Puerta/Nuevo Vallarta?

Anyone been recently? Any can’t miss recommendations on restaurants? Will mostly be with the kiddies, but probably have one night out with the wife (thanks to my in-laws). Also, does anyone know what BYO policies are down there? Thanks in advance.

I don’t know about Puerta/Nuevo Vallarta, but I know about Cancun and Cabo, and imagine that the rules are the same/similar. I’ve traveled to Mexico each time with at least 4 bottles of wine, and only dined at a truly fine restaurant once. They had a ridiculous corkage fee of $50 or something, reduced it to $30, but since we got engaged that evening at the restaurant, they waived it - so the waiter received the corkage as his tip, of course!

It’s Mexico - EVERYTHING is negotiable, man. Work with the waiter, throw him an extra 10 bucks and I bet the corkage disappears, if there is one at all. We bring wine more for the room than for the restaurants, as most of the food in Mexico is (shockingly) Mexican, and doesn’t pair well with wine.

Cafe de Artiste (thanks Mr. Kramer for the rec)
BYO was no problem.

Great setting excellent food.

For other eats check out:
http://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/mainland-mexico-fishing-reports-discussion/84499-pv-resturaunts.html

I took this from my posts on E-Bob

PortoBello in the Marina, nice Italian watching big money yachts $16

Dauaqui Dicks on the beach, lobster tacos and fresh caught fish. $10

Xtomatoes, (Mobil 5*) lovely menu, fresh seafood $18

Treo’s (Mobil 5*) good cooking, $14

Barcelona, on a hill overlooking town and ocean, inexpensive but delicious Tapas …$10 but I went with the Sangria.

Cafe des Artists, three (5*) restaurants under one roof, sort of. The room to book in is the garden atrium which has to be one of the most exotic romantic restaurants in all of North America. Open to the skies in and among 60-80 foot jungle trees and vines and flowers and birds, always wonderful. $20, they will try to charge you $30 which is for champagne just tell them the price is $20

Hacienda San Angel is two years old. A lady from CA bought nine properties on this hilltop overlooking the city and had built a stunning 19 room B&B. The restaurant is gorgeous with its view and decor. Less exotic then the garden atrium at Café Des Artist but better food. The corkage was $20. When you go to use the bathroom walk around and see what this lady has accomplished.

I will be there for 3 weeks starting 1/29 and then back again with the whole clan in April
Have your concierge set up your reservations as all restaurants will let BYOB from $0-(Victor’s at the marina) to $20.
You can bring in 4/750’s per person entering Mexico.

When will you be there and are you in PV or NV?

You are going to the wrong part of Mexico. PV is tops and this I think is my 17th year, NV is my fourth year. PV is as much of an art town with a spectacular Malacon (boardwalk). NV is a created area like Cancun but with NONE of the tourist attitude BS.

We’ll be in NV at one of the Mayan resorts (Bliss i believe). I’m flying down this Saturday staying a week. We’ve been a number of times and I usually bring wine, but just for in the room. It’s a great spot but, since my younger son is 18 months, the trek into PV is a bit long, especially when there is traffic. We get into town and to the marina, but spend most of our town at or close to the resort, as its just easier with the little guys (and there is certainly plenty to do there).

Definitely spend the time if you are going to do one evening alone with the wife to spend it at Cafe de Artiste and have a table in the atrium as Ron suggested.

The Bliss is lovely as is the whole complex, we are at the Grand Mayan.
Have the fish tacos at the little ocean front restaurant.

Guys thanks for the advice. We wound up spending our kid free night at River Cafe which was very nice ($200 peso corkage), as several people, including my in-laws, seemed to think Cafe de Artistes had taken a step back recently. Meal was very nice and a great setting with a table on the river. For the record I heard Xi Tomatoes is no longer there.

Ron, are you down there now? We actually wound up at the Grand Mayan (forgot we had gone that route because the pools were better for kids, and we were able to get a 2 BR). The little cevicheria by the Grand Luxe Pool was very good.

Brian, I’ll be there Sat.(26th) at the Grand Mayan for three weeks, will you still be there. Is the burger place still there, super good.

Sadly, we are back in the NY/NJ area dealing with the 15 degree temps. Let me know if you are headed down next year around this time though, we usually try to sneak in a week near MLK day if we can, would love to share a bottle. The burger place is still there although they did raise prices a bit, and it is still excellent.

Is the pizza joint across the street from the malecon with the brick oven still in existence? It’s been ten years since we ate there, but it was a nice distraction for lunch.

