Campomar Puerto Vallarta — Restaurant in Jalisco

Extremely displeased with so many aspects of our visit. In fact, I don't think I have ever been more unhappy with a restaurant experience. First, though it was a very nice/fancy looking restaurant, they for some reason thought it was appropriate to be blaring obnoxious dance music non-stop, as though it was a nightclub. It was impossible to have a conversation with my dinner companion or to effectively communicate with the servers. Next, there was some table bread and antipasto which we were enjoying, except the waiters were hovering around taking plates from us every other minute which was very disruptive, and they even took the antipasto away before we were finished, without asking if we were done. Next, I ordered a shrimp ceviche to start. The waiter told me "it's raw", to which i responded that I've had ceviche before so I know it is not cooked by heat but rather cooked by the acid in the lime juice. The waiter didn't say anything more and left. When my ceviche arrived, it was actually completely and utterly blue-raw. I have had many ceviche in many different places and never have I been served it actually RAW. Perhaps if the music hadn't been BLARING, the waiter and I could have understood each other better. Anyway, there were lime wedges on the table, so I squirted it over the shrimp to hasten the cooking process. I then sat there for 20 minutes with the uneaten ceviche in front of me, waiting for it to cook, while our servers walked by numerous times, not once asking if there was a problem with the dish or why I was not eating it. I shoved it aside when my main course arrived. The waiter went to grab the plate to take it away, again not asking if i was done or if there was a problem or why I had not had a single bite. I stopped him and explained the situation, though I am not sure he understood. I asked for a to-go container, saying I would have it later, once the lime had cooked it. As for the main, it was "ok"..not terrible but not delicious. The music continued to blare and I began to get a headache. I decided rather than just leaving without saying something, I would talk to a manager to let them know my experience. The manager seemed to listen, then said "I'm sorry, one moment please..." and walked away. I thought he was going off to see about doing something to make amends, perhaps give a discount to our bill, or even just talk with the servers to clarify something and then come back and finish our discussion...but he simply never came back! At that point, I went from displeased/annoyed to LIVID. The server eventually over with the bill, and my friend insisted on paying just to get me out of there. I asked the server where was the manager I was talking to and was he coming back. The server just looked around sort of confused and seemed like he had no idea what was going on. I just wanted to get out of there at that point and be away from the god-awful blaring music and the whole terrible experience, so I gave up and we left. Will definitely NEVER be back, and will tell our friends and family to avoid this place...

I guess you could get good food and service here if you are a local and part of the "click", but that did not happen for me.

First we tried the small marlin dish they put on your table, it was fishy tasting, not really super fresh, and not really delicious.

Second, our server was fluent in english, but he was maybe the boss to this "click" that I was speaking of. He wasn't a manager, just a waiter.

We saw an order of Shrimp Aguachile Tostadas being delivered to another table, we ask the waiter about that dish, he told us exactly what it was, and we said we want one order. He repeated "One order", I said yes, and pointed to the same dish, repeated Shrimp Aguachile Tostada. What came out was a different dish, the Shrimp Aguachile (no tostada). The price difference between the Tostada and the regular order is $200 Pesos. He tried to pass it off as my mistake, saying I said "One Order", which when the interaction happened, we were all clear as I pointed out the dish and stated "Tostada". I stood firm that we actually ordered the Tostada, he was physically upset, you could see it on his face, but he did take it away and they brought out the corrected Tostada.

The Aguachile Tostada was the only really good food that came out. Somehow they used more fresh shrimp with the aguachile than they did with the coconut shrimp, which were overcooked and not fresh. We tried the Zarandeado style Grilled Octopus, it was covered in some roasted pepper mayo that overpowered the entire dish and the octopus was on the edge of freshness, the pictures on the menu do not show any mayo, I guess they tried to cover up that it wasn't fresh.

After the Aguachile incident, we couldn't get our waiter to come back to our table. He stood at another table, his back to us, talking to them for 40 minutes, all while we asked everyone that passed our table that we were ready for our check, and everyone we asked said we had to wait for our waiter, they were physically afraid to ask this guy, while he stood at this other table just talking. I finally got the manager, but he too was afraid to interrupt our waiter. This guy must have been cartel connected. I've never experienced something like that in my life.

Finally got the check, paid in cash, not leaving a tip due to super poor service, and...

I was looking forward to dinner with family as my husband had visited this restaurant before and said it was really nice. Unfortunately, this experience was lacking a lot from a service standpoint.

Our first red flag was that because we were a larger party (14), the hostess said she couldn’t even give us an estimate of how long it would be for a table. Nothing. 20 minutes later I checked in and she said she still couldn’t give an estimate. That it could be 10, 20, 30 minutes still.

We did get sat about 15 minutes later. We got water right away, but then it was another 15 minutes before we started flagging down a server to get a drink order. By the time he took our drink order, he ended up going around and just getting our food order as well.

Next red flag was how they served the drinks. They had no idea whose drink went to who. So each server who came with a drink tried shouting (in the loud, busy restaurant) the drinks do it could go to the right person. Not efficient, not good service. And, after all the drinks were served, I still didn’t have mine. I asked the server for follow up and he ended up bringing two bottles for me to offer - both were red and I had ordered a white. Good thing one he brought me was pretty good!

Next red flag was when ordering my child’s burger we confirmed several times that she wanted it plain - just the bun and meat. It came with mayo and another sauce on it. And it came almost last. We asked for it to be remade - which was a mistake because it took almost 30 minutes to remake. A burger!

Also, my husband’s food was so late he just cancelled it. They still tried to bring it 10 minutes later.

Any food they did bring they also had to shout out the food name so someone in our table of 14 could claim it. So weird!

My husband spoke with the server and explained all the issues we have had. The server offered a free dessert. No thanks.

My husband then spoke with the captain and he offered for us to return sometime. We don’t live here, so that didn’t make sense.

Maybe they were having an off night, but it seemed that they just didn’t have some of the basics down to provide even mediocre service. Good thing the food was so good or it would have been a...