Vallarta Vegetarian Restaurant

Blvd. Agua Caliente 1252 Esq. Rio Yaqui - Tijuana
Across the street from the old bullring

I. The Setting

The small dining room at Vallarta is quite pleasant. Sunlight and freshness are brought to mind both from the uncovered windows looking out on Rio Yaqui, and the sun motif carried out throughout the restaurant. Various decorative suns adorn the walls and the wooden, glass-topped tables all have suns artfully carved on top. Of course, we were dining on a sunny day, I imagine an evening experience would be quite different. The restaurant is quite clean, the chairs are padded and comfortable and an unusual, Celtic-New Age music played softly in the background.

II. The Food and the Service

The food is wholesome and fresh. The soyburger was good, not at all oily nor tasting strictly of grains. It came on a large whole wheat bun with a handful of alfalfa sprouts and tomato. Prices for soyburgers ranged from 16 pesos for the plain soyburger with potatoes to 30 pesos for the soyburger with cheese, potatoes and spinach salad. At the exchange rate of 8.6 pesos to the dollar, the soyburger with potatoes was only $1.86 U.S. The full-sized spinach salad (20 pesos) was lovely, arranged on a plate with tomato slices carefully placed around the perimeter and sprinkled with seasme seeds and soy bacon bits. Dressing was served on the side and was most probably yogurt-based. In addition to numerous salads, including fruit salads, the menu offered three kinds of soup, pancakes enriched with wheat germ and served with fruit (25 pesos) and linguini (28 pesos). The house specialities included several vegetarian dishes, mostly mushroom based and served with rice. These ranged in price from 28 to 35 pesos. Our server was a woman, somewhat uncommon in Mexico. She was friendly and did not speak any English. Take your Spanish dictionary if you plan to eat here and do not speak Spanish.

III. Beverages

No alcoholic beverages, drinks with caffeine or carbonation are served, but there are numerous interesting fruit drinks and teas. All the fruit drinks are served in large, stemmed glasses. I tried the lassi - yogurt with barley, cinnamon and brown sugar (16 pesos) and found it quite tasty, though I was somewhat surprized that brown sugar was included in the drink. As is quite common in Mexico, the fruit jucies are freshly squeezed, no concentrate is used. Fresh orange, grapefruit or carrot juice are on the menu.(15 pesos).

Search for Restaurants

Copyright © Pat Fisher, 1998-02 Last Reviewed: 2 June 1998 email: pfisher@hungryhiker-tj.com