How good is it exploring new food options! Especially when you don’t speak the language so have to do a combo of guessing, relying on instinct and, well, a bit of internet work.
Jax and I had a super lazy trip to Puerto Vallarta, and no super lazy trip would be complete without over eating.
First up was a little hole in the wall fish taco place. No idea what it is called, no idea what our options were but we ended up with deliciousness. Which was much needed after a wandering around and our internet suggested places being closed. In good news, I finally have the locations on my pic so you’ve got a map to find your way there.
There’s a couple of benches out the front for you to sit in on and everything is made fresh to order. They do what looks like a giant prawn cocktail but we didn’t try them, next time.
Out on the beach, we hit this place up after a margarita/wine crawl. I love that they make my guacamole at the table. I know things like this should make me so happy, but they do 😂
We added to this some giant coconut prawns. I’m not sure why we didn’t think they’d be fried, but we didn’t. They were good, it’s just neither Jax nor I tend to order fried. The prawns were huge though!
We also managed super amazing creamy prawns. I’m not going to lie, prawns are a winner here (even though they call them shrimp). 
Street prawns
These are all over the place! They’re cheap as hell, just get them, I’m sure they are all good. I went for the prawns, Jax went for the fish. I can’t handle eating the shells of prawns so I made a HUGE mess, but it was worth it.
We could not go past this place! It had this amazing thing cooking on the grill that smelled amazing! Turns out it was a baked potato with the creamiest potato inside, not particularly Mexican 😂 We also grabbed the mushroom cheesy dish- basically melted cheese and mushrooms, can’t really go wrong. And of course, some delicious fresh salsa and some tamales. So much for not eating too much in 1 place! Turns out, as much as I really try, I am not a tamale person. I keep insisting on trying in every new place, but it never works for me.
Taco stands across the town
They are everywhere! And they are the best! We learnt that you want one that makes their own tortilla, and don’t be afraid to try them all- they all have different specialities
Taqueria de Moreno: chorizo & beans. Possibly my favourite
These guys: amazing! The chorizo was fantastic and so was the Al pastor. We went back to these guys a few times.
Taqueria la Homie: great for Al Pastor
Beach side ceviche
It’s a little guy that walks up and down the beach with an esky. Choices are prawns and fish. Not the best ceviche I’ve had but definitely sitting in the average category.
For when we needed a little vegetable! Turns out we weren’t getting too many of those and we were starting to miss them! Ignore the Mac n cheese, that is because we have absolutely no will power! Veggies were good and this was a nice chilled space with good cold wine. I also really loved the blue cutlery.
It didn’t matter what time of day we went past, this place always had a queue, so at the end of a night’s bar & taco crawl we just had to go in. We grabbed the usual suspects of guacamole, tacos & margaritas. Unfortunately, they were probably the most disappointing of all we tried. It’s not they they were bad, just that the street ones were so much tastier and cheaper. My advice: skip the queue and wander instead.
I’d read a great looking blog who featured this gorgeous garden meal at the Marriott. Now as you can see from most of my eating patterns I like nice hotel bars but I generally keep it pretty local for eating in foreign countries, so this was a bit unusual for me. BUT, it looked gorgeous in the blog. What the damn blog didn’t say was that it was for a special event! So we trekked all the way out there (ok in a taxi so not a complete hardship) and we had to speak to 5 Marriott staff and show the pictures until someone could tell us what was going on! Not happy! Here’s my tip to other blog writers- if you’re doing a special event, say it’s a special event!!
We ended up just eating from the restaurant on site, which had great views but was a mega disappointment. They had a serious bug problem and I think a bird landed in my food. Everything was just a bit beige, made for tourists who like to say they go to a foreign country but like the taste of home ie NOT me & Jax.
So my number 1 tip for dining in Puerto Vallarta: avoid anything with tourists in it and use your time here to eat in as many places as possible. You won’t regret it.
Jilltopia 