About the biggest decision we made everyday was where to eat dinner (or sometimes lunch), so this “best of” list is decidedly one-sided. Two and 1/2 weeks anywhere is limiting and obviously is not all-inclusive. Most of our jaunts also were within the confines of El Centro and the Zona Romantica. With those caveats, here goes:
Best Sunset View: Casa Isabel. High on the hill on the south side of PV, just off the main north-south highway. Alta had spotted Casa Isabel earlier during one of our walks. Mexican, U.S. and Canadian flags hang from the open-sided, palapa-covered bar overlooking the bay. We went there with our new Canadian friends Wayne and Carol for a cocktail party by the local ex-pat community (bulletin board
Best Tacos: Café de Olla in the Zona Romantica. The chicken tacos are simple but flavorful. We also liked the grilled Dorada (mahi-mahi) and the grilled papas (potatoes). This place is popular just about any evening but they do take reservations.
Best Fish & Chips: No place can compare with Joe Jack’s Fish Shack. They use Red Snapper for the fish. Go there on a Friday afternoon when it is all-you-can-eat fish and chips and the mojitos are 2-for-1 until 5 or 6 p.m.
Best Walk: It would be impossible to say anything but the Malecon along the bay. It stretches from La Rosita Hotel (the oldest existing hotel in PV) on the north side of El Centro to south of the pier at Playa de Los Muertos. In Zona Romantica it is lined by restaurants; north of the river there are shops and then you walk along the beach with El Centro’s bars, restaurants and shops on the east. Check out the sand sculptures on the beach, as well as the bronze sculptures (photo) on the Malecon itself.
Best Chicken Soup: The Cuates y Cuetes (C&C) bar and restaurant right by the pier in the Zona Romantica. You can get it to-go or eat there, with or without rice. Lots of flavor and “good for you” taste. Costs just 100 pesos (less than $10 at the time) for two monster portions served with toasted bread. The Cuates y Cuetes (loosely translated as “friends and drunks”) bar also has entertainment some nights (jazz the night we were there).
Best Hamburguesa: Picnic café on Olas Altas in the Zona Romantica. It has a small balcony that overlooks the street, as well as an open-air patio. They have a sign out front that says “best hamburgers in Puerto Vallarta” and we believed them.
Best Vegetarian food: The Planeta Vegetariano in El Centro. We were told they were rated one of the best vegetarian restaurants in the world by Gourmet Magazine. Lots of salads and deep-fried veggies using bean-flour batter.
Best B&B: Casa Andrea, where we stayed. We liked it mostly for the people we met there and the ensuing conversations, but also for the location and tranquility. See the earlier post.
Biggest Disappointment: Walking to see Casa Kimberly, where Liz Taylor stayed during her tryst with Richard Burton during the filming of Night of the Iguana. It’s a semi-interesting walk uphill to the house, which is vacant, barred, empty and deteriorating. The curved stone walkway is still there, going to the house where Richard stayed, but that house was being demolished when we were there. There are several nice-looking second homes in the area, known as Gringo Gulch, overlooking the Rio Cuale.
