Boqueria is an east coast Spanish tapas chain. The food here is quintessential Spanish shareables, including large paellas. We originally ate here with some friends in the Upper East, but we have also tried this restaurant in Flatiron. Reservations are fairly easy to secure, and it does get busy during core hours. If you have a decent sized party, this is probably a decent restaurant to bring folks that might be into family style sharing.

I had stumbled drunk here back in 2018 not realizing it was a Michelin restaurant. Fortunately, it was on our list to come back to have a more proper dinner where our memory would still function. Our friends wanted a taste of a Michelin type of experience, and in lieu of a tasting menu, we opted for a more shareable format. Reservations are fairly easy to come by, so on a Sunday night, the restaurant wasn’t super full at 5 PM. Casa Mono still today maintains 1 Michelin Star.

Spanish stuff. Cheap decent lunch.