Who does not love a really good Chinese food restaurant?. I am not talking about the typical American-Chinese rice or chop suey. I am talking about real Chinese food, including those delicious dumplings and the mouthwatering Mantou bread, yeah!, once you go Mantou you can’t go “backtou” (excuse the bad joke).
I “sacrificed” myself to find the best restaurants to eat real Chinese food, these places not only include food, they include experiences and desserts.
1. Espacio Picante
- Address: 150 m Este de la Soda Tapia, Av 2, San José
- Price: Moderate-Expensive
- Schedule: 11am- 01am
- The attractive here is that you can cook your own food in a delicious soup they bring you. You can choose spicy soup and/or regular soup, they split the pot so you can decide whether to eat spicily or not. Besides the food, you can order your drink from the very extensive Chinese drinks and cans they have, all the description is in Chinese which is kind of a “Russian roulette” drink.
2. Casa China
- Address: 25A Street, San José
- Price: Moderate-Expensive
- Schedule: 08am- 02am
- This is the place where most of the Costa Rican-Chinese community go, so for Chinese New year there are a lot of activities to see if you are curious, the hall is huge. The food is good, but the desserts are the best.
3. Mey Lai Wa
- Address: Calle 13, San José
- Price: Cheap
- Schedule: 10am- 10pm
- This is the most underground Chinese that I found, it’s a bit far from downtown (15 minutes walk). The food here has a lot of taste, it’s great! and the best thing, it’s cheap!. In this restaurant, you can find all type of Asian foods ( Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese among others).
4. Holiday Hot Pot
- Address: ChinaTown, San Jose ( you don’t say!)
- Price: Moderate
- Schedule: 1pm- 1am
- Have you ever been curious about what a child of a Chinese restaurant and a Hipster restaurant would be like? Come to Holiday Hot Pot, and you’ll find out. The decoration here is amazing, a lot of details, and stuff everywhere. Usually, there’s a waiting line!, good reputation!, and yes, the food is great and the proportion is huge, I asked for soup and I had my 2 friends eat it with me.
5. Tang Dian Xuan
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Address: ChinaTown, San Jose ( you don’t say! again)
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Price: Moderate
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Schedule: 1pm- 11pm
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This place seems to be coming from an Anime, the decoration is really cute! you enjoy your meal with a smile on your face just seeing the walls and decoration. This place is really famous for its milkshakes and smoothies. I tried the pancakes with Ice cream and it’s the best thing I have ever eaten. I am craving for it while I write this.
Have you ever been in any of these restaurants? How was your experience? Is there any other that you would like to recommend?