Y Postres Princesa Diner Desserts

Princesa is a small, non-typical cafe style restaurant tucked back in a small neighborhood of Playa Samara. If you are looking for some variety in your dining while in Costa Rica, give this restaurant a try. The menu is not your typical Tico, offering poutine, hot and sour soup, meat loaf, lasagna and more. I've tried half the menu and recommended it all but my standout favorite so far was the goat cheese and fig pizza. If you are in Samara and tire of eating casados and ceviche, give this little gem a try!

We made a few previous visits to her old location downtown.  We found her loud and overly talkative.  She spent the whole time slamming other restaurants, and her previous employer, which we found very unprofessional.  The food was plain at best, so we didn 't go back.  Fast forward three years later.  Friends convinced us to try her again to support a charity, and play some fun trivia with a promise of improved food, so we gave her another chance. Wanting like her and the food.  Well, the trivia part was fun, but it ended there. The event had a 5PM start.  Drink orders were taken immediately (of course), but she didn 't take our food order for 2 pizzas til 6.  All other tables were served, food consumed and had already been cleared.  I brought this fact  to the waiter 's attention at about 7, then kitchen staff at 7:15, and then owner 15 minutes after that.  All were completely dismissive.  It 's coming we were told.  It came... at 7:45!!   It was inedible.  No sauce.  Barely detectable cheese.  Shriveled sparse meat.  So dry it could barely be swallowed.  Totally flavourless. Nobody ate more than 2 bites other than a guy sitting at our table who never ordered it.  All 4 of us agreed it was inedible.  That 's fine, it happens.  We are in our late 60 's.  We know a bad pizza when we get one.  Owner came to our table after being told by server we weren 't going pay.  The server DID NOT offer to comp our food, but offered a free dessert. We declined. But then the owner, instead of accepting it was bad, she questioned our judgement and asked what was wrong with it.  I told her, and added that it took almost 2 hours to get there.  Rather than apologize, or admit it was bad pizza, she focused on that it was only 1:45, not 2 hours.  She accused me of grossly overexagerating.  I will admit that after insulting us, I cursed.  She immediately said you too!  Get the out of here.   In front of 40 people!  Classy!  What an embarrassment to the Canadian flag.  We can see now why she 's relegated to a dusty back street instead of main street.  She 's got a 3.8 Google rating with an industry standard of 4.5, so we 're not the only ones... Our first impression of her was correct.  Just a bully in a skirt.  I 'm certain she will respond to this because of all the complaints I 've seen posted that she responds to, she has never admitted to being wrong. Ever!  Lots of nasty comments thoug. I 'm sure she will find some way to defend her despicable behavior this time as well because she has never made a mistake! Bottom line... At 69 years old, I got kicked out of a place for the first time ever. She should be so proud. Ha! I see she removed her nasty response to me, and had one of her friends write a rebuttal. True to form.

I am writing this review as a frequent visitor of this restaurant for over ten years. I saw the reviewer that attended a very popular Trivia Night that had about 50 people come to that event. (all ordering at once) I am writing to support this establishment and to correct a few of the assessments. 1. Princessa Restaurante was not relegated to a dusty dirty road no more than the community that has thrived in this area the past five years especially post pandemic. This area has exploded with growth of homes well over 300K USD. Not far down an adjacent dirt road are homes selling for over a million dollars. In fact Princessa was smart to locate there. All of that area along with Buena Vista is also on dirt roads. This is part of the Charm of Costa Rica. 2. The owner is a woman who moved alone to Costa Rica and has been self employed her entire life. She is a self starter and high achiever. She has a tell it like it is personality and you never have to worry that she is not straight and honest. This is why she is respected in the community. 3. This owner operates several businesses in Samara and is the go to for most anyone that needs help. She hosts multiple fundraisers at the restaurant on an on going year round basis. 4. This owner also kept Samara alive Literally during the Pandemic. The Soup Kitchen she started after the lock down fed hundreds of Costa Ricans weekly. Volunteers donated time. The businesses that could donated food. Others donated money. I know this first hand because we were here 14 months of the Pandemic. 5. I, too, get frustrated sometimes with the slowness of Costa Rica. The bottom line here is that you will ALWAYS wait longer for your food to be prepared here. Most food is not prepped like in the chain restaurants and is made fresh to order. Pizza ovens are not assembly line machines that feed through like Pizza Hut. They are literally a Pizza oven. Generally, too, overall Pizza is different here as well. If you have been to Italy you would understand since Samara is home to many Italians. I think all of the Canadians in Samara should plant a Canadian flag at Princess in Support. Course we don't have walmart or amazon prime so I am not sure where they would come from...lol Personally, I am very proud of this owner and what she has achieved. If you look at a totality of almost 70 years one pizza you didn't like or one bad service does not warrant this type of a review. In closing, I will say to this reviewer, If you don't want to claim her as a Canadian, I would be proud to claim her as an American.

Avoid this place like the plague. The owner was extremely rude and unpleasant. She made us wait 45 minutes for our food. I normally wouldn't say anything but we had to drive back to San Jose to catch a flight home. We tried to be as polite as possible when we asked for our food but she just kept yelling at us and told us we shouldn't be complaining and the food ended up being awful. The owner really was over the top rude and unpleasant. Samara is a beautiful town filled with extremely nice people. But I would skip this bakery far better choices with good and edible food and better service.

Had the poutine, was so perfect. The fries at other restaurants in Sàmara have been so disappointing to date. Love the owner, originally from Canada, we had heard from our landlord that she had fed the street people of Sàmara, through the COVID pandemic.