Two For The Table : Puerto Vallarta : 116 Pulpito Gastro Bar

116 Pulpito Gastro Bar

Pulpito 116 had been open for just over a year. Located on 116 Pulpito in Puerto Vallarta's Romantic Zone, it's part of, but separate and around the corner from, the Villa Mercedes Petit Hotel. It's ranked #7 of 721 restaurants by TripAdvisor. Sometimes TripAdvisor gets it right; we dined there twice.

Pulpito 116 is small, with limited seating inside and streetside. But both the ambiance and the staff were delightful. Inside a large modern bar occupies one wall, with the menu written on another in bright colors. We were initially seated at the bar, where Marlene ordered a nice sauvignon blanc and I ordered the house special sangria, served in a large mason jar. Once our drinks arrived, we were quickly moved to a streetside table, just outside the front door.

The Pulpito 116 menu is basically salads, innovative tapas and pizzas. On out first visit, we started with tuna tartare and the tempura vegetables.

Tuna tartare, with guacamole and French bread

Tempura mixed vegetables, with wasabi mayonnaise and sweet/sour sauce

The tuna was top quality, served over guacamole, with a chili sesame oil on the side. It was delicious, with the drizzled chili oil providing a nice kick. The tempura vegetables were equally good; the tasty zucchini, mushrooms, asparagus, sweet potatoes, and carrots were perfectly breaded.

Almost half of the Pulpito 116 menu is devoted to their pizzas. They're "make your own" thin crust, with lots of ingredients to choose from, categorized by meats, cheeses, fish and vegetables. We put together a pizza with bacon, shrimp, mushrooms, and Parmesan cheese, all on a mozzarella base. And at our server's suggestion, we added pesto.

The pizza was sophisticated and delicious. The perfect crust and the quality of the ingredients far surpassed the "best pizzas in Puerto Vallarta" we had tried in the past. We never take leftovers back to our hotel, but we did take three pieces of the generous Pulpito 116 pizza back to snack on. It was that good.

On our second visit, we shared the calamari and we each had sliders. The calamari was lightly breaded and tender, served with an olive tapenade and a tartar sauce. It was very good.

The sliders came in four flavors - beef, chicken, shrimp and veggie. They were served two to an order on buttery rolls, with lettuce, tomato, avocado, cheese and mayo, also accompanied by fries or a side salad. I chose the chicken and Marlene the shrimp, although when they arrived they were difficult to tell apart; the shrimp had been pounded to closely resemble the breast.

The chicken was moist, nicely spiced and made for a perfect slider. However, Marlene felt the pounded shrimp had lost some of its taste, and would have preferred small shrimp on her sandwich instead of the flattened variety.

I don't want to shortchange the service; our server David, born and raised in Puerto Vallarta, was sophisticated, friendly and helpful. He gave us hugs on our way out.

116 Pulpito Gastro Bar wooed us with its ambience, its service, its menu and its execution. It's a Puerto Vallarta restaurant not to be missed.

El Arrayán