This popular place mixes creative cuisine with an ambience of casual elegance. Wood tables and Art Deco wrought-iron chairs are spread spaciously around several rooms in this former colonial mansion. There’s additional seating on the open-air veranda and in the small gardens both front and back. The appetizers include vegetable tempura, crab cakes, and chicken satay alongside more traditional Tico standards such as patacones (fried plantain chips) and fried yuca. There’s a long list of pastas and pizzas, as well as more substantial main courses. There are nightly specials and delicious desserts. One room here boasts colorful wall murals by Costa Rican artist Miguel Cassafont. This place is almost always filled with a broad mix of San José’s gay, bohemian, theater, arts, and university crowds.