We also visited San Sebastian, which is mentioned in a previous post on this board and dined at Arrayanes. It was quite good.

That's right, I recall the posts about San Sebastian, I think I meant to say was San Blas. Has anyone made the trip up there?

Great job and thanks to everyone for the pictures. I will be in PV the first week of Feb. If I ever saw a picture that reminds me of PV it has to be the Huachinango zarandeado. With the ocean in site every place you go, how could it not be a great choice. I like the pictures of the two different twists on this dish. My question to those of you in the know ????? are Steves pictures of the Huachinango from Tino's while it was still in El Pitillal, or is it the new location in PV....The picture of of the Pescado Zarandeado is a twist I haven't seen in PV, I would love to try it on my visit...............The fiesta platter at Dona Raquel look rustic and well worth a try. I have a hard time eating soup in PV when I'm sweating my butt off most of the time...............thanks for all the help and great pictures Steve, and Gypsy..............I haven't seen any pictures of street food, do you like eating on the street or stay clear of it ????? I have a few stands I have to hit in down town, Birria for one, shrimp and fish tacos, and Ceviche.............Thanks again...........Bill

My pictures are from the Pitiyal location. I haven't been to the new location but the prep is still the same, just like it is in the other location in Neuevo Villarta...and yes, I ate extensively on the streets. I'm pretty sure there are some pictures in one of my original posts.

Hi Steve, I didn't go through all the posts before I posted. There are a lot of street food posts and a few of my favorits. Where is the new Tino's ????? ..........Bill

Hipchef99 wrote:Hi Steve, I didn't go through all the posts before I posted. There are a lot of street food posts and a few of my favorits. Where is the new Tino's ????? ..........Bill

According to Gypsy Boy, it's right on the Malecon. I'm not 100% sure if the Pitiyal location actually closed and moved or if this is yet another additional location.

We walk the Malecon every morning, so I think I will find it. If it's north then its going to be tourists. I like being the only gringos in the place..............Bill

Last year, it was not on the Malecon but more in the romantic zone near where my place is. I thought they still had the Pitiyal location but I'm not sure.

According to the folks in the restaurant, the Pitillal location is closed. No more. The new location is on the second floor of one of the most northernmost buildings on the Malecon itself. I'll look to see if I have an address later today.

All ya gotta do is go to the Tino's website. It makes clear that Pitillal is closed and has info on the Malecon location.

Thanks Gypsy Boy, I see the location on their web site.........Bill

Sorry. I just realized that I was thinking of Mauriscios. They now have a location in PV. I'm happy to see that Tino's looks like it has a great location in town.

Three nights in PV so far. First night, Joe Jack's. Still good, straightforward fish with a fun atmosphere. Across from JJ is a new gelato shop and a pizza, panini restaurant with a brick oven. We tried it out last night and I'd say that it's a good spot for a decent pizza when you're missing Chicago. Tomorrow night, Tino's.

Things here are VERY slow compared to years past. Great for us tourists but not so good for the locals.

I am going to be in Puerta Vallarta at the end of the month for a week. I have been many times, never with my kids. This time we are renting a house in Conchas Chinas that comes with a cook, etc. My little ones are very picky eaters, sometimes they will eat quesadillas but that is the extent of what I can get them to eat mexican wise. Question? God forbid they are demanding pizza, anyone have a recommendation for delivery, other then Dominoes? The house is located about a mile south of town between old town and the old camino real. Thanks in advance.

La Piazzitta, on Olas Altas is the best in PV. I would call down there, order 3 or 4 pizzas, have them call a taxi to bring them up the hill. The pizza is the best thin crust, quality cheese, topping this side of Rome. I just got back from PV on Monday, and ate there 4 times in 15 days. We don't eat Pizza until we get to PV, its that good........Goat Tacos,on the corner of Constitution and B&B Coke Cola banners on the Food booth. They sell crispy Goat ( Crispy Tacos) The red sauce is wonderful, not hot but full of flavor. IMHO these are the best flavored tacos in PV................have fun..............BILL

iblock9 wrote:My little ones are very picky eaters, sometimes they will eat quesadillas but that is the extent of what I can get them to eat mexican wise.

