Quepos has two distinct eating scenes. Downtown is for cheap, honest sodas — small Costa Rican kitchens serving casados (rice, beans, plantains, salad, your choice of meat) at lunch, fresh ceviche, and grilled snapper straight off the boats. The Mercado Central has a clutch of these and is the cheapest meal in town. The streets between the old pier and the bus station are full of similar places where two can eat well for under $20.
The marina and the road up to Manuel Antonio are where the more polished restaurants are: open-air dining rooms with ocean views and prices to match. Most run on rotating menus of seafood, ceviche and Tico classics dressed up with imported wine lists. The novelty restaurant up the hill — El Avion, built around the fuselage of a Cold War cargo plane — is worth a visit at sunset for the setting more than the food.