Hotel Tortuga

Hotel Tortuga is a very small restaurant, but I just love it here. I first came here about a month ago for dinner with my boyfriend and it slowly became my «go to» spot. What it lacks in size, it makes up in authenticity.
The food is absolutely amazing in my opinion, and the staff is always cool and friendly. Although, I admit that on my first visit here, it was super hot and humid which made it a bit uncomfortable, but all in all I recommend this place and hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Bad experience on a Sunday afternoon. It was so uncomfortably humid and warm in this place that my reading glasses fogged up trying to read the menu. The otherwise friendly staff should have had the courtesy to warn me that it would take about 20 – 25 minutes for the food to arrive. The staff while polite seemed bored and like they wanted to be far far away. The BBQ tempeh on my plate tasted bad. Need I say more?

Taco Tuesday and didn’t feel like making them myself. My veg daughter ate everything. I’m a huge fan of their kale and squash tacos. Everyone was nice and it’s free chips and salsa. I love that everything had flavor and the tacos are filling.

This place is a wonderful neighborhood joint! My friend and I came in around 4:30 on a Tuesday because we were in the area and starving. We were pleasantly surprised to see a lunch special still going on! You can order two small plates for less than $ 8. My friend and I decided to do that and split four dishes. The food was really really good — some of the best Mexican I’ve had in the city.
This place is unassuming from the outside, but the décor on the inside is amazing! They have crayons on each table, a really funky mirror, and artwork from patrons hanging on the wall. It has good vibes and an even better waitstaff. Our server was friendly and attentive and definitely made our experience that much better!
I will 100% recommend this place to small groups (of 2 – 4 people) who are near Union Square and want a satisfying meal in a welcoming location. And I will definitely be coming back here soon!

I was skeptical when I was taken to this place, but I am so glad I was in the end. Good Mexican food seems to be sparse in New York City, and many times overpriced in areas where people don’t know any better. This place though knows what they’re doing. It doesn’t have to be «authentic», it needs to be done well. And they do it very well.

I came here for lunch yesterday and what a great experience it was. My mom and I both ordered the lunch special which was pick two items for $ 7.95 and the food was delicious. It also came with chips and salsa which are free and self-​serve for dine in customers. The margarita were great too — surprisingly strong!
The place is pretty small but it is certainly proof that hole-​in-​the-​wall spots have great food and wonderful service!

Excellent service. Super cute small East Village feel. Sanfran and such entered my mind. Yoga friends would like. College kids too. More than enough food for your buck. Good amount of alcohol as well although both choices of alcohol were too sweet.

During my visit in New York, my cousin who has never been here before asked if I wanted to go and try it out with her. You could say that we were satisfied with the meal and our experience here. I got the chicken bowl (can’t remember the name) :p and she got a veggie bowl. As a vegetarian (cousin) she wasn’t quiet sure what she would like and the lady there was kind enough to give her samples to see which one she would like. Now that’s some good service, also the guy was very friendly as well he likes to get the conversation going with a positive attitude. The bowl I got came with bean paste, chicken with cheese, rice, lettuce tomatoes and sour cream. It was filling and it was really good. The price is good too for the portion you get and self serve chips & salsa! Let’s just say the next time I fly out to New York I know which Mexican restaurant to go to!

Wow. I think I just found my new favorite hole in the wall in NYC. Everything about this place– the food, the drinks, the ambience, the setup– all amazing.
It’s a pretty small restaurant and only a few tables were full for dinner time on Saturday night, but the place quickly filled up by 9pm or so. After being seated, we were told to help ourselves to the complimentary salsa bar. This salsa is TO DIE FOR.
I ordered two tacos and my friend ordered a quesadilla. So many amazing veggie options to choose from, and the portions are so filling! We also ordered a half pitcher of frozen sangria ($ 13) which is ea great deal for how much you get and so delicious.
My friend and I were both so stuffed and the bill came to about ~$ 20 each including drinks: amazing for this area! This place is definitely no frills– paper placements and napkins, plastic cups– but they manage to make it so fun as well. There are crayons on every table and a wall covered in placemat crayon drawings. My friend said the «weirdness» of the place reminded her of restaurants in Austin. Definitely not your average NYC restaurant! I’ll definitely be back.

I miss Curly’s dearly, but the Hotel Tortuga «reincarnation» scratches a few of the left over itches. This adorable Mexican joint is hardly authentic, but it’s delicious anyway. Oversized burritos may be stuffed with interesting ingredients like butternut squash, garlicky kale and hominy or you can stick with the old standbys like chicken, beans and rice. The food is crazy fresh. The salsa that comes with the free, self-​serve chips is on point, and the frozen margs will totally knock you on your ass. Don’t forget to draw a pretty picture to hang on their wall of fame, another kitschy remnant from the Curly’s régime, Okay, fine, I’ll stop talking about Curly’s. Hotel Tortuga is yummy, friendly and fast. It’s a great place to pop in for an affordable and fun dinner before a show at Webster Hall. It’s definitely going into my rotation of regular joints to frequent before Boys & Girls thanks to it’s hours — open until Midnight on Friday and Saturday!

Drunkenly stumbled in here looking for drunken holy grail: tacos. Loved how tasty and big the tacos were! Will come back sober to accurately try the tacos, but Drunk Devin approves.

