Café des Artistes

One word: amazing! Our visit on March 15 was our first time here — our son, who visited some time ago, highly recommended it. It was my birthday and the restaurant had emailed us earlier to inquire if this was a special occasion.
The restaurant is a mix of architectural delights, whimsical decorations and a superb kitchen. Apparently, there is also an Art Gallery associated with it which unfortunately, we missed. Clearly this is an establishment that does care about its customers and strives for excellence.
We ordered the «Early Bird» special for M$ 440 each, which was an outstanding value. My wife started with the Prawn and Pumpkin soup followed by the Roasted Sea Bass Filet and for dessert choose the Crème Brulee.
I took the Catch of the Day Tiradito and then also the Roasted Sea Bass Filet followed by Raspberries, strawberries and sorbet pistachio cream meringue mille feuille, all of which was delicious!
The only mishap occurred when we did not get the Cabernet Sauvignon we ordered but instead a Malbec (we did not realize this at first) which turned out to be fine and less expensive.
As an aside, sometime half way through the dinner the bread basket was replaced even though we had hardly made a dent in the first one — a sign of attention by the restaurant.
Lastly, we were very pleasantly surprised when a roaring «Happy Birthday» parade of employees sang at our table accompanied by a lovely presentation of sweets on a mirror tray with «Happy Birthday written on it in chocolate and a small fire works candle illuminating all of it. I should also mention that our table was inventively and tastefully covered in small birthday stickers — clearly, someone was thinking, intending to make guests feel special.
We will be back and highly recommend this lovely place.

Definitely a solid 4 star experience. This is the special occasion place in Puerto Vallarta and it lives up to the expectation. Food is very good but excellent across the board. Pumpkin soup is 5 stars for sure. Filet mignon is also exemplary. Presentation is exquisite. Service is excellent. Eat it the garden if you can.

Best experience!!! Food is amazing, excellent service if you want to visit one of the best restaurant in Mexico this is the place!!!

A very special atmosphere. Go outside in the patio if you don’t need air conditioning. The rib eye steak special was spectacular. The service was wonderful. My wife had the shrimp-​it was great. Only order the «flower pot» desert unless there are four of you! Jorge and Daniel were great servers.

After reading many reviews from people suggesting this place, I decided to make a reservation for 6 through open table since I didn’t get a confirmation email from booking through their website.
I would recommend making reservation before 730pm to catch the early bird special which is a 3 course meal for 440 pesos ($ 26 USD). That is an awesome price for fine dining and they also don’t skimp on the portion sizes! The menu on their website was different from the actual menu that we got to choose from so I wouldn’t rely heavily on the early bird menu posted on their website. If you are celebrating a special occasion such as a birthday or anniversary then make sure to notate that on the reservation because they will bring a beautiful dessert tray out for you and also ask to be seated in the garden area.
Food wise everything was amazing. Would definitely recommend the RISOTTO AI FUNGHI, CONFIT SUCKLING PIG AND BROILED BAY SCALLOP TACO, SHORT RIB AND BEEF PETALS DUO, MILK CARAMEL CRÉME BRULÉE and there was another steak dish but I can’t remember the name.
We’ve been drinking Ceilo Rojo (similar to michelada) all week long and paid 50 pesos at margarita grill so we were surprised that at a fancy place like this, they were only charging 61 pesos ($ 3.59 USD) for this drink. If we ever come back to Puerto Vallarta, this is definitely a place that we would revisit. They accept Visa so if your credit card does not charge foreign exchange fee then it is best to charge the bill to credit card so then you’ll get the best exchange rate. For my trip, the exchange rate was 18.16 pesos/​1 USD through my credit card.

A quick poignant review. I was expecting this to be the crème de la crème experience in PV and they delivered on atmosphere but the food didn’t quite have the flavor going for it. Slightly bland though I had the best dish at the table with the short rib. We were there for a bday celebration and they made us feel special. The music was a disappointment as it couldn’t be heard very well as the musicians traveled all over the large restaurant but we’re not amplified so you are sitting in this beautiful fantasy garden with no soundtrack to really complete the experience. They almost nail it and I would recommend going and seating yourself in the garden. Wish the food and music lived up to the atmosphere. Overall it was a special birthday event and would recommend for special occasion situations but there is better food to be had elsewhere. Top marks for atmosphere in PV.

