Costa Rica: Soda Tala

Abby and I meandered around downtown San Jose for a good long while before circling back to the Mercado Central for dinner at Soda Tala:

Walking in, we could immediately tell that Soda Tala was a well-loved spot of locals, particularly other market vendors  A Costa Rican drama played on a TV screen while staff greeted diners by name.  The kitchen was located upstairs and the food was delivered via dumbwaiter, much to our delight.  

We ordered a steak casado and were stunned when it arrived on two separate plates:

This hearty meal came with rice, beans, spaghetti, salad, picadillo, tortillas, and a drink.  That's right.  You get rice, beans, and SPAGHETTI.  The spaghetti wasn't exactly mind-blowing, but I wasn't mad at it.  Everything else just went so well with rice.

Here is aforementioned drink:

All it said on the menu was that it was a refrescos natruales or "natural drink".  Not entirely sure what that means, but it was both refreshing and mysterious.

Soda Tala is most well known for its take on the traditional Costa Rican breakfast, gallo pintos.  The Tala Pintos is their signature dish:

You can get it normal sized, which consists of rice and beans on a thin egg omelet, topped by a thick tortilla.  Or you can get it full sized, which adds a choice of cheese, sausage, or meat.  We opted to give the sausage a try.  Honestly, all that rice was a tad dry.  It was missing something saucy to add a bit more flavor.

Soda Tala's menu had no prices listed, but that didn't bother us at all.  We knew everything would be crazy cheap and indeed it was.  While it wasn't the best meal we had in Costa Rica, I can see why it would be a popular place to grab a quite bite to eat with barely a dent in your budget.

Soda Tala 

San José Central Market, Av. Central, Paso De La Vaca, San José Province, San José, Costa Rica

+506 2255 3794