Bars

Casa Mayor- Owned by Ricardo and Natalie, with roots in the organic coffee mountain area of Pluma Hidalgo where they own a finca, this upstairs restaurant/bar is one of the favorites of locals on the Crucecita Plaza. Most nights have live music with someone on guitar, and the open air ambiance overlooking the square is great. Check out their website for info on their ecological tours in the mountains around their El Pacifico finca. Though the website is in Spanish, Ricardo is fluent in English if you contact him through it.

La Crema- La Crema has an upstairs location on the NW corner of the main plaza in Crucecita, and has a comfy and funky blend of couches, easy chairs, and high chairs, along with colorful hangings and huge candles. Some of the best pizza in town, made in a wood-fired brick pizza oven. Atrociously slow times for turning out pizza when they're really busy, though. Most of the staff is fluent in English. Also has a cool store inside that sells the same kind of colorful things the place is decorated in.

The Tipsy Blowfish- Run by Texan expats Joe and his daughter Courtney, this friendly bar that was formerly on the main square of La Crucecita has taken its act over to Tangolunda Bay at the west side of the hotel zone. The bar features live music a couple of nights a week in a variety of styles from Latin rock to salsa to blues. They make the best hamburgers in Tangolunda and have excellent Italian ice cream. Local knowledge - the "cubetazo" (a bucket of five beers) is the best value.

Cafe Dublin- The requisite Irish bar that no town is complete without, no matter how far from Ireland you wander. Probably the best hamburger in town, and a small cozy place to play darts downstairs or hang out upstairs on sofa chairs and couches. Argentinian bartender Rodrigo is friendly and bilingual, and you'll get on his good side if you throw a "Viva Maradona!" his way. If you tell jokes about how many Argentine men it takes to screw in a lightbulb (one, he stands there and lets the world revolve around him), he might not be as kind. The $2 Bohemia is good beer and good value. On Carrizal a block south of the Plaza Madero shopping mall.

Restaurants
There are more good restaurants than bad ones in La Crucecita, and it's really hard to go wrong anywhere around the main square. Oasis is decent, as is the very elegant Il Giardino del Papa, though the latter is a bit on the pricey side. Over toward Chahue, La Boheme was an outstanding French restaurant but shut its doors in the past year due to trouble keeping a chef of high enough quality. Viena, in Tangolunda, is run by an Austrian odd couple named Mannfred and Helmut and is also very good European cuisine. All up and down the side streets of Crucecita are simple places the locals patronize, from taco stands to full menu restaurants, and most of them tend to be very cheap and quite good. Just look for a total absence of frills and plenty of customers and you'll know you're at a good spot. The ones mentioned below are very reasonably priced local classics, where you'll find other good restaurant owners in town eating at, the best seal of approval.
Rigoletto - For great value on incredible Italian food, this hole in the wall restaurant always was a local favorite. Giordana made everything from scratch, and the place was perpetually busy even in the off-season. It's still busy and popular, but Giordana sold it. Some of the cooks are locals she trained and the food is still very good, but it's not the same anymore without Giordana's presence and genuine Italian flavor. That said, it's still likely the best Italian restaurant in town. On Ocotillo between Bugambilia and Gardenia in La Crucecita. (958) 587 1246
Hemingway's Cantina/Ay Caray- Four blocks from the main square in La Crucecita on the corner of Palma Real and Gardenia is Hemingway's Cantina, which was formerly the Crucecita location of Ay Caray. It's still run by Alfredo, the same owner, and his wife Jane, with casual fare such as poppers, beef stew, arrachera tacos, and the like. They have live music a number of nights a week. They've left the beach location at Bahia Maguey to be the sole Ay Caray seafood restaurant, which has had the reputation as the best seafood restaurant in Huatulco. Ay Caray at Maguey is the only beach restaurant at Maguey where the quality of food matches the prices. Owner Alfredo and his family consistently get rave reviews from visitors for the atmosphere and excellence of the seafood, from mahi in garlic marinade to grilled huachinango to lobster.
Terracotta- Housed in the elegant Mision de Los Arcos hotel on Calle Gardenia a half block off the main square in La Crucecita, Terracotta is a beautiful, air-conditioned restaurant with surprisingly reasonable prices. Service is pleasant and fast, there's a nice view through the huge glass window of the adjacent park, and the Oaxacan specialties are as good as they come. Ask them to bring back the exquisite tropical salad (mango, pumpkin seed, avocado, and jicama, in a vinaigrette) which they mysteriously dropped from the menu. Also has an outdoor cafe with free wireless internet, and is a very popular breakfast spot.
Cafe del Mar- Only open for breakfast and lunch (they close at 6pm), this establishment run by the warm Italian Max and his lovely wife Maiko offers both Italian style breakfasts and sandwiches. A great place to idle away a morning drinking good espresso or cappucino, with free wireless internet for customers. Located in Santa Cruz near the marina, just up the street from the park on the corner of Monte Alban and Coyula.
Discos
If you want to go out dancing at night, be prepared to stay up late - real late. Like much of Latin America, discos only begin to get going at about one to two in the morning. There are three or four clubs in Chahue, within walking distance of each other, and they all charge ten dollar covers. Which is the best is usually a matter of musical taste, though the ambiance of each one is quite different from one another. Papaya is perennially popular, upstairs in an open air atmosphere. Behind one of the bars is a glass partition looking into a swimming pool, where underwater dancing girls frolic at certain times of night. The music never seems to change from night to night, so if you've experienced Papaya once you pretty much know you're going to get the same thing every time you go. One of the other downsides to Papaya is the lack of a proper dance floor - patrons are left to dance in the spaces between tables. La Mina ("The Mine") is an underground club in the basement of the Hotel Aligheri and favors much more of a house/techno blend of music. There's a proper dance floor at La Mina with lots of flashing lights and dry ice, and there are comfortable booths and tables. For singles looking to hook up with someone, the discos are the only good option in town because they're where everyone goes to party. On the other hand, if it's not a big holiday time with lots of people in from Mexico City and elsewhere, you can forget the singles scene. The discos on an average night are usually filled with very young self-contained groups of locals, the hotel, bar, and restaurant workers of the area who don't have to get up before noon.