Haab

202 Leonard St
Brooklyn, NY 11206
view map
718.388.4261

Cuisine: Mexican
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: All Major
Price: $
Hours: Sun-Thur 11am-11pm; Fri-Sat 11am-Midnight
Booze: Beer and Wine
Subway: L to Lorimer St.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
Metromix says:

Taking its name from an ancient Mayan solar calendar, this second outpost of the Woodside-based Mexican eatery aims to please the Williamsburg crowd with a menu of south-of-the border classics. Think tacos ($2.50), quesadillas and enchiladas, plus platters like mango-papaya fish and red or green chilaquiles ($7–$11). The colorful hand-painted paper lamps and rainbow-bright sign should attract crowds to the 20-seat (plus 10 outside!) space. Bonus: Hungover hipsters can soak up a long night with a hearty Mexican brunch (chorizo-stuffed omelettes) on weekends. Owner Joaquin Velasquez plans to have his wine and beer license set within a few weeks.

L Magazine says:

Haab appeared tucked away on a forgotten stretch of Leonard Street a few months ago and it’s a shame more people haven’t discovered it. Owner Joaquin Velazquez came to New York from Puebla and opened the first Haab in Woodside, Queens, in 2004. His Williamsburg outpost is a modest but stylish affair, 22 seats in a narrow, bright space decorated with handmade paper lanterns from Puebla and rows of colorful Jarritos bottles in the front window.

The first thing I ever ate here was the burrito, one of the best in the neighborhood. All of the meat here is cooked to order; not high standards for, say, an upscale locavore restaurant, but a welcome guarantee from a tiny Mexican joint. The chicken here is tender and rich with the taste of herbs and guajillo chili, stuffed inside a soft tortilla with Monterrey jack cheese, sour cream, pico de gallo, rice and black beans. The al pastor isn’t bad either. They marinate the pork in pineapple juice laced with three different roasted chilies. If you really want to get crazy, you can opt for the Haab, featuring both the chicken, al pastor and grilled steak in one Frankenstein of a burrito. Wash one of those babies down with a couple of Bohemias or Negra Modelos and you’ve got yourself the impetus to one hell of a nap.

The tacos are equally as good as the burritos, while the tortas are a bit lackluster. Luckily, Velazquez is expanding his menu in the weeks to come to include entrees like chicken smothered in mole poblano and grilled rib-eye steaks. In warm weather, the 10 metal seats on the sidewalk patio get filled with neighborhood locals downing Mexican food and sipping red wine sangria.

Now, don’t get me wrong; this isn’t cutting-edge Mexico City cuisine or a New Brooklyn take on Mexican. This is simple, home-style Mexican food, made with care and sold at recession-friendly prices. It’s also the best of its kind in the neighborhood, a perfect place to fill up on burritos and beer without breaking your bank account.

c/o Flickr

L.A. Burrito:
287 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn NY 11211
view map
718.782.7728

L.A. Burrito II:
345 Graham Avenue
Brooklyn NY 11211
view map
718.388.8215

Cuisine: Flavorless Mexican
Our Rating: ★
Cards: All Major
Price: $
Hours: L.A. Burrito: Sun-Thurs 11am-10pm; Fri-Sat 11am-12am; L.A. Burrito II: Sun-Thurs 11am-10pm; Fri-Sat 11am-11pm
Booze: None
Subway: L.A. Burrito: L to Bedford Ave. L.A. Burrito II: L to Graham Ave.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
We say:

Cliché Haight-Ashbury decorations adorn this bland burrito joint. Absolutely no attention is paid to food quality and preparation. These guys just wanna make a buck and apparently have no interest in pleasing the palate. A good place to go when you you are in a hurry, only have 5 bucks, and could give a damn about what you eat.

