Taste of Papagayo Awards 2019 for the best restaurants in Papagayo Costa Rica

If you were lucky enough to attend this year’s Taste of Papagayo, you were treated to the best of the best food and entertainment in the entire Papagayo Region.  While all the 20 restaurants who flaunted their wares did a wonderful job bringing their best dishes for you to try, three restaurants were awarded as the best restaurants in Papagayo Costa Rica. But more on that later.

Everyone who came was eligible to vote for their favorite restaurant.  As an added bonus, if you were 1 of 200 people who went through and tested every restaurant’s food you got a limited edition Tank Tops Flip Flops Taste of Papagayo 2019 T-Shirt.  Needless to say, there were no shirts left at the end of the evening.  Check out this video put on by the host Hotel La Puerta del Sol that is a nice summary of this years event

Eco Coco received 15% of the admission ticket sales and also the proceeds from the sale of custom Tank Tops Flip Flops shirts.  In all $1,325 were raised at this great community event.  Eco Coco’s Mission is to inspire the community through environmental education and community projects to be environmentally aware, respectful of natural resources and to generate a positive impact on the environment.  Check them out and get involved in your community!

Even though the real winners were those that got to taste all the wonderful food and enjoy the great live music and have a few laughs with their friends and families these restaurants came to WIN!  So without further ado watch the awards video where top three winning restaurants are recognized for their great effort and even better food.

First Place went to Maracuya Restaurant and Beach Club for the second year in a row.  Chef Nicolas and his professional team did it again!  You can find them just on the other side of Ocotal Beach at the Beach Club at Bahia Pez Vela.  They are open every day from Noon to 9 PM and offer a wide variety of mouthwatering chef-prepared dishes and specials served right on the beach.  You will not be disappointed if you make the trip.  Check out this video where Maracuya accepts their first place people’s choice award and invite you to join them for a tasty meal.  Congrats!

The second-place award for the best restaurants in Papagayo Costa Rica went to a brand new restaurant in Playa Hermosa called the Buzzed Monkey BBQ & Grill.  As you might guess they offered mouth-watering BBQ meats and southern food inspired sides and specialty dishes.  Join them from 11-8 PM Wednesday through Saturday.  They are located in the Hermosa Heights Commercial Center in Playa Hermosa.  Welcome to the community Buzzed Monkey!

Our Third Place People’s Choice for the Taste of Papagayo goes to Masala Indian Restaurant located in downtown Liberia, Guanacaste, just across the street from the Guanacaste Museum.  Masala serves authentic, homemade Indian food using only fresh ingredients and prepares all their tasty sauces right in their kitchen.  Open from 11:30-10 PM, Masala is the only authentic Indian food restaurant in Guanacaste and will treat you to an exquisite Indian food experience.  It is definitely worth the trip to Liberia!  Great Job Masala.  See you soon.

We want to congratulate all the restaurants who participated and for Hotel La Puerta del Sol and The Garden Bar for putting on such a great event.  And of course, we want to thank all of you for coming out and enjoying a great day of food, music, and good fun.

See you all next year for the Taste of Papagayo 2020!

Come on Down Baby!

Michael Simons

Tank Tops Flip Flops Newsletter edition no. 137

The recent reports about Costa Rica tainted alcohol make me think of the Guns N’ Roses song “Night Train”.  Every time I hear Guns N’ Roses, I get fired up. They wrote some incredible songs that will last forever. One of the most popular drinking songs was called Night Train, named after the cheap wine Night Train Express. “Loaded like a Freight Train; Flyin’ like an Aeroplane”; Classic Rock N Roll about rotgut booze. Unfortunately, Costa Rica had its own version of this recently, and it did not end well.

Two weeks ago, 19 people died drinking Costa Rica tainted alcohol that was contaminated with the chemical methanol.  With the recent deaths of USA citizens in the Dominican Republic, as well as Mexico, the media was quick to jump all over this story, and capitalize on the fear. As happens a lot in the media, they got it wrong. They said that tourists had died, and one news outlet even went on record and called Costa Rica “A Caribbean Island.” Anyone who has access to Google Maps, knows that we are not an island and we are not in the Caribbean. We are a Central American country, and not one tourist died. I am here to set the record straight.