Last year I took six bottles down in a 12-pack wine shipper. After Mexican customs X-rayed the box they made me open it. (It’s not like they publicize their 4-bottle limit in the U.S.). They scrutinized the bottles, probably looking for price tags (which I made certain to remove), and no doubt trying to figure out if anything was worth taxing. Working to my advantage – one of the wines was Italian but had a Spanish-sounding name, which seemed to confuse them. Finally, they just let me go. (Would you want to do the paperwork on two bottles worth of duty?)

The madness in the method? On the way back I loaded that shipper up with pricey tequila, some of it not available outside the town of Tequila itself! My favorite blanco comes in a fancy square bottle up here and sells for over $60. In Mexico it comes in a plain Bordeaux-style bottle, sells for $17-20, fits perfectly in a wine shipper and looks like wine on the X-ray. (No limit on checked wine on my airline, but 5 liters max on spirits over 24%.) The only “corkage” I paid was $20 each way for the “extra bag.”

All in all, a vin/win situation, with a dash of agave.

Pray tell the name of the tequilla as I am in NV now.

Well, I’m really partial to El Tesoro de Don Felipe, especially their blanco. Coincidentally, I agree with the conclusion of the late Bob Emmons, who wrote “The Book of Tequila,” that it’s the most authentic-tasting tequila out there. No oak, just the real agave nose and flavor. Plus, El Tesoro is one of the last large operations to still use old school production techniques. And Bdx-size bottles! My suggestion would be to start there.

D’Reyes makes some nice reposados, but it’s really hard to find them outside of Tequila. I literally had to track down the production facility to get the stuff. Señor Reyes told me that he also bottles his juice for Tequila Grillos and Porfidio. (Long story about Porfidio. The Porfidio owner ran afoul of the CRT a few years ago, and D’Reyes got caught up in it. Far as I know, it’s all good now.) Porfidio is widely available, but I’ve never seen a bottle of Grillos outside the D’Reyes warehouse. PV liquor outlets have had the best selections I’ve seen, so you’ll likely find it there.

Orgullo añejo from San Matias is another of my faves. Heck, I like all the San Matias reposados and añejos I’ve tried. (Goes with out saying, but for the record: If it doesn’t say 100% de Agave on the label, don’t buy it! It’s a mixto, i.e. crap, like Cuervo Gold. Artificial color for sure, and only 51% tequila. The rest is distilled cane sugars.)

There a killer version of Leyenda de Milagro called Romance that comes in a multi-chambered bottle. The 3 inner chambers are filled with 100% Blue Agave Select Barrel Reserve Anejo, aged 3 years. The outer chamber is filled with 100% Reposado aged 9 months in oak. Hand-blown crystal bottle. Extravagant, for sure, but sure to impress!

Lots more info on this excellent web site: http://www.tequila.net . You can chase down the NOM’s in a data base that will tell you which company makes what brands. ¡Andale, amigo! I’ll be there Friday!

Jef.
You will be exactly where Friday?

I’m 200km south, in Melaque. I was in transit all Friday…first off the plane in Manzanillo. Alas, it took half an hour for my “bags” to come out and another half hour to clear Customs. I didn’t fill out the line on the Customs form that asks if you have anything taxable. Naturally, the guy at the incoming x-ray machine noticed the bottles and called ahead. I had six bottles of red in the shipper, four of which were “mine” and two, as I explained to the Customs agent, “belong to my girlfriend. She put them in my box. Do I have to pay duty on those?” That seemed to make him happy enough to say, “No. See ya.”

I MUST correct my recommendation regarding El Tesoro! I am totally in sticker shock. In every store I’ve visited the prices are up at least 200 pesos, and in some cases double! Last year I paid about 220p for a 750 of blanco. This year it’s 448!!! Last year the reposado was in the 280-300 range, today it’s 527-568! I don’t what’s happened up there at Tapatio, but I’m not paying those precios, amigos. Heck, I can get 7 Leguas (the Mexican version of Patron) for 357p. (Patron, btw, is pushing 900-1000. Don’t pay gringo prices in Mexico. Patron is not that great.)

There are some deals floating around. If you’re near one of the Bodega stores, they occasionally get Don Roberto Reposado in a 1.75L for 99p. (Yeah, you read that right.) Some leftover holiday promo packs are still in the stores, too. That incudes a “200 Anos” box of 1L Pueblo Viejo Reposado with a 200ml mini of anejo for 179-198p. (P.Viejo is from San Matias, one of my faves.) Shop aggressively! Then drink!

Just returned from PV and NV.
Our best meal was at Treo for 16 years always in the top three, this year #1 for food.

just bumping this in case anyone has been recently. Headed down next week.