This sounds like the perfect opportunity to broaden their horizons. PV is fun and colorful. Even the Chow Poodle, who is a picky eater herself, will "suspend disbelief" when traveling in Mexico and eat things she would never try at home. Don't let them whine their way out of trying something new on their vacation.

stevez wrote:This sounds like the perfect opportunity to broaden their horizons. PV is fun and colorful. Even the Chow Poodle, who is a picky eater herself, will "suspend disbelief" when traveling in Mexico and eat things she would never try at home. Don't let them whine their way out of trying something new on their vacation.

I am totally with you and since we will be having a cook at the house prepare all of the kids meals I am sure we will get them to eat something. However, I am also a practical person and realize that I am not going to win fights with my 3 and 1 year old over what they are going to actually eat, as opposed to what they say they are going to eat. (trust me this is a big issue) At home they can either eat whats for dinner or a turkey sandwich but I know that pizza is the only absolute lock meal that they will eat every time without a fight. Since I am going to try enjoy my vacation too, i dont mind ordering them a pizza so that I can relax and, and more importantly, my wife wont freak out every ten seconds about whether they are eating enough.

I'm sorry, what was the precise distinction between pizza and a quesadilla again? What Dad calls it when he serves it?

Mike G wrote:I'm sorry, what was the precise distinction between pizza and a quesadilla again? What Dad calls it when he serves it?

In my house its tomato sauce, and more importantly, pepperoni

Take the kid's over to the Churro vendor near the Church, one block up from the Pharmacy. Still 10 for 10 Pesos. I saw a new building/Restaurant on B&B called (Wing something or other) so much for the old town look, it sticks out like a sore thumb..................Bill

I set my Son up for a Fishing trip last week in PV, he had a great time and came back with a few Dorado. We had some nice fillets so I cook some up that night with some roasted potatoes. It was the best $350.00 Mahi Mahi dinner I ever had, My wife enjoyed her 350.00 Mahi Mahi dinner also, but thought we could have flown to Hawaii for dinner for the same price..................Bill

Just returned from a week in Puerto Vallarta, my, and apparently many others, favorite Mexican destination.

We mostly ate out at lunch time as we were fortunate enough to have a cook preparing most of our dinners at the casa that we rented. My thoughts briefly:

Tino's: We tried the new Malecon location. Hands down the best overall meal that we had on our entire trip. In addition to the wonderful snapper preparation we tried the delicious ceviche and several shrimp dishes. The bill was shockingly cheap. The kids loved it too.

Trio: A bit of a dissapointment. It was asparagus month and much of the menu was asparagus themed which is fine. What we didnt enjoy was the heavy handed use of sauce on every dish we tried including a roasted beet salad that was swimming in a beet sauce. I was really looking forward to this place and it didn't deliver.

Cafe Des Artistes: As pretty a restaurant as they come. We were lucky enough to get a table in the garden. The food was all well prepared and artistically presented. Somehow this place just sort of misses on every dish. Several dishes were severely underseasoned and the quality of the proteins (not just the beef) was suprisingly poor for a restaurant charging american fine dining prices. The desserts were exquisite.

Daiquiri Dick's: This was a great place located on Muerto's beach that we had several lunches at with the kids and one casual dinner. The restaurant is owned by americans and the menu reflects this, lox and bagels for breakfast, a great club sandwich, etc. The mexican dishes were great as well including terrific shrimp and fish tacos and the signature pescado vallarta at dinner. I loved the atmosphere here. They have a great veranda on the beach for al fresco dining at lunch and dinner. I am not sure if it has been mentioned upthread, but we enjoyed this place a lot.

Memo's Pancake House: We have been hitting up memos forever for pancakes, waffles and eggs at breakfast and lunchtime. I happen to really enjoy the chillaquiles too. This is a great spot for large groups with kids. I didnt see any previous mention of memos upthread but it is a PV institution in the Romantic Zone.

