Café des Artistes
Thierry Blouet puts chicatanas on the octopus and chipotle in the beurre blanc, over a six-course menu that runs in either-or pairs. On Guadalupe Sánchez in Puerto Vallarta's Centro.
Why go
The kitchen calls its own cooking cocina francesa con inspiración mexicana
, and the menu backs the phrase up.2 Look at what the pairs actually are. The raw fish of the day comes with chile chintextle, the ravioli takes morels and fresh truffle, the snapper is zarandeado, and the lamb is a cordero lechal off the Altos de Jalisco.2 Dessert can be a crème brûlée of foie gras or a habanero with passionfruit mousse.2 Blouet has been at this a long time: the restaurant's own site puts it at 34 years, and he runs two more rooms in the town, Tuna Blanca and La Casa.1 He puts himself in the Académie Culinaire de France, which is his claim on his own page and nobody else's.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the six-course Menú Degustación
Del Chef
. Every course is a choice of two, and the kitchen prints the gram weight beside each one.2 - Order: the pulpo adobado con chicatanas off the à la carte if you are not doing the menu. Flying ants are the seasoning, not the garnish.2
- Avoid: reading it as a French restaurant abroad. The Mexican half is where the seasoning lives.2
Good to know
- No Michelin star. Jalisco only entered the guide in the 2026 selection, and its two starred rooms are Alcalde and Xokol, both in Guadalajara.3
- Book it. Dinner only, and the tasting menu is the format the kitchen is built around.2
- Where: C. Guadalupe Sánchez 740, in the Centro.1
Verdict
could-visit — Everything known about this kitchen comes off its own website, which is a real limit and not a small one. What the site does give is checkable and specific: a six-course menu built in either-or pairs, chicatanas on the octopus, chintextle under the raw fish, chipotle in the beurre blanc, lamb from the Altos de Jalisco. Blouet's two credentials are his own claims and the 'Food & Travel Top 50' badge carries no year or category, so none of it is written up as an award. No Puerto Vallarta publication is registered yet, so I have nobody's opinion but the house's to give you.