Costa Rica’s Dog Restaurant is “human-friendly”

A restaurant in Costa Rica that offers lunches, dinners and parties for four-legged customers has an innovative concept: “human friendly”.

At “El Perrazo“, the customers are the dogs, served by waiters. Their masters, simple companions. A twist on the trend of restaurants that admit customers accompanied by their pets, a modality known as ‘pet friendly’, and has been well accepted, according to its owner, Rubén Rodríguez.

“The difference lies in the fact that the dog has total freedom of access to the space to play and enjoy the play areas and so on, and the person arrives as a guest,” said Rodríguez.

“The concept of ‘human friendly’ is the opportunity for the human to accompany the dog to the restaurant,” says Rodríguez, 39, who is also president of the Canine Federation of Costa Rica.

The restaurant is surrounded by lush vegetation in a valley near San José, close to the town of San Juan Sur de Corralillo.

There are 450 m2 of free space for the animals to enjoy, with a play and food area, artificial grass to prevent them from damaging their paws and trainers looking after them.

The owners have tables to eat or drink something, if they wish. They can also play with their pets and other dogs.

“For his five years we wanted to have a celebration with his doggy friends and we invited a lot of friends to bring them and sing [Happy Birthday] to him and make him happy,” Mika’s birthday Pomeranian mistress Joyce Gonzalez, 22, said.

Advance reservations are required and four-legged clients must be up to date with their vaccination and deworming records, have an ID chip and be in good health and physical condition.