Country dossier
Restaurants, hotels, bars and wineries across Nicaragua in the En Primeur Club guide.
Accolades in Nicaragua
Managua’s restaurant selection includes steakhouses with wine lists and extensive wine lists, alongside Japanese and Cantonese cooking.
Restaurant Don Candido is a Nicaraguan steakhouse in Los Robles with an extensive wine list. Its a la carte menu features premium charcoal-grilled cuts, including picaña and solomillo, served with personalised service.
Porterhouse Steaks in Las Colinas specialises in premium imported and local grass-fed beef. Grilled cuts anchor its a la carte menu, with an extensive wine list accompanying the restaurant’s focus on steakhouse cooking.
Sushi Itto in Santo Domingo serves Japanese sushi and seafood, with a sake programme alongside its wine offering. The Mexican franchise also offers Korean barbecue at the table, and its dining format is a la carte.
Granada’s restaurants include courtyard cafés and Mediterranean-inspired farm-to-table dining with a tasting menu and a wine list.
NM Culinary in historical center combines Mediterranean-inspired farm-to-table cooking with a wine list and craft cocktails. Its courtyard includes an on-site herb and vegetable garden, and the restaurant highlights forgotten local Nicaraguan ingredients through tasting-menu and a la carte dining.
The Garden Café in Central Granada serves Central American café cooking with a healthy and sustainable focus. Local produce and straightforward preparations accompany craft cocktails and beer in a shaded tropical courtyard, with an artisan shop and community library integrated into the space.
Café de las Sonrisas in Centro is a Nicaraguan café managed entirely by deaf people. It serves an a la carte menu in a community-rooted setting, with sign-language ordering and classes supporting its focus on inclusion.
The Pacific coast hotel selection includes beachfront lodges and jungle properties. Rancho Santana adds farm-to-table dining to this coastal group.
Morgan's Rock Hacienda & Ecolodge in Playa Ocotal holds a Michelin Key. Sustainably constructed bungalows sit on a cliffside overlooking a private beach, within a reforestation project where sea turtles nest and howler monkeys move through the canopy.
99 Surf Lodge in Playa Santana is a modernist beachfront hotel with Michelin Selected status. Ocean-view rooms and an infinity pool form part of a property whose open-air Pacific architecture is closely connected to surf culture.
Morgans Rock Hotel San Juan del Sur in San Juan del Sur is a jungle resort where rainforest meets a private white-sand beach. Its bungalows and villas blend into the surrounding landscape, with forest and cliffs shaping the architecture.
Rancho Santana in Tola combines farm-to-table dining with a beach resort setting. Its farm-driven kitchen sits within a property spanning Pacific-facing cliffs, beaches and jungle canopy, with a sea turtle sanctuary and recognition from Michelin Selected and La Liste Top Hotels.
The island hotel selection spans lake and Caribbean settings. Inland, Nekupe Sporting Resort & Retreat combines farm-to-table dining with sporting activities.
Jicaro Island Ecolodge in Isletas De Granada is a private island property with Michelin Selected status. Built from reclaimed wood, the sustainable lodge combines low-impact design with a natural setting among volcanic island formations on the lake.
Nekupe Sporting Resort & Retreat in Nandaime offers farm-to-table dining alongside horseback riding and shooting. Sustainable design draws on Feng Shui principles and indigenous Chorotega culture, and the countryside property holds Virtuoso Luxury Hotel Partner recognition.
Calala Island in Calala Island, South Caribbean Coast is a private-island resort with Small Luxury Hotels of the World membership. Thatch-roofed beachfront villas emerge from dense palm cover, while an infinity pool meets the sea in a secluded setting.
Managua and Granada have the largest restaurant selections in our guide, with 4 venues each. Managua’s selection includes steakhouses, Japanese cooking and Cantonese dishes. Granada’s restaurants include Mediterranean-inspired farm-to-table cooking, Middle Eastern plates and courtyard café dining.
There are no Michelin-starred restaurants in our Nicaragua guide. This count covers Managua, Granada, San Juan Del Sur, NiCaribbean, Nandaime, Rivas, Popoyo, Matagalpa and Isletas De Granada, the cities included in our guide.
Managua has extensive wine lists at Restaurant Don Candido in Los Robles and Porterhouse Steaks in Las Colinas, both with wine lists. NM Culinary in historical center also has a wine list accompanying Mediterranean-inspired farm-to-table cooking.
Morgan's Rock Hacienda & Ecolodge holds a Michelin Key in 2026; 99 Surf Lodge, Rancho Santana and Jicaro Island Ecolodge hold Michelin Selected status from 2025. These distinctions apply to the hotels.
By Emmett Haley · Updated October 8, 2026 · Editorial standards
Nicaragua
Selected entries from the current guide for Nicaragua.
Granada, Nicaragua
Café de las Sonrisas occupies a quiet block off Granada's colonial centre, a short walk from the Iglesia La Merced. The café is woven into Granada's social fabric as a space where the pace of a meal is allowed to breathe, drawing a mix of locals and travellers who appreciate a deliberate, unhurried table. For Nicaragua, it represents a particular strand of community-rooted dining that the city's better-known colonial plazas rarely offer.
Granada, Nicaragua
On a colonial street in Granada, Nicaragua, NM Culinary occupies a city where Spanish-era architecture and Central American cooking traditions intersect in ways few visitors expect. Granada's dining scene is still forming its upper tier, and places like this sit at the edge of that development, worth tracking for anyone passing through the country's oldest city.
Granada, Nicaragua
Pita Pita Fun Food serves Middle Eastern plates on Calle La libertad in Granada, Nicaragua, with a casual, conversational setup suited to lunch or dinner.
