South Caribbean Adventures: Bread & Chocolate

First, I want to start off by sharing that it is not easy to find a restaurant in Costa Rica that serves fresh, wholesome, delicious food at a low cost. Good food comes with a very high price in Costa Rica… which is why we rarely eat out. If you want a cheap meal… go to a “soda” where you can get beans, rice, meat, fried plaintain & potato salad for less than $6 a person but it is usually cooked with margarine, MSG and refined oils. Not worth it.


But for $5 a person, this place is totally worth it... 

Bread & Chocolate is a deliciously relaxing place that serves fresh, local, organic food at low prices. They really live up to their name perfectly… this place is dripping with the freshest ingredients of bread and chocolate… plus a fantastic breakfast menu using local, free-ranged, organic eggs.


Literally, everything is made from scratch using local and organic ingredients as much as possible… whole wheat bread made daily, locally made raw ice cream, homemade strawberry sauce, locally grown organic coffee and homemade chocolate sauce using local cacao, handmade truffles & peanut butter cups (to die for!!) and it continues all the way down to the mayo! They even confessed on their menu that they are pretty much obsessed with using the freshest ingredients possible and making everything from scratch. That is something to be proud of... I love that kind of obsession!

the awesome kitchen of Bread & Chocolate

One big obsession they have is their brownies… I’m not joking… they have the best brownies in town. I used (remember, past tense…) to love TGI Friday’s Brownie Obsession, but now I am obsessed with Bread & Chocolate's  brownies! You can taste the love and all the real food ingredients... especially the chocolate & butter in these moist, rich squares.

You can get walnut or mint… I loved the walnut, but you can see that the mint is the favorite. The mint was a little too strong for me, but my hubby loved it. They both were delicious… so get both!


Here’s the wonderful feast that we had. We were so full yet felt great afterwards! Shows that real food gives the real fuel to your body needs to feel great.

I had a fantastic coffee ice cream milkshake... it was so good that I forgot to take a picture before I sucked it down. I don't normally drink coffee, but I love coffee drinks like this once in a while. This wonderful drink had raw vanilla ice cream & espresso blended together and topped with real (fresh) whipped cream & homemade chocolate sauce... now you understand why it was so good!

My in-laws enjoyed some french-press coffee... 

My hubby ordered a fantastic breakfast of roasted herb potatoes, homemade biscuit topped with scrambled eggs & homemade mayo with a side of avocados. The biscuit was flaky, delicious and... made with butter. The roasted potatoes were perfect... soft flesh, crispy skin & tossed with herbs, sweet pepper and more butter. Of course, can't skip the eggs... they were soft & delicious. The mayo had a great golden color (egg yolks) and the flavor was so smooth & rich!

I had their French Toast. I had to have it! Made with their whole wheat bread freshly baked everyday. It sounded too good to past up and... it was! First, I couldn't believe how thick the slices were when they put that plate in front of me. Second, I was concern that it would be dry or doughy. It was neither... this French Toast was the best I've ever had (besides my own). They were perfectly moist, crispy and bursting with flavor. It comes with homemade strawberry jam and whipped butter, but you could also get a side of their homemade chocolate sauce... which I did ask for. Why would I past that up?! I devoured every bite and licked up everything. It was so good. So so good!

Next, we order the simple breakfast plate for the girls to share. It had fresh fruit, scrambled eggs and a homemade biscuit. The girls loved it, but they also loved my French Toast  :o)

Lastly, my in-laws shared a huge waffle with strawberry jam and whipped butter. Made with real ingredients and made fresh to order... they were fluffy and had a great flavor, but I loved my French Toast.

So that was our feast! We were all fat and happy... really we felt great.

While we were hanging out and finishing off the fantastic meal we had a great chat with the owner of the place, Tom Franklin, and asked how he got this place going. Tom first came down to Puerto Viejo from Maryland for a change of pace and bought Bread & Chocolate from a young couple who wanted to move back to the states. Since then the focus has remained the same because he loved what they started. Tom has been successfully running this awesome place for over 4 years now! Please stop by and tell Tom how you found out about Bread & Chocolate.

Meet the cool kitchen crew.

Now, I wish I could say that we went back there everyday... but sadly they are closed on Mondays & Tuesdays. I am thrilled that I went at least once and got to enjoy it so much! Thank you Tom and keep up the awesome work!

I seriously didn't want to leave!

This is part of Real Food Wednesday hosted at Cheeseslave!