Today as my dad and I were driving around, he wanted to stop and get a beer or anything cold to drink, so we stopped at La Tapatia.
Hello, again. My dad and I, and sometimes my mom comes along too, have been going out on the town to find some of the best hole in the wall, off the beaten path cheap eats restaurants that we can find. We go out almost every day, finding some new little place to tell you about and review the food and prices.
Today my dad and I went to town, and as we were driving back I said I was hungry. Though since it was so hot, my dad wasn’t’ hungry, and after he mentioned it I realized I wasn’t very hungry either. But I still wanted a little something, and because it was so hot, something cold to drink was definitely in order. So as we were driving we named off places we hadn’t been to before, and all of them seemed to heavy, or too light, or just not what I was craving. But the thing was, I didn’t even know what I was craving.
Anyways, after a while we just stopped at La Tapatia, since they have pretty good cantaritos that my dad likes and a pretty good variety of food for a finicky appetite on a hot day. It is located on Calle Antonio J. Hernandez in colonia Primero De Mayo. The longitude latitude location is 20.630248894821875, -105.21558917604405. They also do delivery to all of Puerto Vallarta, starting at 35 pesos, in case if you don’t feel like driving all the way up there.
La Tapatia, as I said before, serves a good variety of food, but what they’re most known for and proud of is their cantaritos and carne en su jugo. Carne en su jugo comes in a small and a large size, but either one has lots of tender meat and meat broth, which is just pure meat flavor that is really good and rich, but not greasy. I doubt that one person could eat the large one though, as it’s almost a liter of thick, filling meat and its broth.
The cantaritos come in ceramic glasses, and hey have half liter and liter sizes. Each liter has 4 or more ounces of tequila in it, as well as a can of squirt and a mixture of orange, tangerine, lime, and grapefruit juice, which is freshly squeezed each morning. And if you are ready to party, they have huge ceramic cups, which are used as more of a pitcher, that hold 5 liters, 10 liters, 20 liters, and 25 liters. The 5 liter size cantarito is made with about ¾ of a bottle of tequila in it, and the biggest gets 5 liters of tequila!!
But, other than cantaritos and jugo en su carne they also serve Mexican entrees, seafood, and a little bit of American cuisine. Some of these items include aquachiles, ajillo mushrooms, shrimp tacos, chicharon fish, arachera, ceviche, and T-bone steak. There's also a happy hour on Friday and Saturday 4:00 pm-10:00 pm, which is 2x1 margaritas.
As I said earlier in this article, my dad wasn’t hungry, so he just had a cantarito… or two. But I got the shrimp tacos. When I saw them I was really surprised, since it had two giant shrimp in them and a mountain of coleslaw. I picked one up, and I spent an uncomfortable amount of time looking at how to bite into this huge thing, and I’m not exaggerating that at all. My dad started laughing at me, so I decided to take a bite wherever. The shrimps were slightly overcooked, but were really yummy. They were super soft and had a strong shrimp flavor, without being too fishy. They were also very clean and obviously deveined, as some places don’t devein their shrimp. The coleslaw was a classic American coleslaw, made up of white and purple cole, and had a super sweet flavor. Also, the tacos had black and white sesame seeds sprinkled on top, which, even though they were subtle, added a nice little bit of nutty flavor and additional richness.
The place isn’t very small, as others are. In fact it’s pretty large. There are many tables in there, with lots of room between them, and especially since the walls are painted many different colors, it’s gives the illusion of a really big room. The painter of the building asked how much color, and the owner answered yes. It is so colorful and fun and friendly in there, especially with how nice the servers and workers are. After everyone had gone and it was just me and my dad left, they insisted my dad choose the music, and he picked Scorpions. Then they put a big Mexican hat on me, as they said it was a tradition of the house, and took a picture of me in front of their large mural. Also, on Sunday evenings La Tapatia has live Mariachi music, which sounds really fun!!
If you enjoyed this article, and would like to recommend a place that you know about, then please let me know. Or, if you are an owner yourself of a place that you would like to see written about, contact me.
And to see the rest of my food reviews go here