “A nice big restaurant style building, with a patio in front. The brewery is open in the back near the small bar. A homebrew style setup, but the beer they made was very good, solid and clean. They have 7 house beers, but only 2 on tap the day we went. The others were good, local beers. We didn't eat, but it looked good.“ |
| 84 /100 CALLE 1 AVENIDA CENTRAL “Located in a cool little buildings, on the second floor. A small tap room next to the small brewery, a few small tables inside and some tables overlooking the 1st floor. The service and beer were to great. Talked to the owner/brewery, he was very helpful and friendly. All of the beers I had were very well made and tasty. I'll be back.“ |
| 42 /100 Central Pub (Bar) PASEO COLON, FRENTE AL BANCO DE COSTA RICA “We got there an hour before they opened on Saturday. We talked to the staff and saw the menu. They only have 3 Craft beers on the menu and they weren't sure if they were out or not. Wouldn't recommend.“ |
| 46 /100 CASA Brew Garden (Bar) BARRIO LA CALIFORNIA, AVENIDA CENTRAL, ENTRE CALLES 27 Y 27A “*** Call before you go *** Facebook said they were open until 12am, we got there at 3pm on a Saturday and it was locked up. Not sure if they are in business anymore. They only had a little sign in front.“ |
| 52 /100 Mas x Menos (Grocery Store) LINCOLN PLAZA “Not as good selection as Auto Mercado or Fresh Market, but not bad. Not sure why this is on RB. When it was added it was one of the better beer store. But times are a changin', slowly....“ |
| 52 /100 Auto Mercado (Beer Store) CALLE 3 Y AVENIDA 3, EN FRENTE DE FARMACIA MORAZON “Decent selection of Costa Rica beers along with import beers from the USA and Europe. Most of the locations have the same beers. Fresh market is also had a good selection of beers.“ |
| 56 /100 CALLE 35 AVE 9 BARRIO ESCALANTE “10 taps, good bottle list of local, is and European beers
Seating is on the patio or inside. Service was so so, they were out of a few beers I wanted to have and some food. Good prices. Located in the same block as CRBC and Wilks.“ |
| 70 /100 CALLE 33, AVE 7 BARRIO ESCALANTE “A nice place. Great layout with several different rooms. Lots of seating at tables or at the bar. Samplers of their house beers only (4 taps). You can also do half pints of their beers. Prices are on the high side. Good for a place rating, go across the street to Wilks for good beer. Good food.“ |
| 82 /100 Wilk Craft Beer & Grub (Bar) AVENIDA 9, CALLE 33, FRENTE AL FRESH MARKET BARRIO ESCALANTE “Good, solid beers. A good tap list of 5 of their beers and other Costa Rica beers. They also have a nice looking bottle list. The food was real good. We had tacos, empanadas and fried pork appetizer. Cool building with the different rooms walked off so it doesn't get noisy. They also have a small home brew shop in the back.“ |
| 68 /100 COSTADO OESTE DEL ESTADIO NACIONAL “Nice big modern decor. The brewing is behind a glass wall that you can see from most seats. 4 house beers, 3 guest taps. They had live music when we were there on sat night, way to loud for a nice meal and beers. A few big TV's with college football games on then UFC .Good food and friendly service.“ |
| 64 /100 CALLE 33, AVE 7 BARRIO ESCALANTE “Cool ambiance in this place. Beer garden, open type place with big screen playing football matches when I was in. Service pretty friendly, prices fairly high for Costa Rica - the food was super expensive. They do flights - though the guy poured me a taster of Imperial after I didn't specify which ones I wanted. I joked about this being not exactly a craft beer and he poured me another one, haha. Now the beer. All the house stuff on tap was fairly contaminated, as well as the guest taps they had (about 5 or six craft beers total when I was in). They gave me a bottle pour of one of their IPAs and it was OK though. Makes me think they don't clean their taps?? Not sure.
