Tablehopping in Puerto Vallarta
It was early enough that the sun had not yet crested the mountains that slide into Conchas Chinas Bay at the south end of Puerto Vallarta.
A teenage boy pushed a yellow plastic kayak through rock outcroppings and dropped an anchor. Wearing goggles but no snorkel, he slipped into the water and disappeared. Thirty seconds later he surfaced, then raised a giant lobster that clawed the air above his head.
In surprisingly rudimentary fashion — a boy in a plastic boat — the culling of the day’s catch was on, part of the daily ritual to supply the increasingly sophisticated culinary scene of this Pacific Coast city.
That’s the dichotomy of Puerto Vallarta, which has become a grown-up city, for better and worse. You can see it in daily life, and you can especially see it in the food.
While you can buy a meal from families that still set up kitchen tables outside their homes in the Romantic district, a couple can also easily drop $150 on a gourmet meal at dozens of fancy restaurants. During a recent week of vacation, my wife and I did both.
At Mislamoya beach, where John Huston filmed “Night of the Iguana,” a teenaged boy cooked us delicious red snapper tacos over a stick fire.
The next day, at La Palapa on Muertos beach, the special was “Asian Kahlua tostados with avocado puree, pork and Huichol sauce foam with a ponzu and wasabi prune dressing.” We doubt it was cooked over sticks.
Rapid development of Banderas Bay has turned Puerto Vallarta into Mexico’s second-best city to eat, outside the capital. While the television-star chefs have yet to arrive, cooks trained at the fancy schools of the United States and Europe are everywhere.
Stewart Haverlack, a Pittsburgh native, moved here and opened the sleek modern Boca Bento restaurant in 2004. It’s one of several places that fuses Asian and Mexican cuisine into beautiful, complicated dishes.
“The place is exploding,” said Haverlack, who is so bullish on the scene he opened a second California cuisine restaurant, Cabana Club, in February. “I saw the money that was being poured in and knew I had to get down here.”
While we chatted five models burst into the restaurant and did an impromptu fashion show for a nearby boutique.
“Yep,” Haverlack said. “Puerto Vallarta is changing.”
There are more than 250 restaurants in Puerto Vallarta, so picking a half dozen of the best is almost impossible. I asked bus drivers and waiters, restaurateurs and police officers. And I polled three other reporters who have been there in the past year.
If you have a week in the city, you can’t go wrong with these picks:
Boca Bento
A local magazine named Boca Bento “Best New Restaurant in 2004,” and the beautiful Zen design is a great setting for the food. “Mu shu duck carnitas” with tomato ginger salsa on mandarin pancakes were succulent, like traditional pork carnitas, only juicer and richer. We shouldn’t have, but Haverlack insisted we finish with three shot glasses of creme brulee, one chocolate-chile, one ginger and one Kahlua (Basilio Badillo 180).
Barcelona
The little kids who stand outside have heard the question before and are ready with an answer: “Seventy-two steps.”
That’s how high you have to climb to reach the rooftop restaurant Barcelona. Here’s hoping you work up an appetite because you’ll find some of the best food in the city.
Bill Carballo, the owner and a Chicago native, has one of the more spectacular views around. At night, the lights of the bay spread in both directions, and if you linger long enough, your dessert will come with fireworks from the hokey pirate ship show in the distance.
We splurged for the six-course meal, which actually included about eight or nine tapas, supersized (think Solera portions times two). It was uniformly excellent, from the Spanish torta appetizer through courses that included shrimp bisque, serona ham with manchego cheese, bay scallops with chorizo and dates and angus beef skewers. It ended with profitterols and a shot of tequila cream. And lots of pirate pyrotechnics (Matamoros & 31 Octubre, downtown).
La Palapa
Reportedly the first restaurant on Los Muertos beach in 1957, La Palapa is a five-star restaurant where you can wear beach shoes. At the end of the bay where the surf pounds relentlessly, it’s a romantic, candle-lit experience with top-notch cuisine and nightly music, sometimes by restaurant owner Alberto Perez on jazz guitar.
I splurged on the lobster tail roasted with ponzu pepper oil, with cauliflower purée and Asian pear salad. My wife had mussels in a Chardonnay cream sauce. Both were fantastic (Pulpito 103).
Agave Grill
A nice surprise with gourmet nuevo Mexican food at moderate prices. Tucked behind La Casa de Tequila — a bar and tasting room with more than 250 tequilas — Agave had some of the most unique Mexican cuisine we had. The rehydrated ancho chile was stuffed with cream cheese studded with raisins, dates, and pistachios. It was so rich and sweet it almost tasted like dessert (Morelos 589).
Roberto’s
Here you’ll find fresh seafood, simply and consistently prepared in a casual, friendly space. Crisply grilled red snapper and steamed pompano are standouts. One friend swears of bliss created by their half-pound of small shrimp in garlic and butter (Basilio Badillo 283).
Cafe de la Olla
So absurdly popular it has to be mentioned. Long lines form in the evenings for traditional Mexican food that’s pretty good and cheap. Part of the draw may be the decidedly nontraditional twice-baked potatoes and grilling steaks just outside the door (Basilio Badillo 168).
Puerta Vallarta residents say you can get food every bit as good, and less expensive, by walking two or three blocks away from the beach in the old town.
That’s good advice in most any seaside tourist town.
