Today we went to an old favorite again, Valentina's!
Hello, again. My dad and I, and sometimes my mom comes along too, have been going out on the town to find some of the best not so popular cheap eats, mostly family-owned, restaurants that we can find. We go out almost every day, finding some new little place, or big place, to tell you about and review the food and prices.
A couple of days ago, on Sunday, my dad and I went to try a pizza place that had peaked our interest, and as we were ordering the friendly young couple, who seemed to be in their early 20’s, said it would take around half an hour. We didn’t mind at all, but my dad had the crazy idea to go a few doors down and have some ceviche tostadas for a quick snack while we were waiting ‘cuz we were really hungry. Well, as it turned out neither of the two places were worth mentioning, so I won’t be naming or writing about them.
So we decided today that we had to go back to a place that we know is good, a place where we could find some really good family-recipe authentic Mexican food. We went to a place called Valentina’s Cocina, located on Av. Las Torres 132 in Fovissste 96, and the longitude latitude location is 20.64251967970591, -105.2148502564772. They offer delivery all around town, and if you order three or more comida corrida meals they will deliver it to you for free!
Valentina’s has been open for around 6 years. The owner, Diana, and her whole family have been working in the food industry for many years. Her parents are from Acapulco and Guadalajara, and have worked for restaurants, hotels, as private chefs, and even as caterers. Many years ago, in 1993 when Diana was very young, they opened a restaurant near the Malecon, and they called it Dianita’s after her. Her mother still runs that restaurant, and Diana owns and operates her own place, Valentina’s! Here they serve comida corrida meals, where you can get soup, a main course, which is huge, and a jug of water of the day for only 75 pesos! The main courses change everyday, and I’m pretty sure the soups do too, but the rest of the menu stays the same.
Today they had three soup options, which were cream of vegetable, fideo, and tortilla, or also known as Sopa de Azteca, and 9 different main course options! That’s a lot!! Most other places I’ve been to they only have up to three options! I got a fideo soup and chicken enchiladas, which were covered in a tasty spicy green sauce. Also, the water of the day was pineapple!! The soup was quite salty, maybe too salty for some, but I, personally, really liked it that way. The flavor was also kind of tomato-y, and the noodles were soft and perfectly cooked, not mushy. Fideo soups are hard to describe, because they’re all so similar, but they’re very good. The tortillas they gave us were thick, warm, and had a strong corn flavor, which I enjoyed. It turns out my enchiladas didn’t only have chicken in them, they also had some shredded carrot, and perhaps a couple other veggies. The sauce had tomatillo, I think, and jalapeño, and the enchiladas weren’t dry at all! They had just the perfect amount of sauce, and lettuce, tomato, and crema toppings, and it all came together really well and everything about them was delicious!
My dad had the vegetable soup, with meatballs in their broth for a main course, which sounds like two soups to me, but that’s what he chose and he said both were really good. He says he could taste all the different vegetables, indicating that they had been cooked separately and then combined for a fuller flavor. It had broccoli, squash, onion, garlic, carrots, and complex spices. And, though it had carrots, it wasn’t sweet at all! In his words, it was very well put together. The meatballs were big, thick, meaty, and had some spices that neither my dad nor I could figure out what they were. And the broth was just very very tasty.
Valentina’s was actually surprisingly space-y, and had lots of tables. It doesn’t look very big from the outside, because of how thin the entrance is, but there is plenty of room. While we were sitting there eating our soups, we heard the sound of a rolling suitcase, so we turned around and saw a little girl in her school uniform brisk through, dragging behind her a rolling backpack, obviously done with school, though she was alone. She was visibly tired, and so done with school, and a few seconds behind her came a woman holding the hand of another younger girl. She looked very respectable and highly educated, and my dad said that must be the owner. And, as it turned out, she was! A bit later we talked with her, and she was very friendly and spoke very good English, so my dad was able to help me out.
Valentina's Phone Number: 322 22 45 800
Valentina's WhatsApp: 322 156 9570
If you enjoyed this article, and would like to recommend a place that you know about, then please let me know. Or, if you are an owner yourself of a place that you would like to see written about, contact me.
And to see the rest of my food reviews go to the Dining Out section here in Vallarta Bay Times.