Stacey Paige - Hamilton

Review of GAIA Hotel & Reserve

We did a quick lookup on trip advisor for restaura...

We did a quick lookup on trip advisor for restaurants in Manuel Antonio. We saw that La Luna was rated #1 out of 49 rated restaurants in the area, so we thought, let's give it a try!

Upon arrival, there was a golf cart ready to drive us up a steep hill to the main building on the resort. Located high atop the hill, the restaurant had a amazing view out over the ocean.

As we sat down down to eat, we knew right away that the service was second to none as the waiters were properly trained in the restaurant service industry.

The wine list featured wines from throughout the region and the world, everything from the $30.00 price range up to classic wines from the Bordeaux regions of France to Brunellos from Italy.

We also decided to try an appetizer prior to our main course. Upon our first bite, we were utterly in shock in the amazing flavors of the dishes.

After polishing off our initial course, we patiently waited for our entree's to arrive. Upon our first bites, we knew that the executive chef had to have been trained at either Cordon Bleu in France, or The Culinary Institute of America. Each bite of our dishes were prepared with the perfect balance of flavor and deliciousness!

After our main course, the owner of the resort (Boris) came over and greeted us and welcomed us to the restaurant and property. We asked where he found his executive chef and if we could meet him and thank him personally. Within two minutes, the executive chef came to our table and introduced himself (we believe it was Michael). Immediately we were shocked, as Michael was only 21 years old! Like how in the heck did this young man become such an amazing chef. We asked him where he was from and were he was trained? To our major surprise, he was born and raised in Quepos, Costa Rica (local town of 4,000 people), and was trained on the resort by Boris and other staff!

This one experience to Luna really opened our eyes to what quality food and service is all about! No egos, exorbitant prices, or pretentious staff members!

I would gladly put Luna and its staff up against any high end restaurant in New York or Los Angeles knowing that they would knock the socks off of the competition.

John and Stacey Hamilton