First of all what a beautiful restaurant. Inside, it is upscale and modern whereas outside, it is lush and elegant. Luis, our server, was prompt, helpful, and friendly. They gave us a complementary appetizer AND dessert — how sweet! This is a nice place for something more fancy in PV. Would certainly recommend for a romantic date or special occasion.

Honestly, I’ve never had a meal that compares with what I ate tonight at Café de Artistes. Perfect place for a special birthday celebration– which was why we were there. We started with the cheese platter which was divine, then an arugula salad followed by an entrée of Lobster tail. Topped off by a layered chocolate and lemon cream dessert. The wait staff were extremely attentive and helpful, and everything was so well done. Great courtyard seating, and it’s just 2 blocks in from the malecon. The prices were surprisingly reasonable. We will certainly be back and recommend to friends.

I wanted to take my girlfriend to a special restaurant and someone mentioned that I had to try Cafedesartistes. From the moment we stepped into the restaurant we were well taken care of. While we waited for our table, we were given a welcome drink. Then once seated, our 2 waiters, Enrique and Lois was very accommodating and suggested we both try a different 5 course meal since everything looked so good on the menu.
With each course you would get a wine pairing and everything we had was amazing and the presentation was very impressive.
The atmosphere is very romantic and they have a violinist that goes around playing at different tables.
Everything was great and then the waiters surprised my girlfriend with a happy birthday platter on a mirror with candles. She was very overwhelmed with the experiences and far exceeded what we expected.
Definitely hands down the best food, service, wine and atmosphere to make the night very special. Worth every penny and then some!

Refined, elegant dining in Puerto Vallarta. Great atmosphere, both inside and outside in the garden/​rooftop area.

Excellent! I had been coming here from the last 10 years! It is delicious as always! Great experience, great music!

Went there for our four year anniversary and had an amazing experience. Felt like this would be four dollar signs back in the states. Fabulous wine selection, very generous cheese portions on the tray, temperature on the steak was perfect. Would definitely recommend sitting outside as it was beautiful!

Dining at Café des Artistes is no ordinary restaurant experience. They excel in every aspect from their gorgeous setting whether dining indoors, in their picturesque garden or lounging after your meal at their piano bar, a menu full of memorable dishes, customer service that pays attention to every last detail, extraordinary talented pianist/​violinist duo who can pretty much play anything, and beautiful food presentation. It truly is one of the most special, classy restaurants in the world at half the cost of what such a restaurant would be in the US. You can’t really go wrong with anything on the menu as all the appetizers and desserts I sampled were mouthwatering delicious. Although, my favorite of the main courses was the short rib and beef petal duo. Make sure to try their cheese rolls included in their assortment of breads given to each table!

Very beautiful place and the service and staff were excellent. Had a few issues but they more than made up for it. Will be back!

Went with several friends during PV restaurant festival with Nick Vanderbeeken of Bali as guest chef.
The restaurant is set off the beaten path on a hillside over south end of town. Atmosphere is very nice, although the live music selections might not fit everyone’s taste. The service was prompt and attentive.
We started with 4 appetizers– cerviche which was different with white onion and tomato, a scallop and pork taco which was a tasty combination, soft shell crab salad which was my favorite (reg menu item), pumpkin soup (served hot out of a large pumpkin!) which was simple but good (also regular menu) .
We also brought 2 bottles of wine and were told the new restaurant policy is that you must buy a bottle to open a bottle. We bought a bottle of white montrachet so that we could open the 2005 araujo that we brought with us. Had to take our 2^nd bottle home. We found the pricing to be high– example: a shot of gran patron was 100 dollars! We settled for the Don Julio 1942 at 42 pesos a shot.
Bread service was good, especially the stuffed buns.
For main courses a friend and I both had the Nick’s duck prep which was very good, and another had Nick’s pork belly which he found excellent. The 4^th member of our party had Nick’s 5 course tasting menu which he found very good, although they were indeed small tastes.
Dessert was the mocha ice cream parfait with expresso which was excellent. Ordered a capp. With it and it was also very good.
Overall a very good meal, but deduct a few points for over pricing of the wine and spirits.

This restaurant was an amazing once in a lifetime experience. So beautiful, and the food was outstanding. I had the foie gras, it was the size of a filet mignon. A generous serving, and so rich and decadent, the pumpkin soup is delicious, and the entrée, the sea bass came with a delicious sauce. For desert we had the flower pot, which was so good, and they brought us macaroons for our coffee! The live musicians and lights in the trees outside made it really magical. Definitely eat here.