This is a great spot for vegans and vegetarians because they have so many options. They open at 11am and they serve breakfast options all day!
They have waiter service and it’s a small place with casual décor. I thought it was funny that they gave us crayons on the table. Then when I noticed the drawings hung up on the wall I realized this must be a kid friendly place. Or maybe the childish drawings are from adults who want to reminisce about there childhood? Either way, the food we had was great, as well as the service. If you are looking for something fancy I would go elsewhere, but for a vegan friendly casual Mexican place, I think it’s excellent.

I really love this place as an avid Mexican from Los Angeles. I’ve been here twice so far and the servers are all super friendly and professional. The huevos rancheros were great I love their use of black beans as opposed to refried beans. Black beans are my favorite.
While the huevos rancheros were good I thought the chilaquiles were just okay so beware. Love this place, I’ve been looking for a good, reasonably cheap Mexican place for a while now. And it has vegetarian options.

The staff here are so, so, soooo nice! Fe who works on Sunday is awesome!
The food is a great value. Bonus is the complimentary chips and salsa. So tasty. I came here today with my teenage siblings and when we left, all they could mention was how the staff, especially Fe, were so friendly! Very much appreciated! Also, there are crayons at every table and a wall of customer artworks. Feels like a real community restaurant. Fe let us choose a spot for my younger sister’s work! Thx, Fe!

I’m not sure how this place has good reviews. Wow. I would rather go to chipotle or dos toros nearby. I ordered a carnitas burrito and it was warm and the meat was COLD! There is a complimentary salsa bar which is a nice touch in NYC which is customary in normal cities with decent Mexican food. The salsa flavor is sub par at best.
Go to Taco Bell!

I ordered the Pork Carnitas whole wheat burrito with black beans. While it was more expensive than Chipotle and Dos Toros, I like it better. The pork was really moist and flavorful. There are many vegetarian options here; they had a butternut squash burrito that I will probably try next time. I had a bite of my friend’s vegetarian chorizo burrito and it was actually really good.
Also, their chips and salsa is free here. The salsa here is amazing. I wanted to take the whole jar and chug it…

A group of 4 of us came here on a Friday night and we were lucky that we were seated within 30 minutes. This place is SUPER small, very few tables, but the wait was worth it. They were also super accomodating by willing to give us a call when a table opened up (so we just hung out at a bar across the street in the meantime).
They have self-​serve chips. Admittedly, the paper bowls for the chips were a tad on the small side such that we had to make more than 3 trips back to the chip shelf before we were satisfied. Recommended dishes is anything with the veggie chorizo, it packs the right punch (at least it did in the quesadilla we had). And the kale and sweet potato nachos was interesting — it tasted much more healthy and hearty than traditional nachos (whether more healthy, who knows). However, I was indifferent with their frozen sangria — didn’t necessarily like it but didn’t hate it either.
Hotel Tortuga is a solid place, I just wish it was bigger so that the waits here would be abolished.

A great option for a cheaper, authentic Mexican meal in the city.
Hotel Tortuga is a smaller restaurant, with friendly servers and a free self-​serve chips and salsa cabinet! You don’t see that often in New York City’s Mexican restaurants so take advantage.
As for the meal, I tried the chicken tinga quesadilla which was very large. The accompanying rice, beans, lettuce, and pico de gallo was my favorite part of the dish — everything so fresh, flavorful and delicious! Chicken tinga is a mildly spicy shredded chicken. Not to mention it was only $ 7.50!

Pros: HUGE delicious burritos, friendly wait staff, hipster vibe
Cons: inefficient service (filling water, delivering food, turning over tables, self-​service chips/​salsa), HOT (no A/​C, only one overhead fan for the whole place!), small space (although this can be a plus)
Not a «fancy» Mexican place (gag), just a dependable, authentic, delicious source for good eats.

Was looking for a place for dinner with the bf when we walked right by this place! I had my eye on Hotel Tortuga when I walked by with my sister once and it said Mexican and vegetarian! We walked in and it was the teeny tiniest place. Only a few tables that was severely close to each other. This would make a fire hazardous hotel!
The interiors were so cool. Some say it’s like being transported back into 1950s Mexico, I say it’s a Wes Anderson film set. The colors were so playful and I felt like I was in the Latin American version of the Grand Budapest Hotel.
Tortuga means turtle in Spanish. I call my bf turtle as a joke sometimes. I thought it would be great to eat here since we both love Mexican food and I’m a vegetarian and the BF’s a tortuga.
We both eyed the menu and simultaneously decided on burrito bowls. I got the room 66 with soy chorizo and the bf got the Phoenix rising with chicken tinga.
While we waited, chips and salsa were self served on the counter. Chips were average, tasted like they were out of a bag. The salsa however, as kind of unfresh as it looked sitting there for God know how long, was the bomb. Delicious!!! We later found out it was all roasted before turning into delicious salsa. Loved the charred pieces that we thought were black beans mixed in, and with the perfect amount of heat, it was excellent and unlike anything we’ve tried. We went back to get third and fourth helping of the yummy-​ness.
Our burrito bowls were pretty huge. However the black bean ratio was way too much compared to the pico de gallo and sour cream and tiny bit of guac I paid extra for. We ended up ordering whole wheat tortillas just because it was a burrito bowl that needed a the wrap. So much better.
I couldn’t tell what was missing in my burrito. Maybe a helping of onions in my chorizo to help out the flavor. And a whole lot more of pico and sour cream?
Really decent Mexican food with great veggie options. Great service and amazing must-​have salsa. Would definitely come back!