www.CostaRicaTicas.com

My review of El Porton Rojo restaurant located in Barrio Escalante, San Pedro: took a favorita to dinner at this pizza joint on a Tuesday night. It was at her suggestion after she "jokingly" mentioned this restaurant if the one I had suggested was closed (it had happened before). Since she's a foodie and I'm not, I took the suggestion and was glad I did. Uber out from La Amistad to the restaurant was 2.5k colones and about 1.25k colones back to the hotel. The restaurant itself is a smal, hole-in-the-wall nestled in Barrio Escalante among all the other small restaurants. Got there about 8:30 PM and it was full but were immediately seated without a reservation (she said they weren't necessary). We each ordered individual personal pizzas. She had some fruit drink and I just had water. Total bill was under $23. I thought the thin crust pizza was very good (disclaimer: I'm not a pizza guy and actually like Domino's Pizza back home - so for you pizza connoisseurs, take my "very good" with a grain of salt ). There were other items on the menu but pizzas were clearly the featured item.

Pros: cheap!, near gulch, tasty pizza
Cons: freakin dark as a cave (had to use smartphone light just to read the menu), small and cramp interior, we sat under the stairs and it was either claustrophobic or cozy depending on your point of view and degree of inebriation , service was slow but not unusually so by local standards.
Overall recommendation: good cheap eats; I would return