Puerto Vallarta

This restaurant used to be pretty decent, but the past couple times we have eaten here have been disappointing. Service is painfully slow, and food quality has sharply declined. The last time we were there I received a pollo en mole that was bitter and extremely overcooked (the sauce is supposed to be sweet, and cubed chicken should never be tough and brittle on the edges), with rice and beans that were cold and dry. Our table received several dishes of tortillas that were much thicker/​doughy than they should be, plus stale and dried out, and they informed us that they had run out and were making more which we could have IF we requested. All of the food was mediocre at best and skimpy for the price — large plates with a thin smear of food to cover the bottom — barely. And the mixed drinks were extremely weak and watered down. Do not recommend, and we will no longer be going there.

Let me preface this by saying that I really want to like this place. Not many options to choose from in Yelm, and this place has made the best ceviche than the other two «Mexican» places. I put that in quotes because the three restaurants I know of are basically Tex-​Mex. If you slather it in cheese and sauce suddenly it is Mexican. Regardless, the other locations use tiny shrimp and a red sauce. This is not ceviche. Ceviche is fish or shrimp cooked in lime juice and if made correctly, it is delicious.
Yesterday we went to Puerto Vallarta for a late lunch and early dinner. We’ve been here numerous times in the span of 2 years and sadly, it seems as if service continues to decline. We’ve given it the benefit of the doubt and then some. Too many disappointing things this time. I don’t think we’ll return.
We arrived at 3:15 or so, and it took a while to get drinks. The bar area had maybe 4 tables total. We said we were waiting for another person, and when he arrived around 3:40, it was a solid 5 minutes before he was asked about a drink, and that was after he flagged down the server. It was another 15 before we decided to approach someone about ordering. There was one bartender and a server who appeared to be working, but kept disappearing for long periods of time. We had placed the menus in a pile, figuring it might catch a server’s eye, but it didn’t work.
We eventually were able to order at 4:00. We were keeping tabs on the clock because we had a 5p movie and at this point we thought the service might not result in food in time. We ordered 5 meals, none of which should have taken 25 minutes to arrive. They did. Twenty five minutes later 3 of the 5 meals arrived. One was a plate of stone cold taquitos. These things take a minute or two in the fryer to cook, they shouldn’t have been cold unless they were made early and sat in the window for a while. The two missing plates were brought out 5 minutes later, but were wrong. The server apologized and took the back to be corrected. They came out a few minutes later. They were still missing one item, but we figured it wasn’t worth the hassle to try and get it corrected.
It is now 4:35, and we’re digging in. I bit into something hard. Ceviche should not have anything hard in it. I took it out of my mouth and it looked like a tiny piece of gravel or slate rock. It was dark gray and hard. I showed it to my boyfriend, who also thought it was a rock, rolled it around in his hand and in doing so, he dropped it. I wasn’t going to get on the ground and try to find it because I worked in restaurants throughout college and those floors are not clean. You’re lucky if they are vacuumed on a regular basis, much less cleaned.
I lost my appetite, and called it a day on my food. We notified the server, who thought it could have been a part of the avocado pit. Now I’m Mexican and have one or two avocados in my fridge at any given time. In all my years of cooking, I have never had an avocado pit look like that, but without evidence, we didn’t push it.
This place makes me wonder if it is constantly understaffed. When the bartender and server disappeared for 10+ minutes, we joked that they must also be cooking. I would not be surprised if they were pulling double duty. The bartender was apologetic, and comp’d the ceviche and one of the incorrect plates.
I really wish that this place were better. It is one of the few places in town that you can get a drink, some food and watch games.

If Patti isnt working here, this place isn’t worth coming here. She livens up the spot and makes the spot on recommendations! Been here with out her there and it’s been dull. Food is decent.

Have been disappointed my last 2 visits, the food was awful, cold and dry. Avoid the steak! Tasted like it had sat in the freezer for 2 months. Giving 2 stars because the drinks were decent and our waitress was great.

Went there for dinner and a couple of beers sat down and some woman had a dog at table next to us didnt know dogs are alowed at the table in a place were food is served verry bad service

Usually a loud restaurant but the food is great.
And service is good too! I do have to say that this is 2^nd on my list for Mexican food.

I am new to yelm and this place made me feel right at home! Loved the food and service.

Margaritas are great! Service is friendly. Ambiance is warm. Chips and salsa are decent. Plates are huge. Food is edible for Yelm. Need a verse sauce.

Service is slow as molasses. Décor is nicer from street. Food is salty. Tacos were soggy. Mild salsa tasted like tomato soup. Definitely won’t be back. Bees were swarming all over the outside. Couldn’t eat in peace.

Amazing chips and salsa! Great food and huge menu! Service is good indoors. Best Mexican food in Yelm hands down

Table is sticky, the margarita I ordered was watered down and small. My husband ordered a virgin margarita and it came in a water cup. The menus feel like they have never been wiped down. There are dead files in our windowsill. We will never be back.