They have a fairly big bottle list for the country, about 20-30, though prices were pretty high. You can get a bunch of the same bottles cheaper at the Fresh Market down the street, across from Wilk. The place has promise but doesn't measure up to Wilk or Casa Brew Garden.“ |
| 84 /100 CASA Brew Garden (Bar) BARRIO LA CALIFORNIA, AVENIDA CENTRAL, ENTRE CALLES 27 Y 27A “This place is a close second for best beer place in San Jose. They have tons of taps and sell everything by 4oz pours as well as pints etc. They have a bunch of local taps as well as a fair amount of local meads. The bartenders are fairly knowledgeable here and the ambiance is pretty cool. Right next to a university whose acronym is U-LICOR basically. hahahaha. Sounds like my school experience.“ |
| 86 /100 Wilk Craft Beer & Grub (Bar) AVENIDA 9, CALLE 33, FRENTE AL FRESH MARKET BARRIO ESCALANTE “Excellent place for craft beer in San Jose. They have 26 beers from tap - among those also their own brews, mostly brewers from Costa Rica and two US imports. In addition they offer about 20 international classics. Cheap flights are available and the staff was attentive and helpful. They also offer food - tacos, sandwiches, burgers - but we did not eat there. Nice interior. Highly recommended.“ |
| 88 /100 Wilk Craft Beer & Grub (Bar) AVENIDA 9, CALLE 33, FRENTE AL FRESH MARKET BARRIO ESCALANTE “Definitely the best place in San Jose for Craft Beer. Huge tap menu and the servers know what they are talking about. Their beer is pretty decent for the most part, especially compared to many other Costa Rican breweries and especially compared to their competition down the street. They do flights and 3 oz pours. About 8 of their beers on tap and 15 or so others when I was here. Food was pretty good - I had a chicken pizza. Great place for craft beer in San Jose.“ |
| 62 /100 Auto Mercado (Beer Store) CALLE 3 Y AVENIDA 3, EN FRENTE DE FARMACIA MORAZON “Auto Mercado is a modern looking supermarket chain with a decent selection of Costa Rican and American craft beer. This branch is in the middle of the city so it is easy to get to if you are in San Jose.“ |
| 82 /100 CASA Brew Garden (Bar) BARRIO LA CALIFORNIA, AVENIDA CENTRAL, ENTRE CALLES 27 Y 27A “An old renovated house with lots of rooms around a central bar with a big and quite impressive tap list. the crowd is mostly noisy of the student type. Good place to get aquinated with Costa Rican craft beer“ |
| 56 /100 Alma De Amon (Restaurant) CALLE 5 ENTRE AVENIDA 9 Y 11 (NEXT TO THE DUNN INN) “Flash, modern place in a quieter part of town. Linked to the wonderfully-named Dunn Inn hotel. We found this by accident in the middle of the afternoon. Quite popular with what appeared to be locals, who were all eating (food looked good). A board advertised craft beer (although the bar was more geared up for cocktails). Waiter fetched a selection of bottles for us to choose from. Mainly Treintaycinco (though there may have been a couple of others).
Service would have ranked higher, but when paying, I handed the waiter my credit card. He took it over to the bar, which was unattended at the time and left it on the bar top. Luckily, I was close enough to see this, but not all seats had a view of the bar!“ |
| 42 /100 Stiefel Pub (Bar) BARRIO AMON AV7 50 MTS. EAST CASA AMARRILLA “Visited at Friday lunchtime, to find they were closing in 45 minutes (at 2pm), so we had to work quickly! Front room decorated with international beer fest posters. Back room and bar area shrouded in darkness. More rooms (and table football) upstairs, though these were empty when we visited.
About 20 beers were listed on a blackboard in the dark zone (all presumably Costa Rican micros) with a varied selection of styles (the best I saw in CR). However, having to get up to peer into the darkness wasn’t much fun and unfortunately, our waitress was unable to give us much guidance (other than to tell us that a couple of our choices weren’t on). All in all, we didn’t feel particularly welcome.
