Mariscos El Vallartazo #3 — Restaurant in Joliet

This restaurant serves the cheapest bottom feeding seafood available, ie: shrimp, clams, mussels. There are NO crab, lobster etc

We came here on a Sunday during brunch time, it was pretty slow. I’d heard they have live bands and the vibe is usually electric and upbeat….not after Chirch in a Sunday tho.

I’d never heard of this restaurant and I didn’t look it up ahead of time - my mistake. There is only seafood here. The smell of seafood/shrimp hits you right in the face as soon as you walk in, I couldn’t tell if this was good or bad at that time. But….

The menu is very….different. Bc it’s all seafood and red sauce. Everything is shrimp or it’s shrimp or mussels or clams or more mussels and red sauce. There is no chicken, no pork, no beef. One salmon dish existed, which I considered, but I didn’t want a huge meal, so I went with the 4 pack of “shrimp tacos” which were actually taquitos, which I wasn’t expecting, but they were good, 3/5 stars. Tacos are not rolled up and fried, taquitos are though.

The waitress initially greeted our party and started off with a drink order, I got a marg. The marg was good, so I finished it before my meal came out. The server never asked if I’d like another, if I wanted water, in fact after our meals were delivered, we didn’t see the waitress again, I thought she’d gotten busy behind me (my back was to the bar) so I didn’t concern myself with it, no big deal. Until I got up to use the restroom and looked over at the bar…..there were no customers there. At all. Our waitress was standing there with another waitress talking/whispering quietly. She had been there the whole time. Standing there staring, like waiting for us to leave or something, it was so strange.

Definitely not returning. With the vibe I described along with the masses of seafood here couple with the smell as soon as I walked in, I feel lucky I didn’t get sick.

Even tho the food wasn’t fantastic, I absolutely would’ve spent another $30 on margs had our waitress been attentive.

Oh and we had Spanish and English speaking people at our table. But maybe it was just me bc I was the only white person at the...

Worst experience in a Mexican restaurant ever! I get it... you have to drive to the other side of Joliet to get Mexican seafood, but this was inedible! I ordered the whole snapper and my bf ordered the salmon. His dish came out in 2 minutes. Precooked, bland and room temperature. My dish, what I've ordered for years in dozens of Mexican restaurants, came out 15 minutes later, as he was just about done, overcooked to the extreme! Black in spots, no edible flesh. It must have been cooked and recooked at least twice. A friend arrived as my fish arrived. She is a chef at a local restaurant. I stuck my fork in and she asked... did you order it like that? I could not see any flesh left just 3/4 inch of dried jerky on all sides. She said you have to send that back. I laughed... told her to touch it... it was not even warm. Huachinango a ajo always comes out sizzling hot. It was gross. They said that's how they make it. I didn't eat. This place got good reviews in the first month but now everyone I mentioned this to said it's gross now. And, to top it off, they don't have chips or beans or a SINGLE option for those who do not eat fish. They give you a pack of tostada shells with room temperature ceviche. Not even a decent salsa. Dangerous practices and unconscionable service. Hopefully they will be gone soon and a good...

The food itself is excellent. The prices are really high, though.

And the atmosphere leaves much to be desired. Loud mariachi is fine, but the singer with no mariachi was louder than loud, so good luck even hearing your waitress at all. I ate the wrong dish she brought me, and it was delicious, but she couldn’t hear me speak to her because of the noise. El Pulpo isn’t even that loud.

Lastly, the biggest turn off that gave me the ick are the drunk vendors slurring their words and lingering at your shoulder after you say no thanks. They bother people at their tables selling insanely overpriced useless junk that no one wants. “Hey, do you want these 2 $2 Aldi roses for $20?”

2 individual roses for $20 dollars is brazenly insane price gouging. Get out of here. I could buy a whole bouquet for that.

Sir, here is $5 for you to go away, sir. And he literally would not go away, and every table was like dude go away. It was uncomfortable.

It just ruined the desired relaxed experience on a Friday night that you want good food and not to be bothered. You can’t enjoy at all because the speaker is too loud, you don’t get the right dish because the poor wait staff can’t hear you, and you are being harassed by obnoxious drunk vendors.

It’s a no for me. The food it not THAT good for the price and all of the cons. El Pulpo...