Decent Mexican food at a decent price. Unfortunately, my husband and I just moved from New Mexico to the Pacific Northwest so we are harsh critics about Mexican food, especially coming from where we lived in southern NM near the chile capital. I ordered steak and chicken fajitas and my husband ordered the fajita salad. The service was ok, our server seemed to be a little distracted by everything going on around him. I read on the menu that they offered wheat flour tortillas so I made sure to request those as I ordered my fajitas. As I was in the middle of asking for wheat flour, the server cut me off and said, «tortillas, yes, you’ll get tortillas,» and walked off. I let it go, and continued my dinner date with my husband.
We received chips and salsa while we waited. The salsa was very bland but the chips seemed very fresh. I wish I could say the same thing about my tortillas the food came out very hot and as the meat was a very dark red color (the menu said they use their own marinade mix, so ok, I’ll try it). Unfortunately the red was so dark and the chicken so overcooked, I couldn’t tell the difference between the steak and chicken at all! The marinade they used had a strange sweet aftertaste I’m not familiar with, possibly cinnamon? The tortillas can better be described as warm crackers and they were definitely NOT wheat flour like I had asked. I would’ve brought it up to our servers attention, unfortunately he never came back to our table. We finished our meal, I left the cracker/​tortillas alone, and waited for the check. Another server whom was serving the table behind us was the one who brought our check (didn’t see our server again till we were walking out of the restaurant and he said, «Have a nice day». Very strange. Overall, we may go back since it’s close to our home but will be checking out other Mexican restaurants for better food and experience.

Had the taco bar for lunch, was really good with fresh tortillas. The chicken was good. I had a undercooked taco salad bowl that’s why a 4 star. Will be back

I love this place. Homemade tortillas, there own salsa, and the cheese dip will have you stuffed before you even get your entrée, but it is worth it. My husband took me here once before we got married for a date and I refuse to o to any other Mexican Restaurant. So anytime I’m craving some Mexican food or one of my friends are I take them here and they all love it. I have one’s that are closer to my house but I don’t know how there quality of food is when compared to this one. I’ll be going to this restaurant for the rest of the time I’m located in Washington.

We went here for lunch and had a couple concerns, overall it was just OK.
The plates were burning hot but the food was room temperature. The lunch buffet was scary. The food looked old and there were flies buzzing around. The one is Lacey is much nicer and worth the drive.

So overpriced. We all got burritos. $ 19 for a burrito and $ 21 for the one we requested just cheese on the top… Think I will save my $ for when I visit Texas, down there it’s authentic and affordable. Stingy with their tortillas ta boot!

We come often and have racked up a decent amount of points on their member system. The Tortillas are amazing! We enjoy their fajita burrito and many of their other dishes like the tamale. They should stay open later in the bar though seeing how they are one of the only places in town. Good day drink specials and atmosphere. Kind waiters!

I wouldn’t come here again. Stopped on the way back to Olympia from visiting Mt. Rainier. We were hungry! At least the food was served fairly quickly and was hot. But the quality of the food leaves SO much to be desired.
The beans were literally disgusting and GRAY. Horrible. The rice was so so, but not much of it. Since when do you not get a LOT of mexican food? The two enchiladas I had did have some pretty nice chicken in them, but you pay extra for anything but ground beef. The red sauce seemed to have had better days, like maybe a week ago? Do they recycle all of their food? I saw the ground beef on my friend’s tamale. Gross. You pay extra for sour cream, even more extra for guacamole. Extra for this, for that. I hate upsells. Just charge a dollar more for the meal and include the «extras»! The beer was cold, but how do you screw up beer? By the glass being dirty!
Our table was not clean and never cleaned up at all. We had to ask for silverware, and they never refilled our water, we had to ask for a drink menu, had to ask twice for the bill. And finally they messed up our bill, which I’ve seen from other reviews happens a lot! If you are going to mess up the bill, maybe mess it up the other way and have it be cheaper than more expensive than it should have been, but then that wouldn’t benefit the restaurant now would it? The other Puerto vallartas in the chain are much much better!

I use to come to this restaurant all the time just left there and was possibly the worst Mexican food I’ve ever eaten and terrible service food was microwaved found carrots and celery in a burrito greasy as all hell and no flavor at all I will not recommend this restaurant to anyone and for service tables were dirty we didn’t get menus right away we had to borrow one from the 2 guys sitting next to us plus they never came by to see if we liked our food I had to walk it up and never had a refill on our beverage just a complete waste of time

A regular here!
Cadillac margaritas are the best!
Karaōke is fun! Family atmosphere.
Waiters/​waitresses remember you and what you get normally!
Homemade tortillas. Mini tacos are delicious! Plenty of chips and salsa to start you off with they top you off until food comes!
I’ve had the steak fajitas, chicken fajitas, vegetarian nachos, bacon wrapped prawns, favorite is carne asada tacos, and also carne asada is good too! Moist and cooked just right!
Plenty of tv choices to choose from, pull tabs, beer buckets, well I could go on and on!
They also have a card for points to earn rewards — yep!