Restaurant review: Tours provide a local's guide to delicious dining in Puerto Vallarta
Credit to Author: Mia Stainsby| Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2020 19:00:24 +0000
I’ve said it before: When travelling, I love to go on food tours for insider scoops on where to eat, and often they’re outside the tourist orbit.
Luis, tour guide of Versalles at Versalles Food Tour. Mia Stainsby photo.
On a recent trip to Puerto Vallarta in the state of Jalisco, Mexico — home to many Canadian snowbirds — I did a couple of tours with Vallarta Food Tours — a walk and eat tour in the Versalles neighbourhood; and a tour by van that took us to some restaurants in the non-touristy suburb of Pitillal.
Versalles is an up and coming but still raw neighbourhood filled with great food — rents are cheap and modernizing young chefs are finding affordable bliss there.
“Restaurants and hospitals. Those are the main things going on here,” our guide Luis said of the neighbourhood. I don’t know if I’d walk there at night but you’re only an Uber away from getting back to your hotel.
Octopus dish at Abulon Antojeria del Mar. Mia Stainsby photo.
At Abulon Antojeria del Mar (Hamburgo 137) with its treed outdoor seating, Luis introduced us to raicilla, a local spirit distilled like tequila and mescal from the agave plant; it’s smokier and more herbaceous than either. Made in a clay oven, it was a moonshine until it was legalized, and now it’s a best-kept secret. “Breathe out when you sip it and don’t breathe in when you’re tasting it because the alcohol expands and burns,” Luis warned. Oh, and the shrimp tacos with al pastor sauce, roasted pineapple and avocado mousse was about the best I’ve had. We eagerly returned to this place for dinner a few days later.
Prawn taco at Abulon Antojeria del Mar, Puerto Vallarta. Mia Stainsby photo.
Luis deemed Los Monos Bichis (Viena 209 B) the best place for seafood. We wolfed down tostadas with shrimp, marlin pate, octopus salad and downed a shrimp broth. “It’s a hangover cure,” said Luis. Funny, we were served a hangover cure in another restaurant on another tour. Did we look that wasted?
Onward to El Aguaje restaurant (Viena 253), a family operation with a brick wood-burning pit inside to cook skewered meats on long iron rods. While watching a woman slap around tortilla dough and grill them to order, we sipped horchata and munched on tacos with meats from the pit.
Luis enlightened the group on the origin of the word taco. Silver miners took tortillas for lunch into the mines and when rolled they resembled the explosive gunpowder charges they used, called tacos. Huh, didn’t know that!
Lamara restaurant. Mia Stainsby photo.
En route to Lamara (Hamburgo 108), also known for great seafood, Luis excitedly pointed mid-street: “Right there, right there, at night, there’s this lamb birrieria. They make it with spices, toasted sesame and spicy arbol sauce.” Birria, a Jalisco specialty, is a slow-braised stew. “The meat’s cooked for eight to 12 hours, then shredded onto a taco with some broth,” said Luis. “It’s heaven.”
We sat in a super casual area adjacent to the dining room which is always packed. We had tacos (tuna, avocado and pineapple) and taco chips with a tamarind and cranberry salsa.
Tacos at La Matona, Puerto Vallarta. Mia Stainsby photo.
La Matona (Hamburgo 1046) is best known for their gut-busting quesadillas. The name of the restaurant translates to thug or killer, a reference to the lethal size of the quesadilla. “When I had it, I was full for three days,” Luis said. We were rather full already so opted for the fresh and lively tacos which came with a multitude of salsas. At another table, a guy sat with three of the killer quesadillas. I have to believe family or friends were going to join him.
Making tacos at La Matona in Puerto Vallarta. Mia Stainsby photo.
To cap the afternoon, we stopped for some very good ice cream at La Nieveria (Francia 106).
• The Vallarta by Road tour took us further out to some restaurants in Pitillal, a suburb where the workers in the tourist industry live. “This isn’t a tourist area and you can buy groceries at a fraction of Walmart prices,” said Bernardo, our guide. Restaurants have bargain prices as well, and the ones we hit each had unique offerings.
Texcoco Barbacoa at Pitillal.
At Barbacoa Texcoco (Ecuador 14461) we had pit-cooked lamb in large tortilla shells. It was heated and assembled at a portable grill on the street.
We drove on to Tortas Ahogadas (Lisboa 128) known for the tortas in baguette. “It was started by accident,” said Bernardo. “The French baguette became popular, but it’s a bit different because of the altitude at which it’s made. It’s denser and gets a different texture.”
At Mariscos Pichis (Emiliano Zapata 365), Bernardo explained the owner had really wanted a dove as a kid but got a goat and Dove (pichis) became his forever nickname. The specialty here is a really fresh seafood tostada, and it was. And, again, a hangover cure made with a seafood broth.
The owners of Birria Robles el Lic (Hidalgo 200) raise their own goats and beef, and the restaurant is known for birria, the Jalisco stew.
Enchilada with mole sauces at Gaby’s Restaurant and Bar.
Gaby’s Restaurant and Bar, near downtown (Calle Mina 252), has a nice terrace and the food was bright and cleanly presented. “This place started selling food on the street level and now it’s a full restaurant and they give cooking classes,” said Bernardo. The highlight was an enchilada with a lovely mole.
We concluded the tour at an ice cream spot in town but, meh! Not worth mentioning when compared to La Nieveria in Versalles.
Not bad wouldn’t you say? We sampled specialties at a dozen places in two afternoons. Thankfully, the El Malecon ocean boardwalk in Puerto Vallarta offered hours of walking off the calories.
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