Boqueria is a small Spanish tapas-style restaurant with two locations in NY. I’ve eaten only at the Flatiron location, and having worked in the area for the past few years, I can tell you this restaurant is always packed. If you are going to go, go early, as reservations aren’t accepted and the line is out the door as the night progresses.
The proprietor is Chef Seamus Mullen, who is not Spanish himself, but has worked his way around Spain and fell in love with Spanish cooking. You may have heard of him as a contestant on the first season of “The Next Iron Chef”, on the Food Network. Chef Mullen doesn’t spend too much time with the restaurants anymore, and now leaves it in the hands of Chef Marc Vidal, who is of Spanish background, and has been running Boqueria for the past year.
After wanting to come here for years, I finally made my way in last week for lunch. From the outside the restaurant was seemingly quiet, to the point I thought they were not even open that day, but that thought quickly changed as I walked in and saw every table was full. Let me also mention, I walked in just 15 minutes after they opened. The décor is very simple, with beige and dark brown colors running through the room, from the floors to the tables & chairs, and even the waitstaff uniforms. Serrano hams hang by their legs in the window, and the bar area up front displays a variety of Spanish cured olives and cheeses.
