Botaneria Villa Maria

Great service (there were 16 of us), delicious food, yummy sangria and a mariachi band. What's not to like? This restaurant is LOUD because everyone is having a great time. Look for the soup made with pumpkin flower it was very unusual but excellent.

This restaurant is in the quieter business district and we decided it would be ideal to wind down after a day of meetings. The decor is good and the restaurant is clean with very welcoming staff who speak good English. I always like to try the local cuisine when I travel and was expecting Fajitas, Burritos, etc. Absolutely not! There is a lot more to Mexican food than I thought with some great flavors. I went for the Arrachera Nortena beef dish which was served with soft tortilla. very tasty and not too filling. The deserts were amazing and expertly presented What was a great surprise was the traditional Mexican band that sauntered between the table playing local music. The guys looked great too! Overall a totally enjoyable experience and only a short walk

If you are in a business visit to Mexico Santa Fe, want to try genuine Mexican food but have read many horror stories about the associated dangers, this is your place. Instead of staying at the hotel, you may safely venture out into this large and clean restaurant and try botanas, traditional small dishes you may share with all the table, accompanied by tortillas, beer and tequila with sangrita (spicy cold tomato aperitif). If you consider yourself an expert in specialist mexican beers and aged (reposado) tequilas or mezcales you will not be super impressed, but the selection is reasonable. On top of the standard botana fare and if you feel venturous, you may still try gusanos (worms) or escamoles (ant larvae) in season: these are safe (usually kept frozen). Service a bit slow when crowded, but overall a good experience. Prices on the medium high level as everywhere in Santa Fe, but probably lower than the hotel dinner or room service.

I visited for late lunch. I wanted something regular, not too big. So I ordered a Limonada, and order of Guacamole with nachos, a local Pumpkin soup with veggies and for dessert the house Flan. The service was very well, active, they attend all my requests and answered all my questions with good attitude and a smile. I recommend you to try this place. In the menu they have things I would like to try in my next visit.

We went to the Villa Maria in Polanco the night before, so there is a comparison here. Food wise it is equally as good here, if not better. Cousin ordered something very exotic and everyone seemed to enjoy the dishes. Mariachi here was a bit weak compared to the other place, they only performed for a short time and was not seen for the remaining of the evening (it was a weekday). Service definitely could use a lot of improvement. It was slow often times, and we had to request water refill too many times with multiple servers before someone finally bought water over. Besides delivering the dishes, our server was never anywhere to be found. The restaurant was busy, but definitely not busy enough for service to be so compromised. Overall, I would not recommend this place.