By ALAN SOLOMON / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico – This isn’t the only tourist town on the Mexican coastline, but you already knew that. Cancún. Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo. Playa del Carmen. Acapulco. Cabo. Cozumel. Manzanillo. More. All with beaches and the requisite cervezas frias . Each, if you look closely, with something to offer that the others don’t.

Puerto Vallarta has two of those somethings: There’s the old town, with its sometimes scruffy charm and happy surprises: that tiny shop selling museum-quality Oaxacan woodcarvings, the gallery offering brilliant works by local painters and sculptors, another shop with weavings to grace your holiday table. Good stuff among the requisite tourist junk.

And its restaurants.

In terms of quality, quantity, variety, creativity and value, in all of Mexico only Mexico City and, maybe, Guadalajara – this nation’s largest metropolises – come close to Puerto Vallarta.

Don’t expect cheap, necessarily. The days of paying $2 for a whole red snapper that hours earlier was celebrating the sunrise in Banderas Bay are long gone. PV prices have caught up.

On the other hand, a favorable exchange rate (recently about 13 pesos to the dollar) eases the tabs. A bonus: Tourism slowed a bit by global economic realities means that most nights, tables at even the finest restaurants can be had without reservations and with an especially sincere welcome.

(One more point: There are plenty of humbler little places in PV. By all means try them.)

What follows is a sampling of Puerto Vallarta restaurants we found worthy on our latest visit. It isn’t a comprehensive list; many reliable favorites, including the elegant Cafe des Artistes downtown and Porto Bello at the Marina, eluded us this trip.

These didn’t.