
Up until recently and for the last nine years or so I’ve been here, there has been a predominance fairly low cost $5 to $6 stands and restaurants all along the beach that are quite similar to one another. In the last 12 months, however, we’ve had a couple of much higher end, more internationally flavored restaurant. We have G&G Gourmet which is fantastic at around $12 to $15 for a plate and then there is the Cervezaria which was opened by American guys, that does phenomenal food around $8 to $9. It’s a micro-brewery and it’s been extremely popular.
Restaurants in San Juan del Sur are still a pretty good value compared to restaurants in Canada or elsewhere in North America, which would charge about $20 a plate. The cost here in San Juan del Sur is about half and less. If you wanted, the real affordable cheap stuff is in the faster food, such as tacos and burritos. You can pick up a loaded chicken burrito for $2 or $3. Nicaraguan style fast food is really, really, really affordable: $2 to $3 for a great big burrito.
Still, we need more diversity. Anybody with ideas to open some nicer international Mediterranean restaurant would be great. We had a wonderful Mediterranean food restaurant that closed after 15 years or so that was highly, highly regarded.
We have an Indian food restaurant that opened recently. They have a small menu but they’re growing, so that’s exciting. We need a Chinese food place. We need a Thai food place. There’s room for a lot more international flavors in San Juan. Very often when you live here, you might drive an hour to Granada for a weekend or for one night, where you can enjoy a much bigger range in of restaurants than we do in San Juan del Sur.
(Diners at G&G Gourmet, San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, pictured.)