This review is for about three different visits in the last few years. I missed it this year but was missing PV and looking at Unilocal reviews and these guys deserve a great review.
This is a 5 star restaurant with 2 – 3 star prices depending on the exchange rate, today its probably like 2 star prices @ 17 to 1 on the dollar pesos rates.
The poor Canadians are getting killed with their dollar and they don’t deserve it, they have a great economy with not as much debit, but the Canadian economy is now tied to oil, I’m so old, I remember when it was tied to lumber!
But I digress a lot! Café Des Artistes is a great restaurant and it is extra great in the summer with no crowds and air conditioning!
The chef here is very creative with incredible presentations and great tasting food.

One of the fanciest restaurants in Puerto Vallarta. My friends and I came here to celebrate a bachelorette party. I love Latin flavors and seafood. Café Des Artistes combines both elegantly and each dish is prepared delicately and precisely.
I ordered the MARINATED BROILED OCTOPUS as my entrée: christophine, spinach and mushrooms gratin, sauce of beans, crunchy buitlacoche. The octopus was incredibly tender. The skin was a bit elasticky, but you can just cut that part off. Paired very well with the mushrooms.
I would highly recommend Café Des Artistes for a nice night out on the town for the following reasons:
Beautiful ambiance
Superb Service
Excellent Food
Excellent food and service. The bill came out to be $ 150 for 4 people after tax and tip. 4 entrees and 4 drinks. A steal compared to fine dining in the America.

My partner and I unfortunately did not have a good experience here despite high expectations. We had planned to go on the advice of friends, but we were happy when we arrived to hear that they were offering a fixed menu special.
That is where we apparently fell out of grace with the service staff. Upon politely ordering the special, the waiter tsk’d us under his breath. Similarly, he was displeased with our desire to stick with mix drinks rather than wine.
We immediately noticed we were being rushed through our meal and were not attended to for drinks or inquiries on the food. While other tables received attention, we had to flag down servers constantly (it wasn’t rammed). We asked four times for the bill.
As you can see in my review history, I’m a laid back positive reviewer. We were sad this restaurant didn’t like us!

After several disappointing meals at «top» PV restaurants (La Palapa, Hacienda San Angel), we came across this gem.
I made the reservation for my husband’s birthday only 2 days prior (other plans fell through), and you would think that we had made it a year in advance. The staff was so gracious in greeting us with complimentary champagne and decorated table in the exquisite garden seating area! Just lovely.
My reviews always come down to service as a differentiator and they delivered! Just remarkable in their attention– not too much, but just enough. The special (again complimentary) sparkling dessert capped that all off.
Now the food– every bite was delicious. We began with the complimentary amuse bouche– a Mexican take on brushetta– small, hot, fresh and delicious with tomatoes and spices on a small homemade tortilla. Next, the salad, although simple, had a delicious lime dressing and bits of fresh pear. For our main course, we both chose mahi mahi– perfectly cooked with thin, slightly crispy slices of potatoes on top. Perfectly seasoned. Clean plate club here.
Somewhat expensive, but that included a bottle of Prosecco, so I take that into account. If you go to one «nice» restaurant in PV, make this it!

What a wonderful place… the attention to detail is apparent from start to finish. The gorgeous décor carries itself through the room of the interior spaces and the courtyard is a romantic hideaway that you won’t want to leave. The service was top notch and the food is flavorful, creative and nicely presented. I would have a hard time imagining you could find a better restaurant in puerto Vallarta. It is on the pricey side but very worth it.

Café Des Artistes is a WONDERFUL RESTAURANT and possibly might be the best one that Puerto Vallarta has to offer and certainly will be perfect for any special occasion.
Not only the food and service but the atmosphere is also over the top and my pictures don’t capture the whole picture.
I’ve been here several times and to me the food is a fresh mix of modern cooking techniques mixed with a little Mexican and a little French Style Farm Fresh Foods.
They started us off with an assortment of fresh baked breads and a trio of butters. Then a tasty Amuse Bouche comes our way.
Normally we just order off the menu but this time decided to try the tasting menu so we had FIVE really terrific courses that followed. Everything was beautiful to the eye and everything was delicious.
Our food servers Jorge and Israel were very efficient and made us feel welcomed.
We both thought the pricing was very reasonable for this kind of dining and feel a similar dinner in the US would cost much much more.
We enjoy dinning at Café Des Artistes every time we visit Puerto Vallarta.