The Gilded Iguana - Nosara Costa Rica - Nosara's oldest restaurant and hotel

Tucked away off the main road in Guiones is a little restaurant and hotel complex that serves some of the best food in all of the Nosara area, and serves it with laid-back style.  The Gilded Iguana is a place that locals love and visitors consider a favorite because of the excellent food.  Known to most simply as “the Iguana,” this place is a staple of the Surfing Nosara food pyramid and definitely ranks as one of the best restaurants in Guiones.

Costa Rican food is simple and healthy, with fish plentiful and rice and beans making an appearance at almost every meal.  The Gilded Iguana fully embraces all that is right with cuisine in Costa Rica and brings it to the Nosara area for a good price.  We at Surfing Nosara, and all of our friends and visitors, have been going to the Iguana since it opened and have never left disappointed.  The food is prepared fresh and with the finest ingredients, and the price isn’t going to break your budget.  Aside from the excellent food, the beers are always cold and reasonably priced and the service is personal and attentive.  All around, the Gilded Iguana is a Guiones treasure.

The french fries at the Gilded Iguana are hands-down the best in the Nosara area.  Hand-cut and fried to order, these fries put everyone else to shame.  Order the fish sandwich and enjoy a fresh and big piece of mahi on a bun of fresh-baked artisan bread that is also among the best in Guiones (and a bunch of restaurants here make great bread, so that is saying something) alongside a big pile of the best fries in Costa Rica, all for about seven dollars.  The house salad comes with avocado slices and sits atop a large plate full of leafy greens and the usual salad toppings.  For about five dollars this salad comes with a light house dressing, or for a couple dollars more you can get chicken breast or fish on it and make it a more filling meal. 

Tuesday night is music night at the Iguana, and everybody who visits the Nosara area has an Iguana-related story to tell.  Most of the tales begin with everyone enjoying one of the delicious nightly specials served up by the talented chefs, but some begin with an order of their Nosara-renowned hot wings and a few (dozen) cold beers.  Probably everyone who has visited Guiones or Nosara in the last twenty years has fond memories of the Gilded Iguana.

The Iguana remains one of the finest dining establishments in Nosara because of the attention to detail paid to their food and their service.  Dinner menus rotate seasonal specialties and run anywhere from seven to fifteen dollars for an expertly prepared meal in a relaxed setting.  Surfing Nosara crew find the Gilded Iguana to be one of those places you keep coming back to again and again, no matter your budget or your tastes.  When in Guiones, a visit to the Iguana for dinner or lunch is a must.