Up to date beer menus on tables would have been a great help: it would have been good to know a bit more about the breweries! And how about staying open for the afternoon?
“ |
| 80 /100 El Gaff (Bar) IN FRONT OF CASA ITALIA FRENTE A CASA ITALIA , 50 SUR IMAS “Modern cafe bar about 15 mins walk from the centre. OK, so the place was virtually empty early on a Friday afternoon, but staff were friendly and an English speaker was found among them to explain the beers ("Drink Local Beer" said a board: they could maybe do with a list!) Good selection of their own (O.S.) brews and some Treintaycinco bottles. I opted for the very tasty coffee porter and potent San Diego DIPA. All good!“ |
| 32 /100 CALLE 33, AVE 7 BARRIO ESCALANTE “La comida salio muy dulce. Hablan de cerveza artesanal pero es otra cuenta mas de Imperial. Uggg.“ |
| 86 /100 CASA Brew Garden (Bar) BARRIO LA CALIFORNIA, AVENIDA CENTRAL, ENTRE CALLES 27 Y 27A “stumbled upon this place in august 2015 on the way back to the city from el gaff. peered through a window and saw loads of taps, sure enough 30 of them. very friendly place, reasonable prices, obscure beers; highly recommended
“ |
| 64 /100 Auto Mercado (Beer Store) CALLE 3 Y AVENIDA 3, EN FRENTE DE FARMACIA MORAZON “This supermarket chains carries a decent selections of craft / imports. Availability varies but your chances of finding something decent are good.“ |
| 80 /100 El Gaff (Bar) IN FRONT OF CASA ITALIA FRENTE A CASA ITALIA , 50 SUR IMAS “Brew their own beer, which they rotate regularly. Overall beer selection is good, food OK.“ |
| 56 /100 La Bodega de Chema (Beer Store) AVENIDA 10 - CALLE 29 “A small place for homebrew and import/craft beers with two growler fill stations. I was able to purchase 4 different singles of local micro beer and a local mead. I wish they had more selection but cant expect too much. A bit on the pricey side ($4 per bottle). Overall a place to try if you don’t want to hunt for craft beer bottles.“ |
| 66 /100 CALLE 33, AVE 7 BARRIO ESCALANTE “Nice looking place in a good neighborhood. Sat in the outdoor patio. Service was great, 5 local micro taps and 7 other (belgian/german). Some bottles. Sampler available in sets of 4. Food was creative but very pricey. Overall a nice place to check out.“ |
| 64 /100 CALLE 33, AVE 7 BARRIO ESCALANTE “Great place looks like a German Alpine cabin! Simple but adequate decor and ambiance. Large beer menú, unfortunately many beer were not available. Very international food selection, good quality. Prices are high.“ |
| 78 /100 El Gaff (Bar) IN FRONT OF CASA ITALIA FRENTE A CASA ITALIA , 50 SUR IMAS “Another great SJO bar with good micro selection, and some Belgian offering too. Food is more upscale and less fattening than Craic, friendly service (on my second visit after a few months, the bartender remembered me), and a big bravo to Loic and Eric, the owners...a place tpo watch for sure.“ |
| 70 /100 Craic Irish Pub (Bar) 83 CALLE 25 “A great little pub in SJO with 15 taps, with a good number which are local upcoming Tico microbrewery. Great burgers, especially the corned beef and bacon one. Prices are good. Good Vibes and music with lovely service.“ |
| 88 /100 Stiefel Pub (Bar) BARRIO AMON AV7 50 MTS. EAST CASA AMARRILLA “This is the place to go for Costa Rican artisanal beer and mead. Ambiance is casual and can be quite crowded on the weekends. There are plenty of items offered by the kitchen. The best feature of the bar is its selection of local beers and meads... At this time there are 16 taps!“ |
