Boca Botanas Tapas - Gaithersburg

Yesterday evening at the bar food picked up and the bartender literally took our used dirty cups to refill our drinks and take our cups directly into the ice box. No new cups! Dirty cups right at the icebox. WTF! Never again, so rough!!!!

My bf came and I came here for Date Night. This is our second time here. We've been since our 1st. In May 2022 no longer there for my birthday, so we wanted to try again. We remember that the food is good and the price is fair. We came there 15 minutes before Happy Hour ended, so we were pretty stolen. We ordered a few things from the HH menu. The HH menu had few articles, quite basic and was not too impressed, but ordered 2 dishes from there. What we ordered-Happy Hour:-Chicken empanada $10.50)-Grilled Columbian Chorizo $11) Essen Regular menu:-Pichana: Brazilian grilled steak, Habanero rub, truffle garlic yucca $31)-Brussel sprouts $12)-Seafood paella $36)Drinks: - Beer from happy hour menu Not safe starting Both elements from the HH menu were not good. The presentation was not good either, as if we had done it ourselves. Food from the regular menu was the biggest disappointment. When we saw how the court was brought to us, we couldn't believe they'd charge it for $31. She didn't look appetizing and was shocked by the expensive piece of steak was over boiled. Luckily we sent it back and we ordered the seafood Paella, which costs $36, but they calculated us $31 only the same price as the Pichana). The seafood paella tasted better. If I had to get the best dish from the 5 articles we had, I would say that the Brussel shoots were sad, I know). For the cost of this meal, we could have just walked somewhere else and got some better tasting or spent less and taste so good if not better. Would we come back and recommend? Never again.

So I tried this tapas place for the first time and I have two main reasons for the three star rating, food and attitude. My wife and I went in and asked to see the menu before I sit down. The staff was very friendly and shared information about the happy hour prices. They also answered professional concerns with some food restrictions. We decided to sit and try. What we ordered: Beverages and 5 vegetarian/vegan tapas. In drinks we ordered Hibiscus Fizz and Spicy Jalapeño Mezcalita. The Spicy Jalapeño Mezcalita was well balanced, but only needed a little more sweetness to balance the lemonade and the jalapeños. But it was really good, and that wouldn't matter to me. The Hibiscus Fizz was a bit disappointing for me, but not for my wife. For me, I couldn't taste the Hibiscus, just Grapefruit-Limonade. For food we had Adobo Yucca Fries, Spicy Brussel Sprouts, Olivia Crostini, Vegetables Empanadas, Arepa Con Queso and Buffalo Cauliflowers. With our order we received four spices from Garlicaioli to a spicy Chutney. The four sauces were great together and as we found out, you need to make the tapas your own tasting. The Yuccaries were great and went well with the spicy and sweet sauce. I would have loved a lot for the price of these tapas, but overall it was satisfied. A surprise hit was the Arepa con Queso, which tastes for every Indian out there like makki rotla with Chutney. The cheesepot was not exaggerated and the lateral Veggie mix went well with the maize bread as it was able to absorb the flavors easily. I also loved the Spicy Brussel Sprouts. They were not necessarily spicy, but had a great taste. I would definitely press on the fresh lemon as it exaggerated any other taste. Dive into sauces, although allowed to wash the lemon and add unique flavors. Olivia Crostini was dry. With so much bread, garlic ioli alone is not enough to neutralize the dryness of bread. It could also have been helped with more tomatoes and herbs to add flavor and moisture. Again I added sauces, but the bread was more on the dry side. Now the dishes I didn't like. The herbal empanadas were very hard to crack, literally. I wanted to cut through the butter knife, but that didn't work. I tried to stick it with the knife, but that didn't work. I was able to crack it open with some strength with my fork but. The hard crust damaged me. Everything would have been worth it if it wasn't that dirty. Although it was mixed with varieties of vegetables, the potato mash was the main component and since it was not seasonal, I felt a choir in the equipment both empanadas when my wife did not want to eat it after the attempt. In addition, the buffalo cauliflower was boiled properly, but too sour to bring it down. When the last dish came, after the lemon heavy drinks and lemon heavy Brussels sprouts, I could not eat the buffalo cauliflower and had to pack it for the next day. Now the setting: it was cold. I mean, it was pretty cold and no room heaters around. My legs felt it the night. Secondly, I was wrongly charged for a drink after the entrance was already printed. I believe the owners/employees friends who were in the bar before our arrival had ordered it and it was placed on my tab. It could have been an honest mistake, but if I hadn't checked twice, I would have paid for someone else's drinks. Overall, I believe that certain dishes are really great and others could improve. But if I order from here again, it can take place in winter.

Calamari is very different from the Italian style, deep fried with coconut. Scallops is normal, but the potato salad below is amazing! Very delicious. You have happy hours.

Came here for date night. Made a 6 o'clock reservation on a Saturday. When we first walked in, it was empty except one table. I actually initially felt silly for making a reservation at first, but that changed within minutes of sitting and the place was full. Asked the waitress, who was very helpful and attentive, if I should get a Paloma or a Mango Margarita... she steered me right. The Marg was the perfect. Level of sweet, sour and punch. We ordered the jalapeño relleño, churrasco, and aguachile cheviche. The relleño was ok. I liked the spice. Didn't like the olives. The churrasco meat was yummy, good flavor and crust on the meat. I make a kick ass chimichurri at home, and was wanting this one to be more herbaceous, less like a dressing. The cheviche was good! Loved the onion, citrus and herbaceous notes. Some plantain chips were crispier than others.The best part... the tres leches! So creamy and coconut flavor came across strong. Hubby, who is not a dessert guy, said he would come back just for that. It was awesome.It may be a bit before we come back with all of these new places to explore... but we will absolutely come here again.