Costa Rica - the official Pura Vida food review

At last (took me awhile, I admit)...

The food was served buffet style and was consistently good, though not gourmet.  The bar had been set quite high since, about a year ago, I spent a weekend at Kripalu (a well-known yoga and wellness retreat) in the Berkshires so my point of comparison was very high indeed because their food is nothing short of superb.  The food at Pura Vida was fresh, yes, but nothing too fancy, quite simple in fact. But, the fruit was incredible.  Ah, the fruit.  The pineapple and mangos tasted as though they were just picked.  Fruit was definitely the star at the table for all meals.  I devoured strawberries and papaya (and I am not even a papaya fan), enjoyed freshly-squeezed strawberry juice, which, surprisingly was not that sweet and had a luscious smoothie with banana, mango and pineapple.  

The runner up to the fruit in terms of my favorites  was the soup.  I sampled every single one of them at each and every meal.  The best of the best was the carrot ginger soup, which was rich and satisfying.  

In general, there was not a huge selection of foods on the buffet, which was mostly vegetarian except for one or two items, usually fish, at the end of the buffet.   I noticed that, at times, the small name cards displaying the names of the dishes were not always present for each dish, leaving us to guess or taste what the dish was.  Now, it's fairly easy to determine what is not vegetarian, however, this would pose a problem for someone who is vegan, because the ingredients were never listed for anything. Though, I must admit, everyone at the resort was extremely accommodating so if that were an issue for you, I am certain they would work with you.

Of course, the view from the dining area was amazing, with the capital city of San Jose in the distance. The people at the resort were also an amazing and interesting bunch of mostly vegetarian yoga lovers.  

The pictures above are from Thursday, March 26th's dinner, also my birthday, and Japanese night.   I started off with miso soup, which did not disappoint, then enjoyed a lovely mango and avocado spring roll (perfect ingredients), a salad medley and a light, sweet cupcake for dessert.  How fitting for my birthday!

Each night was a different theme and one night was locally-themed, with rice and beans and incredible guacamole as dishes.  The avocados were absolutely delicious.   I was in serious chocolate withdrawal mode by the end of the week having had no chocolate my entire trip, which must be a record for me.  Not to worry, I got my fix at the San Jose airport with a roasted almond dark chocolate bar.