Boca Botana's - Gaithersburg

I had an amazing experience with the vegetarian food at this restaurant! The manager, Mr. John, was incredibly kind, courteous, and professional—his hospitality deserves a big shout-out. He offered some great suggestions for dishes that perfectly suited our dietary needs, and we truly appreciated that. This is definitely a place you should try. Trust me, you won't be disappointed by a visit to this cozy spot. We dined there just last evening and are already planning to return with a larger group of friends. Thank you, Mr. John, for your warm hospitality and the delicious food!

**Ambiance:** The restaurant is tucked away in a random strip mall next to a Boost Mobile and Planet Fitness, so it doesn’t look like much from the outside. Inside, it’s quite small and more casual than I expected. It gave off a vibe more suited to a simple Tex-Mex chips and salsa place. Given the reviews and the price point, I anticipated a nicer setting. **Food:** We ordered several different tapas, and everything ranged from mediocre to outright terrible. The dishes were bland, soggy, and overcooked—just disappointing across the board. A few items we tried included the Chorizo Tacos, Chicken Empanadas, Pulled Chicken Tostones, Elote Locos Nachos, Churrasco, Bacon Wrapped Dates, and two different soups. Everything featuring chicken was extremely dry, flavorless, and unappetizing. My brother-in-law’s churrasco steak, which should have been medium rare, was overcooked to well done. The bacon-wrapped dates (the only dish I managed to snap a picture of) were tiny and completely burnt. The menu claimed they were thick, center-cut pieces of bacon, but what we got was the saddest bacon I’ve ever seen. The Chorizo Tacos, priced at $5 each, were quite small and had a strange taste that didn’t resemble any chorizo I’ve ever had. Overall, the food quality was on par with Applebee’s, which didn’t justify the high prices. We also ordered a carafe of red sangria that, if you had told me was just juice, I would have believed it—there wasn’t a trace of alcohol in it. **Service:** Our waitress was very friendly, which was at least a plus. It did take a bit for her to greet us, as I noticed her fixing her lipstick at the bar, but she was nice nonetheless. We’re not the type to send food back, so we didn’t give the restaurant a chance to rectify any of the issues. My brother did want to send back the burnt bacon-wrapped dates, but we didn’t want to deal with that hassle since we were all there for a brief visit together. Again, I don’t understand the high reviews for this place—maybe we just hit it on a really bad night—but I can’t recommend this restaurant if you’re in the area, and we definitely won’t be back.

If you're in search of delicious tapas in a lively atmosphere with friendly staff, this is the place to visit. The food is absolutely fantastic, and the drinks are equally impressive. We were amazed by the variety of meats on the platter, accompanied by perfectly cooked yuca, Brussels sprouts, and carrots, each bursting with flavor. This restaurant is definitely a must-try, and I will certainly be spreading the word about it. I'm looking forward to coming back. The only downside—if you can call it that—is that they don’t have additional locations yet, but I’ve heard they are considering that option. I can’t wait to see what they decide!

Finally tried this place, but generally we are very disappointed with the service and food. We ordered 5 dishes. 1 never got sent to the kitchen so we eventually cancelled it, each of the other four missed either sauce or ingredients. The server didn't realize it until we asked. Seems like the chef/staff didn't know or care what they are doing. Saffron scallops were way overcooked. The seafood paella was $36 with a fairly small portion. Most importantly, the mussels in it are made from frozen not fresh ones.

So the food was good, kind of tapas style small portions and whatnot which is fine. Service was ok, they were nice and gave a complimentary birthday shot to the birthday girl. Everything was pretty great until the check came. So our bill was something like 225ish$ and of course there?s a automatic gratuity added with a larger party. (We didn?t split the check either) The problem was it wasn?t 20% .. it was 35% plus some kind of additional 5% charge so they generously gave themselves a 40% tip of a 220$ check. The auto tip was 90$ ..... The usual 20% tip would have been around 45. I thought about making an issue of it but didn?t want to ruin the mood so just paid and left. 2 stars for the cooks in the back doing a great job and minus 3 stars for getting robbed