Café des Artistes — Restaurant in Jalisco

We went on a Friday evening, the restaurant was not very busy. The wait staff was curtious and nice. We did have to wait a few times for service, but they seemed to be a little disorganized. The service was not the issue, nor was the ambiance, which was AMAZING. The issue was the over hyped food. I've eaten at plenty of "high end restaurants". Some deserve the fan fair. Some like, Café des Artistes, are what I'd call "instagramable" restaurants. They are beautiful, with beautiful hosts, and are very well manicured, but when it come to the food, that's another story. First they brought a bread bowl to the table.. the selections in the bread bowl were very good. I ate a few diffrent pieces. I did not know this was going to be one of the highlights of dinner. If i had, when our waiter asked us if we wanted more I would have said yes. Next our appetizers came. I albacore tartar is what I had. The fish was fresh, the ingredients were too. It was placed on a Himalayan salt plank. Which it didn't need to be. It just made the dish way salter then it need to be. I also had the prawn pumpkin soup. It was ok. For it to be a 32 plus year old tradition I was expecting more. The other people at my table had a tomatoe salad,,, ok. A fra grau plate that one of my companions said was good. Our main courses arrived. I had the Cornish hen. The breast was cooked to perfection and was tasty. The leg thigh was undercooked and still had a little blood coming from it. The two purees, one egg plant and the other, not sure, were at best baby food. My companion had the tuna. She stated that the tuna was fresh but not impressive. My other companions thought their food was decent. We then had dessert. This with the bread were the saving graces of the entire meal. We had the fondant de cajeta. It was AMAZING. The cake was freshly baked to order. The carmel was a confectionery delight. The banana ice cream was just the perfect amount of sweet. The whip cream was smooth, creamy, and not sweat at all to balance out the dish. If I was giving my honest opinion. If you are going for the ambiance, or to impress some one, then this is your place. If you are going for an ok meal. That's what you will get. If you are going for food that will blow you away, I would suggest one of the many local restaurants own by amazing chef's and cooks who put more love into the food then just...

This is my second time to this gorgeous restaurant and it did not disappoint. Recently renovated, the inside look of the place far exceeds what it used to look like. We sat next to this beautiful window, with the garden and fountain outside. It was my boyfriend's 40th birthday and they did an AMAZING job of celebrating him from the moment we sat down and the host put confetti on the table. Love this touch.

We had Leonel and Luis for our servers and both of them were outstanding. Friendly, attentive, and knowledgable. They also had a musician playing who played Suman a birthday song.

We both got the tasting menu and I got the wine pairing as well. Here's the run down.

1. Amuse bouche with raw tuna - the sauce was outstanding, the tuna - I've had better but it was OK.
2. Tomato fantasy au chintextle pepper - DELICIOUS. A+ Several types of tomatoes in a delicious sauce. This was actually my favorite dish because it was just so unexpectedly good.
3. Morels with fresh truffle ravioli - A+ again!
4. Roasted Sea Bass with beurre blanc and chipotle - Hitting it out of the park at this point!!
5. Roasted pork belly with citrus, spices, and brussel sprouts - Another 5 stars.
6. Foie gras creme brulee - Yup, they're on a roll here.
7. Habanero chilli with passion fruit mousse - Nailed it. Could have been a smidge more with the chilli but delicous.

And the best thing I have ever SEEN for a birthday dessert was this incredible dessert plate they brought Suman with a gift made out of sugar. WOW. WOW. WOW.

The wine pairings were also impeccable. One thing I do wish for restaurants everywhere - I wish they asked up front which wines you don't like...because I would tell every restaurant that I don't like any dessert wine, ever. It typically doesn't much matter because at this point, as around this time I'm typically hitting my limit...so there's that.

I think cuisine in Puerto Vallarta doesn't get the RESPECT it deserves in haute cuisine. I waited 20 years to eat at Le Bernardin in NYC with its MIchelin stars and was wholly unimpressed both by the food but ESPECIALLY the terrible service. Here is one of my favorite meals of all time, but folks don't typically think of this place for high cuisine. Simply put, that's a mistake. BIG mistake.

5 BIG STARS....

If you are a wealthy tourist who has severe acid reflux and is very weary of anything with seasoning, spice, citrus or acid, than this is the place for you.

First off, the positives. It’s one of the most beautiful restaurants I’ve ever been to. The service was fantastic, the ambience was incredible, and the musicians were lovely. The cocktails and wine were lovely as well. Everyone who works here did a fantastic job, my gripe is with the CHEF.

Everything was entirely all for show. The courses looked beautiful, but the food was astonishingly bland. And outrageously expensive, and mind you, I am from downtown Manhattan. So that’s saying something.

My husband and I both got the tasting menu, each of us getting alternate courses so we were able to try all 12 courses.

Of what we had, we both noticed how most of the courses had an unseasoned puréed root vegetable with butter masquerading as some kind of sauce. Basically, pretty baby food for wealthy geriatrics. And peas were used multiple times, that brought no real flavor to the dishes. The absence of acid, citrus, or any kind of interesting seasoning was all too apparent in every dish. (Except for the foie Gras crème brûlée. The chef really needs to stick to exclusively French dishes, because he doesn’t seem to know anything about authentic Mexican cuisine. This was a fantastic stand-out.)

But what really upset me was a course I received that looked like a beautiful piece of bone marrow. I was so excited to dig in, only to find that it had been a completely cleaned piece of bone, reminiscent of something that has been through the dishwasher, filled with a gross mayonnaise potato salad, and the most disgusting lump of completely unseasoned grainy fat dolloped on top of it. Now, I am someone who adores properly rendered fat, but this made me spit it out, it was absolutely inedible. The texture was gag-worthy, and had the flavor of construction spackle.

Come here for the looks, live music, and ambiance, but not for the food.

Another observation, why no...