Kaiser Wilhelm: Also in the Zona Romantica. Didn't have dinner here but we did stop in for dessert and coffee in their cafe. Teutonic pastries and about fifty different ice cream sundaes. Great people watching too.

Page in The Sun: A great little sidewalk cafe also in the Romantic Zone filled with people playing chess, reading and sipping lattes. Beats the schlep to Starbucks in the Centro for a coffee shop and obviously the atmosphere here is much better.

La Piazetta: The biggest dissapointment. Pizza was sloppily made and unexciting.

River Cafe: Another dissapointment. Great atmosphere, beautiful location and absolutely mediocre food. Maybe worth it for a drink and thats it.

All and all Puerto Vallarta is a dream. And i have to agree with one thing Silas Jayne mentioned upthread. Everything is so cheap that it felt free.

Couldn't agree more about Cafe Des Artistes. We got to sit in the garden this year (mostly because their business appears to be down like most of PV) and it is spectacular. The food, however, left much to be desired and their prices are ridiculously high. The wine list was truly ridiculous. I thought Le Leche was far superior.

Well, we just returned from a week in PV so I'll chime in, too since I can offer a slightly different venue. We stayed at the Westin which is north of the city. Our objective was sun, reading, food, beer, tequila. Not necessarily in that order. It's about a 15 minute taxi ride to the Malecon and about a 5 minute walk to the Marina. Here's our grub list.

Victor's. In the Marina. Sat down outside for lunch and was immediately brought a large basket of chips accompanied by queso fundido and freshly made salsa. Complimentary. I ordered a Pacifico and the wife requested a margarita. Drinks arrived with two shot glasses of Mezcal. The Mezcal was complimentary. Fish tacos were fresh and deep fried. Excellent. Followed by a "Kahlua" and coffee after lunch drink. Complimentary. Total for lunch was 120 pesos.

Mama Rosa's. In town just sort of above the Cafe des Artistes. Sounds Italian but it's not. Limited menu but the fish was fresh, the beef tender and the wine reasonably priced. Great view over the city.

Tikul. In the Marina. According the printed propaganda, this place is owned by the same people who own the Vista in town (which we never visited.) It's upscale with clean white table cloths. Really creative dishes, perfectly executed. Fantastic risotto. Decent wine list. Expensive.

Cafe des Artistes. I have to disagree with Jean's assessment. Our dinners were spectacular and on par with almost any place we've been except maybe the Doggie Diner on Armitage. I do agree that it's expensive and the wine list, especially, is ridiculous. But we didn't care, I was using Starwood Points for the hotel. Desserts were truly outrageous. And, we had Thierry's special label tequila anejo as an after dinner drink. Good stuff! In fact, so good we bought a bottle.

The Bistro Restaurant & Jazz. Stopped here for a drink after some power walking one afternoon. Ordered Bombay Sapphire martinis (with no Vermouth) and I saw them pour it out of the Bombay bottle. It bore as much resemblance to Bombay Sapphire as Mogen David would be confused with Willakenzie Pinot Noir. Not only did it taste bad, it was watered down, too. But, at least the martinis were expensive.

Victor's for dinner. The marina. Same program with comp chips but the freebie with our drinks was some sort of blanco tequila. Started with calamari which probably was fresh but too heavily breaded to tell. My mahi-mahi with garlic was perfect and included mashed taters and fresh veggies (not overdone!) The people at the next table had caught the proverbial $350 fish that day and had Victor cook it. There was a lot and they insisted that we take a couple of filets which were outstanding. Victor himself is a real character and visits the tables making everyone feel as if they were his old friends. He "bought" us an after dinner tequila and had one himself. I then asked if he was familiar with resilla and his eyes lit up, he disappeared and reappeared a few minutes later with shots of this Mexican moonshine that he said his uncle makes at home. It tasted like naptha and was probably at least 200 proof because I don't remember the walk back to the hotel.

