La Botaneria

This is explicitly related to two delicious cocktails and a well-​functioning AC.
The cadillac margarita and j.t. manhattan were both delicious! And the service was wonderful. Looking forward to eating here some day soon.

This place has reopened! It seems like it is only open Thursday-​Sunday, so if you see it closed, that’s why. There is a pretty extensive drink list with tasty margaritas and wine. The menu is limited to a few appetizer options, but they are very good! I highly recommend the nachos. My husband and I split a few of them and made it into a meal, but it would be best for anyone looking for a snack before something more substantial. Definitely worth a try this summer!

My friend and I happened upon this place on a sleepy Saturday afternoon. While it looked like a cute place with good specials, we wouldn’t have gone inside unless the guy working there hadn’t have boldly came outside and invited us in. Props to him — it worked!
We were glad we gave it a chance — while the place itself is tiny, the food and drinks are spot on. Our waiter offered to make me a lemonade from scratch, which was out of this world, and my friend enjoyed her sangria (part of the happy hour special). I also got the tortilla espagnol, which I can never resist on a menu. The chipotle aioli and salty cherry tomatoes it came with were just as delicious as the tortilla itself.
They have all day happy hour on Sundays and seemingly regular specials during other days of the week. Ultimately, the hospitality of the wait staff and no fuss good food is what will bring me back.

One of my favorite Park Slope spots. The food is delicious, the service is great and please… Try the jalapeño margarita. You will not be disappointed.
Sad Diego is leaving (made the best drinks!). But we are hopeful they’ll hire someone almost as good :)

I’ll go back and give La Botaneria four stars when they become as consistently good as the mothership across the street: Fonda. We have always enjoyed our visits here — largely thanks to the comfortable setting and friendly, engaging staff, but we often come away with complaints. The guacamole was good but the chips were stale. The sangria was okay but the margaritas were too sour. I suspect that Fonda management uses La Botaneria as a lobby for their constant overflow, like, ‘Wait here and have some little bites, but save room for the main attraction’ they seem to be saying. And to be fair, if La Botaneria was better, it MIGHT lead to a few more diners staying there instead of the answering the call to come back to the slightly overcrowded mothership. It’s just, stale chips? No tortillas? Really? C’mon guys, step it up.

Cute place with a small and affordable menu. My group of ladies wander over here after a Celebrate Brooklyn show in the park. At first we headed over to Fonda but found it too crowded and a bit beyond what we wanted to spend. We spotted this place and declared it perfect, not knowing it was from the same chef – such a smart move. The space is tiny, and you sit on stools around counter-​tops, so it could make for a very intimate date.
I ordered a glass of the sangria and it was on the money – so boozy and fruity. We split a bunch of plates ranging from the chip and guacamole, the cheese plate, and the black bean and chorizo dish. Everything was great, and we cleaned our plates. Service was great – there was one guy helping all parties and he was friendly. Glad we stumbled upon this place!

After learning from Fonda’s manager that just across the street was a sister restaurant, La Botaneria, we decided to give it a try.
We initially walked into Fonda’s, hoping we would be able to grab seats at the bar for their 4−7PM happy hour, but we unfortunately were too late. We were starving and did not want to wait or pay too much for a pre-​dinner drinks, so the manager recommended we go right across the street to their sister joint, La Bonateria.
La Bonateria is a small hole-​in-​the-​wall, cute and clean might I add, that has three skinny rows of bar-​height tables and bar stools to sit on. So it’s a very casual and fun place to go to for drinks and little portions of tapas. If you do not like the idea of communal tables, then stay away! I’d recommend it to neighborhood strollers for a quick refuel, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to come back.
Their happy hour includes $ 6 margaritas and $ 6 gaucamole. But minus one star, since they do not have frozen margaritas. Why? I will never know. And minus another star for their guacamole. Not only was it sour, but the kitchen doesn’t do a great job with its rationing. Our portion of guacamole was itty bitty, but the party sitting directly in front of me, had double the amount of guacamole, which was upsetting.
And minus one more star for their mango fish ceviche. I asked the waiter, who was a bit standoffish, if he knew what type of fish it was. He mumbled «a white fish» and walked away to tend to the other tables. The ceviche is drowning in a sweet and sour mango-​like sauce, with diced up pieces of onion and red pepper. It also comes with a side of chips that you can use to scoop up the fish and to dip. I took one bite of the ceviche and I could not have anymore because of the horrible fishy after taste and stench. Yuck.

the servers are nice, the food is delicious. the guacamole is really different and amazingly good. the sangria is perfect. the margarita is great too. such a good place for happy hour. i’m surprised this place is not crowded. a hidden gem!

I knew this location as Beer Table and was excited to see what the new tenants would do with the space. They kept the communal tables, but reconfigured them a bit so as to be a bit more comfortable than before. The décor is minimal and beachy.
Don’t expect to eat dinner here, but the light snacks are really tasty. We got the molletes (toasted french bread with toppings) with the mushrooms/​cheese and chorizo/​cheese. They came two to a portion, which was perfect for swapping with a friend. We also got the guacamole since Fonda (their sister restaurant) is kinda famous for it. It was really good, but a bit on the spicy side.
They have a selection of Mexican wines which was a surprise to me, but actually rather tasty (and inexpensive!). The server ran out of the one we were drinking and ended up giving us a free glass of another wine as an apology, which was more than he needed to do but very appreciated. You can tell the staff cares and will go out of their way to make you comfortable.
Particularly if you’re waiting on a table for dinner elsewhere in the neighborhood, this is a great place for a drink and a bite!

