189 Best Restaurants in Mexico

The famous roasted duck with an apple-based stuffing, mashed potatoes, and a baked apple bathed in blueberry sauce has made Specia a wildly popular destination, but the refined Polish restaurant with 1920s-inspired Jazz Age artwork serves a number of other tasty dishes, too. Consider the lamb goulash, seasoned with paprika and tomato, or the slow-grilled rabbit loin with cabbage and beets. Service is attentive and the pace of a meal here is leisurely.

This Italian restaurant stands out for its elegance, excellent service, extraordinary steaks, and noteworthy pizzas and cocktails. There's a great brunch on weekends and live music every night.

Menu highlights at this beautifully designed, upscale restaurant include tuna steak in a black-pepper crust and Angus beef served with rosemary potatoes. A glass wall separates the formal indoor dining room from the less-formal patio seating area, which is surrounded by lush vegetation that helps you forget that you are on a bustling avenue. Although steaks are the specialty, you'll also find plenty of delicious tapas and salads, and the starters alone make Trotter's worth visiting—try the octopus carpaccio or foie gras.

A more casual iteration of its Puerto Vallarta location, Tuna Blanca faces the water at the north end of Playa El Anclote. Portions are petite, but the five-course tasting menu is still quite filling. Representative courses include a delicious beet-and-goat-cheese appetizer; spinach salad with poached pear and Gorgonzola cheese; salmon carpaccio with lemony scallops tartare; a deliciously tender short rib with pineapple chutney; and, for dessert, vanilla ice cream with mango foam. The soundtrack is sexy Brazilian and jazz, the waitstaff is attentive, and the views are divine. From the deck you'll have the best views of the ocean, Marietas Islands, and the left arm of Banderas Bay.  

This funky café, where expats and locals congregate, serves up smoothies, baked goods, tacos, homemade ice cream, and everything in between. The breakfast menu spans acai bowls, eggs Benedict, pancakes, and fruit plates, and for lunch and dinner you'll find blackened fish tacos, coconut shrimp, burgers, and vegetable wraps. Set back from the little plaza, the colorful garden is a pleasant place to have a coffee, and its location by the ecological center makes it the closest thing Akumal has to a downtown. If you fall in love with a local stray, the owner will help you get the paperwork to take your new pet home. The restaurant is open until 10 pm and has free Wi-Fi. This is the only place in town where happy-hour specials include food. Stop by between 4 and 6 pm any day of the week for pizza, taco, and drink specials.

Though it's tucked away in Boca del Río, this open-air eatery is one of city's most popular seafood restaurants. Specialties include mussels, grouper, crab claws, and octopus prepared as you wish. For those who relish spicy food, the ostiones enchilpayados (in cream and chipotle chili) are a cut above the rest.

Popular bands play Thursday through Sunday from 3 to 7, so you may need a reservation on those days.

When chefs Bernhard Güth and Ulf Henriksson, of Trio, needed a challenge, they cooked up this delightful (and quite intimate) seaside bistro. The decor of the open, casual venue is as fresh as the food. It's a nice place for breakfast overlooking the malecón.

You'll find the best views at a series of open-air patios under a huge palapa roof at Le Kliff, south of PV.