Some places you eat at. Others you end up staying at. Gritanga, on the Surfside grid in Playa Potrero, has become the second kind: a small restaurant that describes itself as "a taquería with Nicaraguan flavor," and that also happens to run one of the more entertaining afternoons on this stretch of coast.
You come for a burrito. You leave knowing what a chiliguaro is, who won the pepper contest, and when the next Sunday BBQ is. That is the Gritanga effect, and it is why a small taquería has turned into one of the places that make Surfside feel like a neighborhood.
It started small
Gritanga did not arrive fully formed. It began as a small operation in the food-court setup around Potrero Brewing, one of a few kitchens feeding whoever wandered in for a beer. The food had a following before the restaurant had walls of its own.
People kept coming back, and that is really the whole business plan. Eventually Gritanga moved into its own place in Surfside, next to La Forketta, and became a proper restaurant.
Patricia's kitchen
The flavor comes from Patricia. She is from Nicaragua and loves cooking the food she grew up with, which is why a Gritanga taco does not taste like the generic Mexican-ish version you find in every beach town. It is Nicaraguan cooking, made from scratch.
For Patricia, Gritanga is one way of sharing that part of home with the Potrero neighborhood she lives in now. You can taste that it matters to her.
Justin and the Sunday smoker
Justin is the other half of the operation, on the food and the business side, and he has been part of the Potrero community for a long time, including years around the Costa Rica Sailing Center.
If you want to find him on a Sunday, follow the smoke. The Sunday BBQ is his favorite part of the week, and recent ones have put out smoked pork ribs, chicken and beef tri-tip. It is the kind of menu that makes your Sunday plans for you.
Salsa, peppers and machetes
Gritanga also has a habit of throwing a party. In September 2026 it organized the 9th annual Salsa Fest in Playa Potrero: a salsa picante contest, a chiliguaro contest, and a hot-pepper-eating contest with separate divisions for kids 12 and under and for everyone 13 and up. The winners took home custom machetes.
For the kids who needed a break from the peppers, there was a churro-eating contest too.
Where else does a neighborhood food festival end with both kids and adults walking home with custom machetes?
If it is your first time
Order a burrito. They are big and serious, and they are a large part of why this guide keeps sending people here. The tacos are the other half of the reputation, and everything leans on Nicaraguan cooking rather than the usual beach-town version.
If you can, go on a Sunday, when the smoker is running, and check Gritanga's Instagram first to see what is on it, because the BBQ menu changes. Just don't go on a Tuesday; that's the one day it's closed.
It is a casual, come-as-you-are place in the middle of Surfside, a short walk from the other bars and restaurants on the grid, which makes it an easy first stop on a night out or a long, lazy last one.
