Vallarta Mexican Restaurant

In my opinion this place serves the best Mexican food overall in Exeter. The albondigas is delicious. Loaded with meatballs, celery, carrots, and all floating in a yummy, flavorful broth. They give you plenty of onions, and cilantro to top it with, and your choice of tortilla for dipping or whatnot. The nachos are plentiful, and well made, and the rice and beans are pretty yummy too. The chips and salsa here are addicting. I used to love their chile rellenos, but stopped ordering them after having a few bad experiences. The white sauce used to be smooth and creamy, but it seems that they aren’t mixing out the flour lumps as well now. I’ve had big chunks of flour in my sauce that was clumpy and gooey. The tacos aren’t the best here either, and fall apart before you can even get a bite. The service is stellar, and the price isn’t outrageous. Definitely worth dining here if you stick to the basics.

Came to Exeter to get away from LA for the weekend and we came across this restaurant. The salsa was delicious and the service was amazing! I ordered the nachos while my sister ordered the carne asada burrito. The nachos were so good and my sister loved the burrito.
If I lived closer, this would be my new joint! I highly recommend this restaurant!

Pretty good food! Needed a little salt, but overall good food. Service was great! Friendly staff… food was fast. Didn’t wait long at all.

Just after noon on a Sunday there was not much open in the small town of Exeter. The only other place I noticed open was only serving brunch, which is what drove me through the doors of Vallarta.
I was seated immediately, and seconds after taking my seat I was gifted with chips and salsa. The chips were good, but the salsa was amazing. It is obviously homemade, but the subtle spicy kick it offers is what really sealed the deal for me.
I ordered three tacos at $ 2.50 a piece. You get a choice between hard or soft shells. I went with soft, kind of expecting something similar to street tacos. Instead, three large tacos in flour tortillas were placed in front of me. They looked excellent, and they were stuffed with meat, shredded cheese, tomatoes and lettuce, and guacamole. My choices of meat were carnitas, chicken, and steak. The carnitas were good and crispy, but a little too salty for my taste. The chicken was insanely juicy, as was the steak. The best thing about both the chicken and steak is the flavor they held. I don’t know what they were marinated in, all I know is I’m still salivating just from thinking of them.
The service was great too. I didn’t have one server because it felt like everyone working in the restaurant took time to make sure that I was happy. The best thing about the service is their interaction with the public. It’s clear that they have regulars because a few of them took their meal breaks and had lunch with the customers. The vibe of the place just screams family.
Even though they weren’t my first choice for lunch I am happy fate brought me through their doors.

We loved it here! Ate here twice while staying Exeter as a home base for our day trips into the Sequoia National Park.
The young server was very nice as was the other lady working. Food was great and they had nice homemade tortilla shells here. Loved the enchiladas! Cute small town to walk around in as well.

My family was in town visiting Sequoia National Park on our way home we decide to look up something to eat and we came across this place here on Unilocal!So glad we did the food was excellent and the service was too.

Love this little place. Yummy food and fantastic service. I go there at least once a week for lunch and am never disappointed with the service!

Friendly atmosphere and delicious food! We had the fajitas and Red Snapper a la Casa. Salsa and chips were great too!

I would give ***** five stars for the service for the young gal… For the food, NO flavor whatsoever. Cute small town to take a stroll.

Great service! Great fish tacos. Loved the salsa. My whole party loved what they ordered and then they were so sweet to us even though everybody else had already left. I will be going again.

Recommend by a couple of local residents. Salsa was hot and delicious. I had the chicken burrito. My wife had a couple of chicken toco’s. Very satisfying and a nice quick meal.

Not the most authentic Mexican food but my fiancé loves it here. The staff are always nice but they regularly mess up my fiancé’s order of no meat nachos. If you want to split something try the chicken supreme as it is a pretty heavy meal.

Good Mexican food, I like the large variety of soups they offer. The burritos are pretty good. The staff is fairly friendly. As far as the speed of service, it caters more to sit down customers. To go orders just take too long. That being said I keep coming back, you just may enjoy it.

Maybe the best Carnitas I’ve ever had!

Is there an option for no stars? (I am always generous with my reviews so will give one star!)
We went in there on an evening that was not so busy, the service was very slow, it took the waitress a full ten minutes to take our drink order, another five minutes passed and my daughter burned herself on the salsa, after unsuccessfully trying to get the attentions of various members of the waiting staff, I went to the kitchen at the back to get some water for my daughter and was assured «the waitress was on her way with the drinks»
Another five minutes passed and as we were close to a decision to leave, the waitress arrived with our drinks. She then took our food order, two out of the six dishes had errors, we had to press the waiting staff to fix these errors. When the dishes came back, they did not do so in a timely fashion.
In short, truly disappointed as we had visitors to the city with us and it was a massive let down.
Staff were not attentive, absent, when they were customer facing they were in many cases unresponsive. Not a good eating experience, the lady who took the money at the end did not wish to hear our comments at the end of the meal and no restitution was offered before we left the establishment.

Very friendly staff.
Their burritos are very good and huge portions!
Tacos were also very tasty and big portions as well.

Delicious Mexican food. Friendly service!

Good Chips & Salsa (chips are hot) and the food is okay but not great — except for the beans. I thought the beans were fabulous, just like my both of my grandmas used to make. I ordered the chicken enchilada and chili relleno combo. The chicken was so dry and lacked flavor (probably boiled?). The sauce on top was red and sweet, not very good. The chili relleno was like none I’ve ever had before. The pepper was not battered at all, it was rolled in a corn tortilla and covered with a sauce I did not care for. It tasted like sweet mayonnaise — ew!
I was glad that I got full from the chips and salsa because I barely ate the enchilada and the inside of the relleno.
BF had the shrimp cocktail — it was pretty good but the shrimp was bland. He wanted a Margarita but they only have Wine Margaritas.
Service was decent and semi-​friendly.

My husband and I went to Exeter to eat at a restaurant called the Hometown Emporium. It was Sunday so they closed early. Next door was Vallarta’s so we decided to give it a try. I am so glad that we did!
The service was great and so was the food and prices! I ordered two grilled chicken tacos and I must say these are my new favorite tacos… EVER! They were so delicious! My husband had two tostadas ceviche (camorones aka shrimp) and they were equally as amazing!
Forget going to Exeter for Hometown Emporium, being closed opened our eyes to Vallartas. Now if we are ever in the area, Vallartas will be our first choice for lunch or dinner! Absolutely delicious!

The food here is OK, nothing special… although it is GREAT if you do not like any spiciness in your Mexican food. There are people who can’t handle spice, if so you will LOVE this restaurant.
I had the cheese enchiladas, and they were pretty good, but I’ve had better. The beans and rice were very bland.
Chips are served warm, which I like!
Service is VERY quick. Ambience is nice.
I probably will not go back, as there are many other choices in the area.