We had heard amazing things about La Dolce Vita in Nuevo Vallarta and that they have some of the best Italian food in the area so naturally we had to check it out. Once we saw they offered gluten free pasta we were sold!
We sat outside on the patio which was nice but there were definitely some mosquitoes so bring bug spray! Inside didn’t have a nice ambience so we preferred the patio.
GL had a virgin pina colada which was amazing and essentially a dessert. I forgot how tasty pina coladas are! I had a marg which was pretty good. I am working on becoming an expert on margs while I’m here and while this was good it wasn’t the best. I will continue my challenging job of being the taste tester!
To start we had salmon sashimi and a mushroom dish. The salmon was excellent – light and tangy. It would probably go nicely with bread but we of course couldn’t have that. The mushrooms were odd and really nothing special or Italian. Just some regular mushrooms in juice with no special flavouring. I wouldn’t get those again.
I had the seafood special pasta with clams, mussels, octopus and shrimps in a tomato sauce. The clams tasted underdone and were overly fishy. I got a bit worried about food poisoning but I was fine! The dish wasn’t super hot and honestly wasn’t a great pasta dish. It wasn’t inedible but certainly nothing special or worth trying. The flavours were bland and the fish wasn’t prepared well. Also FYI you have to pay extra if you want parmesan cheese. Since we are dairy free we didn’t need it but I thought that was odd.
GL had a shrimp and mushroom penne. He said the flavours were excellent and the portion was very generous.
The service was decent but not exceptional. Overall this tasted how I would expect Mexican chefs to interpret Italian food. We have had amazing gluten and dairy free Italian food, so I know it’s possible. Maye their pizza is where they shine but we did not find La Dolce Vita Nuevo Vallarta to have great or even good pasta dishes. I would skip this one!
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If you enjoyed this article, you might also like to read about our other culinary adventures sharing our gluten-free and dairy-free experiences such as Organi-k Sayulita, Taco Cabana Nuevo Vallarta, and Tuna Blanco Punta Mita.
