Dinner at Daiquiri Dick's is a very different scene; the carefree and easygoing lunch atmosphere becomes more sophisticated and bustling. The ocean is still there in the dark, but it's not as integral a part of the ambience. And the restaurant is more crowded at dinner; not everyone leaves their hotel for lunch each day as we do.
But by day or by night, the quality of the food and the warmth of the staff remain first class, which is why we had dinner at Daiquiri Dick's three times on this visit to Puerto Vallarta, sitting at our same reserved table.
We usually have wine with dinner, as opposed to our margaritas, although occasionally we'll have a Corona. Daiquiri Dick's wine list is relatively small and moderately priced, and all of the wines we've had have been good.
There are appetizer and entrée specials on the menu each night, and they change frequently; they were different each night we were there. The lunchtime soups are available, but we usually choose non-soup appetizers. Marlene had a special arugula salad our first night, with grilled scallops and orange slices, and a raspberry vinaigrette. Everything was fresh and tasty.
Daiquiri Dick's doesn't always have tuna on their menu; they only offer it when the quality meets their standards. On our first night, not only did they offer tuna, but they offered our favorite preparation. We each ordered the fresh yellow fin tuna, very rare, rolled in sesame seeds and served over braised gingered spinach with spicy sukiyaki sauce. It was, and is always, spectacular.
For dessert . . . Daiquiri Dick's has the best key lime pie in the world. I have it at dinner every night, and have trained myself NOT to order it at lunch. It is indescribably delicious!
For our second dinner at Daiquiri Dick's, we each had the special tuna tartar appetizer with papaya and wasabi aioli. The portion was huge and the tuna was perfect; Marlene didn't leave a bite.
We split two entrées; we had a pasta as our second course and a pork as our third. The pasta special was a spaghetti with shrimp and clams "aglio olio" (garlic, olive oil and chili peppers), with pancetta. There was lots of garlic, and the clams were plump and fresh.
We'd had our second entrée a number of times in the past – a grilled Mongolian glazed rack of pork, with Chinese mustard sauce. It's served with mashed potato and braised red cabbage, and it's fabulous.
Marlene was not fond of her appetizer special on our final night; she had the spicy Thai mussels with a garlicky-cilantro sauce. The mussels were plump, but the dish was served room temperature and she was thrown off by the sweet cilantro broth.
My appetizer special of beef carpaccio with capers, arugula, parmesan and wasabi aioli was very good, and I shared it with Marlene; I ate her mussels.
We again split two entrée specials and had them served as second and third courses. (On this occasion, the kitchen split the dishes for us, so the photographs represent half portions.) The fettuccine with clams in a white wine sauce, with fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil was very good. Again, the clams were plump and fresh.
The grilled pork loin, wrapped in bacon, with apple cider beurre blanc was melt-in-your-mouth delicious. It was served over addictive puréed sweet potatoes.
As I enjoyed my key lime pie that evening, Marlene had a Mexican coffee, prepared tableside with tequila, Kahlua, and vanilla ice cream. She slept well that night.
As we said our goodbyes on our final night, one of the longtime waiters chanted, "We love Hammermans. We love Hammermans." And we love Daiquiri Dick's. It's the backbone of our Puerto Vallarta vacation and it's doubtful we'd come back every year if it didn't exist.
The next morning, we ate breakfast at the Fiesta Americana (no coffee on the beach), packed our suitcases, and took a taxi to the airport. After eleven dinners, ten lunches and a brief respite in paradise, it was time to return to St. Louis. Copyright © 2013 TwoForTheTable.com |