Great drinks, yummy snacks. We were sent here when our Fonda table wasn’t ready (they are related) and as soon as we got our drinks, our table opened up. Fonda held our table & we relished our drinks.

Had a perfect early New Years Eve celebration here. Cozy, quiet and very festive! The molletas, with Spanish ham, were mouth watering.
So glad to have discovered this place!

i’m a little selfish and want to keep this place in my back pocket as the neighborhood gem, but I also want them to succeed and thrive (which doesn’t seem like it’ll be a problem if they keep up this quality). I also suspect that I’ll be camping out here during the winter months since I am ADDICTED to their hot toddys.
It’s a great (but tiny) spot for an intimate date and small bites. Perfect on a weeknight, but a little tricky on weekends given the limited tables. Also, if you’re shy, you might not dig the communal table setup (I think it’s rather novel in a lovely way though).

Stopped in for happy hour because who can resist $ 5 margaritas. In addition I also ordered the tortilla española for $ 7 which came with aioli and tomatoes plus a small thing of red onions (maybe they were radishes — not sure). The margarita was nice and strong and came on the rocks. And the tortilla came with a nice basket of bread to also dip into my aioli.
Their menu isn’t too extensive, there are a few bigger bite dishes but its mostly tapas. I like that this place is all high tops and gives off the relaxed bar vibe. Ambiance is great for a date night. Lots of candles everywhere.

I was sorry to see Beer Table go but thins is a nice replacement. I had a pineapple ginger cocktail — delicious. We ordered 4 tapas plates — Spanish omelette had a very tasty sauce; meatballs with eggs; eggplant dip; white bean and pork stew. All were tasty though the white bean dip was the least flavorful. Overall I expected more flavors like Fonda– these dishes did not seem related at all. But I still enjoyed them, and I will return. I’d personally like a little more spice — perhaps we ordered wrong. The omelette chili sauce was the only spicy item we got.
Nice atmosphere. Can be crowded but most people there seem to be waiting for a table at Fonda so turnover is high.

A sweet little tapas place with not so comfy stools, small plates that are tasty/​from a small menu and a nice wine list. It was dark and cozy and we were never rushed. Small and intimate, my only complaint was how spicy a few of the items were, for me too spicy w/​not enough warning or I might have ordered a bit differently.

I’m on the fence with giving this 3.5 and 4 stars but feel if I come back and tried more of their tapas I’d probably up my rating anyway. Yes, this is review number 3−0−0. Why am I picking this place? Because I really love Roberto Santibanez’ style of authentic yet contemporary Mexican cuisine. When I heard he was opening a new small tapas/​wine bar in south slope, nearly across the street from his flagship restaurant ‘Fonda’ I decided this was a must. My plans having got canceled this weekend to go here, I managed to convince my pal Finlay into a little jaunt over after watching Sandra Bullock flip over endlessly for two hours.
Their happy hour is quite reasonable and goes from I believe 5pm-​7pm: $ 6 margaritas, $ 4 wine, $ 3 beer. I went with the margs because the wine special was only for Sauv. Blanc that night and the beer were cans of either Narragansett or Pork Slap. They have other beers priced around $ 5 – 8, so don’t get your knickers in a twist. But the margarita was absolutely one of the smoothest that I have had in a long time. Nothing special but just very quality ingredients. I feel this would be the perfect happy hour actually if you are stuck waiting for a table at Fonda because that place gets packed on a Thursday-​Saturday night. I do kind of wish though that some of the specialty cocktails were on the happy hour as well because I really wanted to try their old fashioned or find out what an izzy’s sweet iced tea is with bourbon, black tea, chai, and st. germaine. Uh.. .. yeah. Things on my to do list.
My friend wasn’t especially hungry.. . yet.. .. so I didn’t feel compelled to try every single tapas on this venture, but I wanted to try at least ‘something’ and went with the tortilla espanola. It’s a Spanish style potato omelet with pimenton aioli and teardrop tomatoes with a generous scattering of pickled shredded beets on the side, deconstructed in so that the omelet is staring at you up-​right. Interesting I must say. The flavors are very subtle though so its nothing to write home about; but I also didn’t not enjoy it. I feel I ordered the wrong thing to be flabbergasted though. They have a $ 16 charchuteria plate that comes with Spanish ham, chorizo, marcilla, and smoked duck with house-​made pickles, warm bread, and aioli dipping sauce. That or the smoked trout or meatballs sound like the stand-​out items.
I like what they’ve done with the place. This used to be Beer Table. Rip. I went there a number of times but they had incredibly over-​priced beer and appetizers. Not exactly shocked its gone for a very tiny spot on a quiet street. Exact same lay-​out but with different brighter colors and a bunch of Edgar Allan Poe birds stuck to the wall. I hope this sticks around long enough to re-​visit the little spot. It’s a neat addition to a neighborhood over-​run with baby strollers, which odds are, you will not find in here.