Don Fernando’s Butcher Shop is a Local Costa Rican Secret.

Fine-quality meats at a reasonable price in Costa Rica can be quite a challenge to find, especially beef. Unless you raise the cattle yourself, or your neighbors do (which isn’t that uncommon, actually). I don’t want this article to completely knock the restaurants that serve steaks, but the American restaurant chains in Escazú like Outback Steakhouse and Tony Roma’s just don’t have the quality of meat that you’re paying for.

The one and only time I’ve been, I ordered a filet minion with a baked potato and it was a big ball of tough, undercooked (to my taste) meat. So, you can’t blame it on me wanting a medium-well steak, because it was medium-rare from all angles and still tough as leather.

My husband and I had a similar experience when buying steaks from the grocery stores like Hipermas, PriceSmart and even AutoMercado. Same story, tough, over-priced meat with an almost gamey taste that you needed a chainsaw to cut and chew through. Alas though, we were turned onto Don Fernando, the butcher shop in Escazú just past the Scotiabank and Mas Por Menos toward Santa Ana in Plaza Colonial.

There certainly is cheap food at Don Fernando. From the cuts of meat we wanted, ribeyes, NY Strip, tenderloin, pork chops, chicken breast, turkey dogs and CHEESE. Glorious cheese, without spending an arm and a leg for it. Anyone who has spent even just a few weeks in Costa Rica will find that cheese is like gold here. For no apparent reason really. It’s made in the country, but anything other than the local white ‘squeaky cheese’ is priced like an English import.

Our regular favorites from the butcher are ribeyes, turkey dogs and mozzarella cheese. Put some Willingham’s seasoning (sorry folks, only available through mail order from the USA) or your favorite steak rub on them and grill ‘em up. We had a side of baked potatoes with black beans, butter, scallions, cumin, cilantro and salt & pepper.

In addition to the carniceria, next door they have a Don Fernando restaurant where they’ll cook up your newly bought treasures if you can’t wait to get home. From now on, we go out of our way to hit up Don Fernando to get all of our cheap food, carnivorous needs.

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Ashley Blevins is the author of Costa Rica Page’s new column “Costa Rica foodie”. For additional information about cheap food in Costa Rica, visit her blog at:    www.cheapfoodhere.com

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Filed under: Living on June 16th, 2009