SFReview
photo credit: Remy Galvan-Hale
Bonita Taqueria y Rotisserie
Will TNT keep churning out new crime series season after season? Yes. Will San Francisco keep opening tasty if unoriginal Mexican restaurants until the end of time? Yes. And you know what? Sometimes we actually tune in to Bones, and sometimes we actually care to try another Mexican place, even if it’s not the most exciting spot in the city. Bonita is a TNT crime drama of a restaurant. The food is tasty, but there’s a little bit of a cheapness to it that makes it seem like it might not make it more than a few seasons. But we’ll enjoy it while it lasts, and even encourage other people to hop on the bandwagon.
The setup is order at the counter, take a number, and wait for your food, which generally comes out pretty quickly. After that, you’ll grab a bar seat – the ones on the sidewalk are stellar for wasting a warm afternoon eating chips and drinking sangria and watching the Chestnut Street humans.
Bonita’s food is a little hit or miss. The menu is pretty standard Mexican, with salads, tacos, burritos, bowls, and fajitas, plus quesadillas and sides. The carne asada, carnitas, and rotisserie chicken are all usually great, but the chicken can be kind of dry and the pastorcito is devastatingly salty. The portions are big, especially the bowls and awesome salads, and they have a strong take-out game as well. But sometimes stuff just doesn’t work out: orders get messed up, or your salad is mostly just bottom ends of romaine. This is TNT quality service. WE WANT AMC QUALITY.
When we’re in the neighborhood, Bonita is a good option for a quick burrito and beer in a place that’s a little happier than Toma and a lot easier than the other Mexican options around. It’s definitely not going to win any awards, but Bonita knows how to satisfy its audience.