Limón's cooking is Afro-Caribbean and unlike anything you will find in the Costa Rican highlands. The staples are rice and beans cooked in coconut milk (one word here, distinct from the gallo pinto served further inland), rondón (a slow-cooked seafood and coconut stew), patí (a Jamaican-style spiced beef pastry), and pan bon, a heavy fruit-and-cheese bread eaten at Easter and saved year-round in bakeries that know what they are doing.
For the cheapest and most authentic meals, head straight for the cooked-food counters at the Mercado Central. For sit-down evening dining, the simple sodas along the malecón and around Parque Vargas serve fresh fish and the full Caribbean menu.