El Avión

El Avión is a restaurant and bar on Route 618 between Quepos and Manuel Antonio National Park. It is built into, around and above a Fairchild C-123 cargo plane, with an open-air terrace facing the Pacific. This is a memorable roadside stop outside the park; I’d choose it for the aircraft and setting as much as for dinner.

The cockpit is a popular photo stop, and the aircraft sits right among the restaurant’s dining areas. Look around the nose and cockpit before settling at a table; include a little of the roof and restaurant in the frame so the picture shows how the place is built around the plane.

Open-air dining looks out toward the ocean and tropical hillside. Visitors repeatedly favor the sunset view; if a view table matters, arrive before the late-day rush. On-site parking is reported, though visitors disagree about how easy it is to find a space.

The restaurant highlights coconut shrimp, seafood curry, yellowfin tuna and fried calamari, with a full bar. Visitor reports are mixed on food quality and value, so I’d pick El Avión for the plane and view first and treat the menu as a bonus.

The aircraft here was one of two C-123s connected to a Contra supply operation in the 1980s. Its sister plane was shot down over Nicaragua in 1986; captured crewman Eugene Hasenfus helped bring the Iran-Contra affair to light. El Avión’s aircraft was not the one shot down. After the scandal it sat at San José airport until hotelier Alan Templeton moved it to Manuel Antonio. Accounts say the fuselage was too wide for the local railroad bridges, so it was disassembled and brought by sea.