Santa Cruz eats differently from the rest of Bolivia. This is lowland cooking — beef, rice, yuca, plantain, cheese — and the altiplano staples of soup and potato give way to things grilled over wood.
The dishes to look for are majadito, a rice dish with dried beef that is the regional comfort food; locro, a chicken and rice soup; sonso, grilled yuca mashed with cheese; and keperí, slow-cooked beef. Cuñapé, a small cheese bread, is sold everywhere and eaten at any hour.
For the traditional version done properly, El Aljibe serves it in a colonial courtyard and is the usual recommendation for a sit-down lunch. For beef, El Arriero is the churrasquería out towards Equipetrol — this is cattle country and the beef is local, which is the argument for eating it here rather than anywhere else in the country.
The markets are the other half of it. Mercado Florida and Los Pozos both do breakfast and lunch at a fraction of restaurant prices, and Los Pozos is where to try the tropical fruit you will not have seen before.
Lunch is the main meal and the kitchens know it. Many of the best places are quiet in the evening and full at one in the afternoon.
For a drink rather than a meal, Aviator Wings & Beer on Avenida Marcelo Terceros does wings and burgers late, and Santa Cruz Beer Station on Calle 7 Oeste is the live-music and karaoke option, open until two every night.