New Vallarta Taqueria & Mexican Seafood — Restaurant in Louisville

This place causes a dilemma for me and it's not right, fair or just. Let me lay it out for you: I adore authentic, non americanized Mexican food. I'm also whiter than a flour sack, but I grew up in a place (Southern California) where I could get and appreciate this genre of food, and whenever I find a place around here that dares to not conform to the crowd that thinks places like el nopal are "authentic" it gets popular and some people around here don't appreciate the delicious authentic food and cause a dilemma for the restaurant, either "americanize" the food to cater to the new crowd, or risk negative reviews based on the misconception of the typical area customers. Most have conformed, or gone out of business, meaning the search for great authentic Mexican food must begin again.

See my problem now? I knew this place had potential when I walked in and saw a Mariachi band playing to an audience of families enjoying amazing looking meals together. I'm also quite sure that I was the only person who didn't speak fluid Spanish, though that did not cause a problem in getting what I wanted. I saw many great seafood dishes, things I hadn't seen in a long time. I ended up ordering a standby dish, chili verde, because it is almost always on mexican food menus, and it almost always isn't very good because to make it correctly take a lot more effort than an American Mexican food place will do. Done correctly though, (meaning the green chile sauce is prepared freshly in house, and the meat is slow simmered for hours in the sauce rather than thrown in at the last minute before serving, etc.) this dish is succulent, comforting, a little spicy and satisfying. New Vallarta nailed it, it was everything I'd hoped for! I'll be coming back frequently, and I can't wait to try other interesting menu items now that I know the cooking is legit! The service was also fantastic, which is important. Please don't...

The food is good. Really good. The only issue is 2 out of 3 times I was there for lunch and SPECIFICALLY ordered the lunch fajitas, I was charged full dinner price. Ten bucks vs fifteen is a big difference, especially for lunch. Add tip into that and the apparent inability to resolve and I have chosen to go somewhere else. It's too expensive and it's exasperating. I understand there can be a language barrier, but after the first instance, I made sure to point specifically to the lunch section each time. It made no difference. I'm not going to argue, I'm just not going to deal...

Really carefully prepared, and consistently crafted food is served in this humble former fast food location. My take out tacos lenguas were served with little cups of both salsa verde and an unknown to me but smoky brownish sauce that proved to be a star attraction on the tacos. Their excellent take on guacamole has some punch to it. As an English speaker we had difficulty with the phone order over loud music. The in house experience was better and a slight order mixup was cheerfully corrected. These things are addictive! I go back occasionally...