La Paloma. The marina. Our most forgettable dinner. Not terrible. Not memorable.

Los Chilaquiles. Great breakfast sitting outside overlooking the malecon. I recommend the eggs with taters and chorizo and the huevos rancheros.

Dante's. The marina. Italian. The gnocchi was pretty darn good but not great. My whole snapper was excelletn. Wine list was pretty reasonable. The jazz band was terrific.

Hit a couple of street carts in the Zona Romantica and had wonderful smoked marlin and ceviche tostadas. Also grilled mahi-mahi on a stick. We only had one "lunch" at the bar at the beach at the Westin and the smoked marlin burrito was wonderful.

Hi
I am new to this site. There is a old post from 2004 from STEVEZ that is wonderful.
I am looking for more current info though. Please share where you like to get street food in Puerto Vallarta. We go in Dec. for one week. We are staying at the Playa Los Arcos.

JETSETJ wrote:Hi
I am new to this site. There is a old post from 2004 from STEVEZ that is wonderful.
I am looking for more current info though. Please share where you like to get street food in Puerto Vallarta. We go in Dec. for one week. We are staying at the Playa Los Arcos.

Playa Los Arcos is in the old section or PV - Zona Romantica - and there are tons of street food options nearby. And if you go to the fourth page of this post, there are many street food suggestions for that area that will serve you well. Have a great trip.

Just wanted to say this is an excellent thread! im headed to PV in 3 weeks. So much great info in here! Thanks.

Heading back to PV for the 15th time tomorrow... any new places that have opened since last Jan? I'll report back any new findings, interesting dishes, etc.

In PV now. this thread is spot on. Going to check Tinos soon.

Went to Teatro Limon last night. Maybe the best dining experience i have ever had. Dont miss this place!

We just returned from another fabulous New Years week in PV. We stayed in the same condo but there were a few additions to the neighborhood, just south of the Rio Cuale in the area called Zona Romantica. On the corner a restaurant/bakery opened called French Riviera. We didn't try the restaurant but the bakery has a French baker making wonderful pastries, croissants, and truffles. A block away is a gourmet food center called Mercato, including a wine shop, butcher/deli, and produce market. On the Malecon, where it meets the Rio Cuale, a new Italian place opened up serving great thin crust pizza. It's called Pinocchio. The owner is from Venice. We didn't try any of their other food but I suspect it's pretty tasty.

Our first night we returned to Tino's, which is as good as ever. I still love their snapper sarandeado. Our second night I'm sending great kudos to Gypsy Boy for recommending Cueto's. The seafood was spectacular and the family owners couldn't be nicer. Prices are great and they charged us a few dollars for corkage. We had snapper and those large shrimp mojo de ajo. Great ceviche. Don't remember what else but it was all good. Our next night was Cafe des Artistes, which we loved last year. This year, I thought a couple dishes worked well, others not so good. They charge a high corkage. If we return next year, we would try La Leche, which looked excellent, for our gourmet meal. Thursday we had a driver take us to Sayulita, which is a charming artist colony kind of town. Lunch on the beach was very good at Don Pedros. We stopped at the Four Seasons Punta Mita on the way back for a cocktail. It's a beautiful setting but too isolated and expensive for my tastes. Dinner that night was at Pietro's, whose pizza we enjoyed last year but has gone downhill. New Years Eve was a good lunch at Hacienda San Angel, an upscale Relais & Chateau B&B overlooking the town. We went out fishing on New Years day. We only caught 2 small fish but the whale watching was incredible, with 3 pods of whales surrounding our boat within 50 yards at 1 point. Incredible. Our lunch the next day was actually with the captain at a local place owned by friends of his called Rio Grande. It's about 2 blocks from Tino's. They served amazing crab tacos, shrimp ceviche, and snapper sarandeado a bit better than Tino's. A great catch(no pun intended). Our last meal out was breakfast at Cafe Olla. Lana liked her omelet Olla with shrimp and I thoroughly enjoyed chilaquiles.