Managua, Nicaragua
On the Carretera a Masaya corridor that anchors much of Managua's serious dining, Porterhouse Steaks occupies a clear position in the city's red-meat tradition. The name signals a specific cut and a specific commitment: beef as the central argument on the plate, sourced and prepared with the kind of focus that separates a steakhouse from a grill. For visitors working through Nicaragua's capital, it sits alongside Restaurant Don Candido as one of the addresses where protein-forward dining is taken seriously.
Managua, Nicaragua
Restaurant Don Candido occupies a residential pocket of southeast Managua, operating as one of the city's established dining addresses in a capital where sit-down restaurant culture remains concentrated and locally rooted. The restaurant draws on Nicaragua's culinary traditions at a moment when Managua's dining scene is beginning to attract broader regional attention. Contact the restaurant directly for current hours, pricing, and reservation availability.
Matagalpa, Nicaragua
In a city where Nicaraguan produce arrives at its most concentrated, Sapori d'Italia makes a case for Italian cooking rooted in local sourcing rather than import dependency. The setting reads as Matagalpa neighborhood fixture before it reads as foreign-cuisine outpost, and that positioning defines the experience. For travelers passing through Nicaragua's highland coffee country, it earns consideration alongside the broader Matagalpa dining scene.
Managua, Nicaragua
Shanghai China Bistro sits inside Galerías Santo Domingo, Managua's most established mall-based dining corridor, bringing Chinese-inflected cooking to a city where that culinary tradition remains underrepresented. The setting is accessible and family-oriented, positioned within Zona Viva's concentration of mid-range international options. For diners working through Managua's broader restaurant circuit, it offers a clear alternative to the grilled-meat dominance that defines much of the local scene.
Managua, Nicaragua
Sushi Itto occupies a practical but telling position inside Galerías Santo Domingo, the commercial centre that anchors Managua's Carretera a Masaya corridor. For a city where Japanese dining options remain limited, it represents a consistent entry point into the category, sitting alongside international and regional alternatives in a mall format that prioritises accessibility over atmosphere.
Granada, Nicaragua
On Calle Cervantes in Granada, Nicaragua, The Garden Café occupies the kind of shaded courtyard that defines the colonial city's relationship with shade and slowness. The menu reads as a practical map of how Granada feeds itself at midday, local produce, direct preparations, and a pace calibrated to the heat. For visitors moving between the city's churches and lake shore, it functions as a reliable midday anchor.
Nicaragua
Selected entries from the current guide for Nicaragua.
San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua
On 4,000 acres of Pacific-coast jungle just north of the Costa Rican border, Morgan's Rock Hacienda & Ecolodge operates fifteen sustainably constructed bungalows across a private reserve where sea turtles nest and howler monkeys move through the canopy overhead. Starting from around $270 per night, it positions itself at the intersection of conservation-grade land stewardship and low-key barefoot comfort that few properties at this price point manage to sustain credibly.
Rivas, Nicaragua
On Nicaragua's Emerald Coast, Rancho Santana spreads across 2,700 acres of Pacific-facing cliffs, remote beaches, and jungle canopy between Tola and Rivas. The resort returned to La Liste's Top 100 Hotels in 2026 with a score of 90.5 points, drawing repeat visitors with its sea turtle sanctuary, farm-driven kitchen, and a spa set within the tree line. It occupies a category of its own among Nicaragua's coastal properties.
NiCaribbean, Nicaragua
Calala Island occupies a private island off Nicaragua's Caribbean coast, where thatch-roofed villas emerge from dense palm cover and an infinity pool meets the sea. The approach by boat sets the register immediately: this is a property built around isolation and visual drama, not amenity volume. For travellers prioritising seclusion over programming, it sits in a category of its own on this coast.
Popoyo, Nicaragua
A Michelin Selected property on Playa Santana, 99 Surf Lodge occupies one of Nicaragua's most consistent surf breaks at Popoyo. The lodge sits at the crossroads of open-air Pacific architecture and dedicated surf culture, drawing a small, serious travelling crowd to a stretch of coastline that remains genuinely off the beaten path for most luxury travellers.
Isletas De Granada, Nicaragua
A private island property on Lake Nicaragua's Isletas de Granada archipelago, Jicaro Island Ecolodge holds Michelin Selected status in the 2025 guide, a rare credential for Central America's small-island accommodation category. The lodge occupies its own islet among the volcanic formations south of Granada, positioning it as the region's most closely scrutinized eco-property for travelers who want low-impact design without sacrificing considered comfort.
Nandaime, Nicaragua
Nicaragua's first luxury countryside resort, Nekupe occupies a 2,400-acre nature reserve thirty minutes from Granada. Eight rooms and four standalone villas sit within a design framework that fuses Feng Shui principles with indigenous Chorotega culture and sustainable land stewardship. The property operates at the intersection of active sporting pursuits and genuine retreat, making it a rare proposition in Central American luxury travel.
San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua
Morgans Rock Hotel sits on Playa Ocotal outside San Juan del Sur, placing guests inside a stretch of Nicaragua's Pacific coastline that remains genuinely undeveloped by regional standards. The property belongs to a generation of eco-architecture projects that treat the surrounding forest and cliff line as structural elements rather than backdrop. For travellers arriving from the surf-town energy of San Juan del Sur proper, the shift in register is immediate and deliberate.
Nicaragua
Selected entries from the current guide for Nicaragua.
No venues found.
Nicaragua
Selected entries from the current guide for Nicaragua.
No venues found.
