Ernesto's Good Grub — Restaurant in Jalisco

The food was bad and the service was worse.

I was told by people that I had to go to Ernesto's for the all you can eat ribs, so I stopped in today at about 5pm.

I'm writing this review only three and a half hours after eating at Ernesto's because my stomach has been churning, bubbling, and twisting without settling down after the ribs and vegetables.

I stood at the unmanned host desk and noticed a pile of menus on a table, so I picked one up to see what was available. An older woman wearing glasses came over and put down a menu on the pile of menus where I'd taken on. She didn't greet me or welcome me. She just told me that I already have the menu so I can sit wherever I care to. She immediately walked away, I tried to engage her asking, if there were any specials, she said they have what's in the menu, I asked again if there were any specials today - specials del dia - and she said they have all you can eat ribs. She seemed completely uninterested in me being in the restaurant and at the same time was not occupied with any other customers.

I immediately felt unwelcome, but I thought, maybe this is just the host and they're having a bad day and someone else will wait on my table.

I chose a table and said I would like the ribs. She asked me what I wanted to drink. After asking what waters there were available, she said they have Agua de Jamaica. So I said I'd take that, 1L, please and she had walked 3 meters away before I'd finished speaking. She spoke from across the room, while still walking away, that they don't have 1L , just big and small. So I loudly said grande as she was already into the kitchen by then.

The Jamaica water came in a Carafe, maybe like a half liter or a little more. 50 pesos for about half a liter. It was delicious although some might find it sweet.

The tomatoes in the pico de gallo salsa tasted bitter, not fresh.

Since no one had stopped by the table, I got up to ask where I could wash my hands and the woman just pointed like I was bothering her. Every interact with this woman made me feel less comfortable to be there...

After 15 minutes or so, the ribs arrived. Ribs could be ordered with french fries or vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, mashed potatoes, and some green squash veggie which I think was either gourde squash or chayote). The vegetables were prepared in margarine, not butter.

My first impression of the ribs was that there was a lot of them and they smelled tart and vinegary like a browning sauce. Definitely not sweet or smokey BBQ Ribs, not that I was expecting bbq ribs. The rib sauce seems to be nearly pure "salsa inglesa" which is the Mexican equivalent of Worcestershire sauce. It even has a pungent aroma of vinegar, so I'm not sure if there was vinegar as well.

So I finished the ribs, the meat fell off the bone with some work, the meat itself was a bit chewy, I wonder if Saturday night ribs are the leftovers from Thursday night ribs. In any case, there are much better places to eat ribs in Vallarta.

After finishing my first plate of ribs and vegetables, I had no desire to ask for a second plate during the all you can eat special. The flavor of the salsa on the ribs killed my desire to have any more.

I asked for my check, which came to 400 pesos for the water + ribs special. I paid with 500 pesos and the staff (not the woman) asked me if I wanted my change. I said, yes, of course.

Overall, the service had been poor, no one asked if I wanted a refill of water during my entire 30-40 minutes in the restaurant after my initial order of ribs and water. The woman did ask if I wanted dessert at the end of the meal.

The positive thing I will say about Ernesto's All you can eat Ribs is that the portion was large. The quality of the service and the food was definitely dwarfed by the portions.

I will never be back to this restaurant. This place is not a hidden gem or secret top restaurant for me. I felt unwelcome and the food was...

Honestly, I would not go back. It pains me to leave a bad review... this place was highly recommended to me so I did have some expectations of quality, but that bias does not affect this feedback. We arrived, grabbed some menus we saw on a pedestal, waited for a bit then walked in to ask if they were in service. we got a dismissive yes, and sat ourselves at a table. The complimentary chips and salsa were brought out, but the chips were too hard to chew easily. My son ordered a Naranjada that he didn't like (that's a hard drink to mess up) and I ordered a beer that I had to ask for twice and a guacamole that never arrived. My son ordered the Orange Chicken which he was unable to finish because the texture of the chicken was like dense gelatin. I confirmed this with a bite myself... the flavor was decent. I ordered the Shrimp Burrita which came with fries. At first glance the fries were covered with curly fibers. I assume they used a rag of some kind to degrease them after removing them from the fryer, but every fry was "hairy" and unappetizing. The burrito was tasty but very juicy with fillings that caused the tortilla to fall apart and the dipping sauce was a bit fermented. Service overall was unpleasant, she seemed annoyed or burned out perhaps. someone else delivered the bill when we asked for it then did not even offer change. I wasn't going to leave a tip, but didn't feel like arguing for my change. just wanted to leave at that point...

hope we don't get...

Dreadful tourist trap. Not 1 star bc no rats, etc.

I ordered a margarita the moment I sat down. When it turned out to be made from some kind of sub mediocre bottled margarita mix, I decided I should cut my losses rather than trying to cherry pick something decent from the limited, boring menu.

So I had a (stupendously overpriced) tortilla soup for dinner. That confirmed my instinct to avoid the food here. It was nothing but bottled tomato juice, warmed up and poured over strips of tortilla. No fresh lime, no cilantro, etc.

Avoid this place completely - you can get excellent versions of the same dishes for a fraction of the price a block in one direction or another.

By contrast this is by far the worst food I’ve had in PV, where even the major ripoff tourist traps on the beach have had tasty food. JUST SAY NO ERNESTO!

(In future, I’ll be sure to avoid any restos that don’t have positive reviews in Spanish. I shudder to think what the “resort food” another Anglo reviewer escaped by eating here could have tasted like. Uuugghh!...