Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, June 23, 2026 – Two Puerto Vallarta restaurants landed spots in the 2026 Wine Spectator Restaurant Awards, giving the city another place in the international food-and-wine conversation.
The honorees are La Corona, the signature restaurant at Villa Premiere Boutique Hotel, and Café des Artistes by Thierry Blouet in Centro. Both received the Award of Excellence, the program’s entry-level recognition for restaurants with well-constructed wine lists that pair well with their menus.
This isn’t a general “best restaurant” ranking. Wine Spectator looks at wine programs: the list, the service, the storage, the pricing, and how the bottles work with the food.
A wine award with a specific focus
The 2026 awards recognized 4,012 restaurants worldwide. Wine Spectator divides the list into three tiers: Award of Excellence, Best of Award of Excellence, and Grand Award.
This year, 2,083 restaurants received the Award of Excellence. Another 1,830 earned the Best of Award of Excellence, while 99 received the Grand Award.
La Corona and Café des Artistes landed in the broad first tier. That still requires a serious wine program, but it doesn’t place them in the top global category.
Wine Spectator Chairman and CEO Marvin R. Shanken said the industry keeps shifting as diners become more selective about “when, how, and what they drink.”
Puerto Vallarta isn’t only competing on views, seafood, and service anymore. Some local dining rooms now want credit for what’s inside the bottle list, too.
The two Puerto Vallarta selections
La Corona serves signature cuisine at Villa Premiere, with a more polished hotel-dining format. The restaurant also lists the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence among its current accolades.
Café des Artistes remains one of Puerto Vallarta’s best-known fine-dining rooms. Its wine program includes national and international labels, with sommelier guidance and a dedicated wine menu. The restaurant sits on Guadalupe Sánchez in Centro, one of the city’s oldest dining corridors.
Jalisco had four restaurants in the 2026 Award of Excellence list. Along with the two Puerto Vallarta selections, Guadalajara-area restaurants La Mantequería and Roothouse also earned recognition.
How restaurants get into the program
The Wine Spectator awards are application-based. Restaurants submit their wine lists, dinner menus, and details on storage, inventory, pricing, and service. For 2026, the submission window ran from January 13 to March 13.
A restaurant has to show it has invested in its wine program. It also has to present that program clearly enough for judges to evaluate it. This award doesn’t tell diners which Puerto Vallarta restaurant serves the best meal. It tells them which restaurants have built wine lists with intention.
A restaurant can win people over with location, history, service, menu, or price. Wine Spectator focuses on one narrower piece of the dining experience.
Puerto Vallarta’s dining scene keeps widening
The awards come during a tougher period for Puerto Vallarta restaurants. PVDN has reported on food-cost pressure, softer summer demand, and difficult pricing choices across the local dining market.
The recognition points in another direction. Even with those pressures, some restaurants continue to invest in higher-end service and deeper beverage programs.
The city’s food calendar has also leaned that way. Restaurant Week 2026 brought 51 restaurants across Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit. Vinoma Fest 2026 also put wine and food at the center of a three-day local event earlier this year.
Puerto Vallarta still sells the beach, but more restaurants now compete on technique, service, and complete dining experiences.
