Vallarta Restaurant — Restaurant in Temple Terrace

If I can give this place less than 1 star, I would give them no star. I went to the location in 56th Street and the food was honestly questionable. My friend ordered the stuffed peppers, which was supposed to have 3 Peppers stuffed with cheese, when she got it, it had barely any pieces of pepper and it was practically ALL cheese. A $9 meal of cheese. Are you kidding me?! My boyfriend ordered the enchilada del Barrio and he was not satisfied either. They put some kind of sauce on it that he did not like and he was concerned because it didn't say on the menu that it came with that sauce. I ordered the burrito vallarta. The menu said it was a burrito stuffed with shrimp smothered in Verde sauce and a side of rice. The sauce was much spicier than I was expecting, which is ok, but what wasn't ok was that they put some kind of cheese on it. I had no idea what kind of cheese it was, but it was not good, at all. The only good thing was the chips and salsa they give you when you first sit down. I lived in Arizona for the majority of my life and my boyfriend spent almost his entire life there. We lived 30 minutes from the Mexican border and neither one of us had EVER had Mexican food like this. This place is NOT authentic. They have some kind of twist on the Mexican food, but for the worse, not the better. I dont know how this place has been in business for 21 years. My suggestion, skip this restaurant and go to a better one, like the one on Fletcher Avenue or the one across the bridge of the Hillsborough River. Authentic Mexican food is MUCH MUCH better than this. Trust me. DON'T GO...

I ordered take out and was just overall disappointed with the service, I was charged more than what’s listed on the website, or even what they’re charging doordash customers. And when I just asked they brushed it off that it’s an old menu online... then I grabbed a Togo menu and showed him that it was still listed lower on the menus in the restaurant and he just kind of shrugged his shoulders. My food came out cold, and not to what I ordered. When I asked if I was missing a full menu item, I was given a lot of attitude and told that the lettuce with some guac on it was my other item... I don’t even eat guac and I was expecting a tortilla with a little meat inside. Regardless, I just expect a human to human service when I was coming here, but was just approached by defensive employees that were just ready to leave their shift for the night. Overall the beef taco was extremely bland and i had to just throw away the “other menu item” because it wasn’t anything I’d ever order. The quesadilla was the only saving grace I guess.. but I definitely won’t be going back to pay $20 for a mini quesadilla with one taco and some cold...

Extremely disappointed in our experience today. We are not strangers to Vallartas'. We used to go to the one in Wesley Chapel all the time.

We went to this one for lunch today just after 1pm. The gentleman serving, bartending, etc was fair enough, but way over extended. If there had been about 3 tables less he probably would have done just fine. We never got anymore chips, never got a drink refill until we had been out a while, and he brought extra napkins when we were almost finished.

The food came out just like warm. Nowhere near hot. I don't know if it set in the back too long or if it was not kept warm in the kitchen. Either way, I wasn't impressed.

Made a visit to the bathroom. The tube lights were going out so I felt like I was going to have a seizure from the light flickering. It was fairly clean, but did NOT smell nice. I suppose, if it's an old building, it may not be their fault.

When we went to pay, I guess the credit card machine is attached to the phone line because he either felt like his conversation was more important or he just waited until he was off to finish.

I probably won't return...