Rant: Restaurant Prices in V@llarta

So they're having Restaurant Week coming up in May here in V@llarta. May is when the tourism starts to slow down so this is supposed to encourage people to get out and eat. It's a fixed price for a 3 course meal. They do this in NYC too and this year it cost $24.07. Here there are 2 prices: 249 and 149 pesos. It's about a 10:1 exchange rate so 249 pesos is about $24. I find this completely disgusting and criminal. One of the places charging $24 is a new Thai place. It's a nice place and the food is good (although portions fairly small), but it's nothing like an upscale New York restaurant.

Why is it particularly disgusting? Because food costs are really low here, much lower than the States. And labor? The waiters at the restaurant where I teach get paid minimum wage which is 45 pesos per day. Yes, you read that right: minimum wage is about $4.50 per day. Rents are higher here than in other places in Mexico, but nothing like the States and certainly nothing like NYC.

What ends up happening here is that there are 2 tiers of restaurants. The first are the ones with decent and interesting food that are so prohibitively expensive that only the rich and those on vacation can afford. Then there are local places that are meat dominated that I can't or wouldn't want to eat at. I'm used to being able to go to cool, trendy, tasty restaurants. Here I have to break the bank to do it. And the places are never cool because only the wealthy (who are generally retirement age) and vacationers can afford them. (I'm not knocking everyone who comes here on vacation just most people!)

I know I need to just accept things about Vallarta but I just can't seem to accept this. Even my friends from Mexxico City complain about restaurant prices here.