Really Our Last Dinner

Okay, this really was our last dinner in Puerto Vallarta.

BUT..., before I get to that, I have to share what I now consider to be the most scurrilous ripoff I have ever heard of, charging extra for ice in your drink.  Yep, you heard it right.  The Darby in, where else, Manhattan charges you an extra two dollars if you order your drink on-the-rocks.  So that means your $13 Grey Goose Vodka will cost you $15 if you want it with ice.  When asked about this the bartender hemmed and hawed a bit and then said it was because you got a bigger pour when you ordered your drinks on-the-rocks.  Excuse me, since when, exactly, did that start to happen.  Rest assured that you will not be seeing Bar Man in The Darby anytime soon.  Although I do have an urge to go in and order a Grey Goose straight up then add ice that I have brought with me.

Okay, on to more pleasant thoughts, although adding my own ice was kind of a pleasant thought.  Our last dinner in Puerto Vallarta and we went to No Way Jose! with Bill and Marcie.  You may recall that the Mysterious Chinese Woman and I were there once for cocktails when we were barred from the Mexican Bingo game going on downstairs.  I think our reputation as being Mexican Bingo sharps had preceded us.  That and the Mysterious Chinese Woman jumping up and shouting "BINGO" when she didn't even have a card.  We also had our Valentine's Day dinner here, but that wasn't nearly as eventful.

No Way Jose!
 

Now the Mysterious Chinese Woman is always accusing me of taking pictures that make her drink look much bigger than it really does.  But really, she is the one who orders them so big you need two hands to hold it.

Does This Picture Make My Drink Look Big?


Now Bar Man knows how to order more photogenic drinks.

Smaller, But More Potent


And our friends Bill and Marcie just stuck with wine.

So Sophisticated


We got the upstairs seating area which, on as lovely a night as it was, was where you wanted to be.  Of course we had to stare at this sign all night.

The View From Our Table


Now this wouldn't have been so bad when everyone assumed it was a pepper.  When I suggested it looked like an erect penis wearing a very small reservoir-tipped condom the view suddenly got much worse.  But funnier.

I started out with a wild mushroom appetizer.  What the hell, you only live once so you might as well go while writhing around on the floor in agony.  No! No!  I knew they would be perfectly fine.  All of the produce and stuff in Mexico is so flavorful and good.  I have already mentioned the eggs many times and the same is true for chicken, beef and especially fish.  A gourmet's paradise.

A Delicious Wild Mushroom Appetizer


For the main course I ordered ribs in pineapple sauce, a big mistake.

Bar Man Drops The Ball


Now I don't want to suggest that my meal was bad, it wasn't.  What it was was out of context.  I can't remember exactly how the menu described this dish, but I thought it would be more, well, more Mexican.  Instead this tasted like something I would expect to get in a Chinese restaurant or, perhaps, in a Tiki Lounge. Probably not at Frank's Tiki Lounge in Las Vegas, though.  So it was good, not great, but good, but just not what I really expected or wanted.  More my fault than anything.

The Mysterious Chinese Woman got the Chicken in a Mole Sauce and it was delicious.  It was what I should have gotten.

The Real Deal


Those colorful sprinkly thinks you see all over the food are roasted sesame seeds.  They mush have gotten a good deal on them or they are somehow trying to make them their signature, somehow.  It was just funny that they seemed to be on everything.  But so what, I like toasted sesame seeds.  I even like those middle-eastern crunchy sesame seed candy bars they have.  But I digress.

The chicken was done to just the right amount of tenderness and the mole sauce was one of the best I have ever had.  As good as what I had at the Botanical Gardens, but different.  This one was much spicier, and by that I mean more picante, I guess mole sauces are like hot sauces.  I may have several favorites but they are different enough so they don't really compete.  Did that make sense?

Okay, so what.  On to the next dish, and I am not really sure what it was.

The Magical Mystical Meal


I think Bill and Marcie split this and, I think, it was some kind of chicken in some kind of a grey looking sauce  that nobody could really identify, shrimp and vegetables.  Needless to say, Bill was not overly impressed by the sauce, but he said the chicken and the shrimp were good.  I may even have seen him eat a vegetable, but that would be improbable.  Marcie seemed to enjoy even the brown sauce.  Well, at least she tried it.

It was another great dinner and, if it is still around next year, I will go back and get one of their mole dishes.  I hope it will be back, but that location seems to be bad luck.  Several restaurants located there have gone belly-up.  But No Way Jose! always seems to have a good crowd and two new condos just opened up a few block away so that may give them a bigger customer base.

We passed on the deserts but some of us couldn't pass up an ice-cream cone on the way home.

My Last Desert In Puerto Vallarta, This Year


And that was my last night in Puerto Vallarta.

Hey, do you think you could make money selling ice-cubes in The Darby for, oh, say a buck a glassful?