| 56 /100 Craic Irish Pub (Bar) 83 CALLE 25 “Large crowded faux Irish pub. Besides the normal stuff (pretty much any import you can find on CRC supermarkets, and the regula beers from Costa Rica Craft Brewing), they have 3 taps with Treinteycinco. Pretty charmless, yet with good service. Didn’t eat.“ |
| 84 /100 Stiefel Pub (Bar) BARRIO AMON AV7 50 MTS. EAST CASA AMARRILLA “Like an everlasting beer festival! Caught them on a bad day - monday after the presidental elections, so the beet department was running on half strength, still it’s fantastic. Normally you’ll find most Costa Rican microbreweries on tap here. Food is typical pub grub, service is friendly and probably the best source of beer information for CRC there is. Rustic streetside place.“ |
| 100 /100 El Gaff (Bar) IN FRONT OF CASA ITALIA FRENTE A CASA ITALIA , 50 SUR IMAS “Exelente servicio y la variedad de cervesas a escojer es demaciado buena . Ademas la calides del lugar es buenisima al punto de q uno como cliente llega a sentirse mejor q en su casa
“ |
| 100 /100 El Gaff (Bar) IN FRONT OF CASA ITALIA FRENTE A CASA ITALIA , 50 SUR IMAS “Awesome place, feels like home! The Service is specially good, friends serving master food and beer. Dont forget to try the season house brew!!“ |
| 100 /100 El Gaff (Bar) IN FRONT OF CASA ITALIA FRENTE A CASA ITALIA , 50 SUR IMAS “Experiencia completa“ |
| 82 /100 Central Pub (Bar) PASEO COLON, FRENTE AL BANCO DE COSTA RICA “Food is great, nice cozy pub, good music, fine food, real ales & draft belgian beers.“ |
| 44 /100 Mas x Menos (Grocery Store) LINCOLN PLAZA “An OK selection, less than Auto Mercado.“ |
| 72 /100 Craic Irish Pub (Bar) 83 CALLE 25 “Probably the best place I’ve encountered in San Jose for beer. Has everything you could possibly find in the three or four auto mercados or Fresh markets I check plus a few others. Has the two Costa Rica Brewing mainstays Libertas and Segua on tap and possibly sometimes a seasonal. ALso has Belle-Vue Kriek, Leffe blond and a couple others on tap. A few belgians, a few italian microbrews in bottle as well as North Coast and others. I was here early so there weren’t many people but walked by later and saw that it picked up hugely.“ |
| 40 /100 Auto Mercado (Beer Store) CALLE 3 Y AVENIDA 3, EN FRENTE DE FARMACIA MORAZON “Pretty disappointing selection after some of the better supermarkets in Panama. The one I visited had about 10 imported beers - and Duvel was the only really decent thing there. A bunch of imported lagers and a couple of German Hefes other than that. Prices are also pretty high.“ |
| 70 /100 Auto Mercado (Beer Store) CALLE 3 Y AVENIDA 3, EN FRENTE DE FARMACIA MORAZON “Along with the Fresh Market chain, the Auto Mercado chain of stores is one of the best bets for buying decent beer by the bottle. The North Coast beers are no longer here (they are at Fresh Market) but there is Sam Adams, Duvel, Guinness ("draft" and Foreign Extra), Paulaner, Leffe, Lindemans, and various imported lagers. Decent wine selection for a supermarket too.“ |
| 54 /100 Auto Mercado (Beer Store) CALLE 3 Y AVENIDA 3, EN FRENTE DE FARMACIA MORAZON “The Auto Mercados throughout San Jose and some of the more gringo-fied areas of Costa Rica (Escazu, Playa del Coco, etc.) are the best selection of craft beer you’re likely to find in Central America. Duvel (for $3 apiece!), fresh Sam Adams, Red Seal, Pranqster, Paulaner Hell, random hefes and Belgian imports, occasionally Lindemans Kriek. After Nicaragua and everything I’ve seen of Costa Rica, these are heaven.“ |
