July 31, 2023

I was excited to try Boqueria Restaurant, which opened relatively recently in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago. I’ve been trying to find a superb Spanish Tapas restaurant since my favorite – Salero – closed in 2018. While I found the food at Boqueria fine, there was nothing really too stand-out here.

I think my favorite thing about this restaurant is the vibe here. The bar and all of the walls are decorated with canned Spanish food items from tomato sauces to anchovies. The mood is lively and I loved the design of this place, apart from the seating. The vast majority of the seating here is at high top tables, and the seating is all wood and at right angles. It’s not super comfortable for a long night of tapas, and I don’t know why any restaurant thinks that high top tables are a good idea. It’s a bad, uncomfortable design choice, unless you don’t want people sitting inside and spending money for a long time.

Boqueria has an excellent happy hour menu though, with half-priced drinks and cheap tapas from 3-6pm. We got here a bit before 6, so we were able to take advantage with some charcuterie, Manchego cheese, and pan con tomate. We also had some bacon-wrapped dates which were super flavorful and delicious. These were some of my favorite tapas and bites of the evening.

We then ordered the “Boqueria Experience,” which included a bunch of classic tapas, paella, and Jamon Iberico. This is where things really skewed towards average. I was really excited for the two types of croquetas – mushroom and ham, but these were both pretty bland and flavorless. While crispy, I would say I was pretty disappointed.

We had Boqueria’s “Maiz Rustido” which is apparently a signature dish. Again, this was bland and uninteresting. Plus, corn is just not really a thing in Spain, so I feel like this took away from the authenticity of the experience as well.

The gambas al ajillo were pretty good, although not the best I’ve had. I did enjoy the spices that they had here though, as this was a step up from some of the other dishes.

Next came the paella, which is where this tasting experience really shined. While there was no real socarrat (the savory sticky/crunchy rice on the bottom of the paella pan), the rice was indeed super flavorful, and there was gobs of seafood here. There was a massive amount of paella and we took a whole bunch home to eat as leftovers.

Finally, we ordered a bunch of churros, which were super fresh and flaky, and came with a few different dipping sauces. Definitely nothing to complain about here!

Overall, I found many of the dishes lacking in flavor or interest here, however this is a fine place to come for a few bites of tapas and some delicious Spanish wine (they do have a great wine menu here!). I would suggest trying a few tapas and checking out the paella, which is very generously portioned for the price. Otherwise, I’m still looking for a premiere tapas place in Chicago that can hold a candle to what I’ve experienced all around Spain.