Retire Early Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler

In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this financially independent lifestyle, they invite you to take advantage of their wisdom and experience.

Margarita Grill

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

Long before Puerto Vallarta became a tourist attraction, pirates and smugglers operated out of this harbor. Vallarta, as it is sometimes called, was a tiny fishing and pearl-diving village, turned into a small beach-landing port serving the Sierra towns nearby.

Throughout the decade of the 1950's the area on the hill of the downtown area north of the River Cuale developed as an expatriate neighborhood called Gringo Gulch. In 1963 Richard Burton was to star in a movie directed by John Huston, "The Night of the Iguana" to be shot mostly on location in the jungle at Mismaloya. He and Elizabeth Taylor stayed in Casa Kimberley in Gringo Gulch, making this area famous world wide as a vacation destination.

Incidentally, Burton ended up buying Casa Kimberley, a nine-bedroom villa, for $57,000, and gave it to Elizabeth as a birthday gift for her 32nd birthday, a few months after finishing the movie and a month before they officially married.

Food, food, food.

We love it.

With our restaurant background, one of the things we enjoy about new locations where we travel is exploring eating establishments.

One evening, when we made plans to eat at Cafe de Olla, we found out that it was closed.

Oh No!

Not to fear, Puerto Vallarta is full of restaurants, so we hit the street, looking for just the right one.

Margarita Grill

Where we were staying in the Zona Romantica, there are countless choices of restaurants.

Walking around the streets, we enjoyed the wafting aromas floating in the night air. Again, Live Music seemed to be everywhere and it was hard to decide which place to eat.

After passing it once and looking at their menu, we decided to return to this lively, open-air restaurant called Margarita Grill.

Tableside service

Chips and salsa were standard fare given to each table. However, this salsa was anything but standard.

Made from fire-roasted whole tomatoes, serrano chilis, cilantro, onion and squares of cheese, this server worked his mortar and pestle tableside. We can't tell you how delicious this salsa was! That fire-roasting made all the difference.

Whole tomatoes roasting

Here you see whole tomatoes roasting on the grill. When we returned home to Chapala, we tried the same for salsa in our kitchen. We need a little more perfection of this technique, but the process opened a culinary door.

How to "Power-Punch" your salsa!

Working the ingredients to blend the flavors

Here you see the delicious, chunky salsa before the cilantro, onions and cheese were added.

Voila!

The salsa is now finished and ready for us to scoop up with our freshly made chips.

It was delectable.

Tortilla soup, otherwise known as Aztec soup

If you have never had Tortilla soup, you must try it. There are many recipes, some with a clear chicken broth. This one is a tomato soup base, with fresh cream drizzled on top.

Crisp tortilla chips, Mexican cheese and fresh avocado was also given to us to accompany this very popular dish.

We ordered one soup "compartir" (to share) and the waiter brought out two bowls with our order divided in half. This was very thoughtful! And an added touch to the service here at Margarita Grill.

Shrimp Caesar Salad

Billy loves Caesar Salad, and since we were at the beach, he ordered it with fresh shrimp. Delicious croutons, and grated Parmesan cheese on top.

MargaritaGrill Salad

I chose the house specialty salad with baby spinach, goat cheese, fresh tomatoes, caramelized onions, and fresh raspberries. The dressing was a honey-balsamic reduction.

The flavors married well and I was plenty happy!

Our bill

Here is the total bill for our meal. A bottle of Pacifico beer was $2USD, as was my bottle of water. Tortilla soup was about $4USD, Caesar Salad with Shrimp was $10USD and my Specialty House Salad was not quite $7USD.

Tip was extra.

This is considered to be a medium priced restaurant with good value.

One of the proud chefs at the grill

When we were there, the restaurant was packed. Service was good despite the crowd and the food was very tasty. I'm sure we'll return again. My understanding is that they make terrific mixed drinks, so maybe next trip we'll do a Pina Colada or Margarita with appetizers!

Margarita Grill

Pino Suárez 321, Emiliano Zapata, 48380 Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico

Hours: Open Daily 12PM–12AM  Phone: 01 322 222 9755

About the Authors

Billy and Akaisha Kaderli are recognized retirement experts and internationally published authors on topics of finance, medical tourism and world travel. With the wealth of information they share on their award winning website RetireEarlyLifestyle.com, they have been helping people achieve their own retirement dreams since 1991. They wrote the popular books, The Adventurer’s Guide to Early Retirement and Your Retirement Dream IS Possible available on their website bookstore or on Amazon.com.

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