Cheap Ass Food says:

I go to this place so often that I figured it deserved a review here. I recommend most their tacos, which are fresh, filling, and cheap. You can get 3 regular tacos for 3 bucks!! But my favorite types of tacos are the chicken and broccoli. Keep in mind – this is Cali – Mex, not authentic Mexican. The tacos, quesadillas, and burritos are all excellent. This place is also health nut/vegan friendly. They have tofu sour cream, brown rice, and soy cheese options, and also lots of different vegetables you can add on to anything. I don’t know of that many cheap, healthy places in the Burg, so I end up visiting this place at least once a week.

c/o NY Mag

295 Berry St
Brooklyn, NY 11211
view map
718.388.5988

Cuisine: Mexican
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: Cash Only
Price: $$
Hours: Sun-Thurs 12:30pm-midnight; Fri-Sat 12:30pm-2am
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Bedford Ave.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
We say:

Hands down our favorite Mexican place in Williamsburg. Try the Brunch, it’s not to be missed. La Superior also gets extra points for carrying Mexican Coca-Cola which is the way to our hearts.

The Brooklyn Paper says:

If you want authentic Mexican food in Williamsburg, look no further than the street — Berry Street, that is. La Superior… serves Mexican “comida corrida y callejera,” or Mexican diner and street food, in a colorful eatery that is designed to evoke images of a typical Mexican dive bar or butcher shop. The food is “truly Mexican, without any pretense,” according to owner Iris Avelar, and ranges from savory snacks like “ezquites” — cups of cooked corn kernels with Mexican mayo, cheese and lime — to entrees like “pollo encacahuatado” — chicken with mole peanut sauce and broccoli, carrots and potatoes — or the exotic “nopal asado con queso” — grilled cactus with melted cheese. The menu will change regularly, but you can count on staples like beans, tacos and quesadillas. La Superior hasn’t gotten its liquor license yet, but they do have a juice bar, serving fresh drinks like “liquado de mamey” — a sweet melon smoothie — and Mexican “limonada,” which Avelar assured GO Brooklyn is “a really amazing lemonade like you’ve never had in your life.” For those Williamsburg bar-hoppers in search of something fast and fried, the restaurant is open till 1 am on weekdays and 2 am on weekends, and will also serve brunch on the weekends.

c/o The New York Times

171 Grand St
Brooklyn, NY 11211
view map
718.486.8761

Cuisine: Mexican Bakery/Cafe
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: Cash Only
Price: $
Hours: Mon-Fri 6am-9pm; Sat 6am-8pm; Sun 7am-3pm
Booze: None
Subway: L to Bedford Ave.
Delivery: No
We say:

This family-run bakery has been in the neighborhood for years and has never raised their prices. For about $2 you are hooked with a massive bacon egg and cheese sandwich and another 50 cents you get a great coffee (with warmed milk). The employees there have no attitude and will even teach you a little spanish if you’re nice. They also have an ass-kicking selection of other cheap ($2.50) sandwiches which will put you in a food coma for the remainder of the day – I go with the pork or the chicken sandwich personally. Everything is so good and cheap – you’ll find yourself eating a chicken soft taco at anytime of the day – even if you’re totally full!

The New York Times says:

WHEN are they going to change the cakes? La Villita, a Mexican bakery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has become a familiar presence on the corner of Bedford Avenue and Grand Street, with its curious window display of cakes. They look as though they were baked in the 1980s. Once-white icing has yellowed with time, marzipan rosettes have browned in the sunlight and dust has coated faded petals. Neighborhood residents often stop and check on the fossilized cakes. Some wonder if perhaps new ones have finally been baked, while others look to make sure they have not. Are the bakers avoiding the inevitable, like doing the laundry? A Busby Berkeley formation of storks and pink and blue babies decorates one cake. Dingy swans hold up the classical columns of a wedding cake in ruin. On a decrepit meringue island, a naked knockoff of a Barbie doll is marooned in the sugar sand next to an overturned toy bottle of champagne. The surreal scenes range from the absurdly comic to the nostalgic, like a snapshot of someone’s long-ago disastrous Communion. If La Villita’s kitschy, sprinkled confections were labeled as contemporary art, these creations might be ready for a gallery.

Inside, La Villita smells of café con leche. The walls are buttercup yellow, vibrating with the bass of Latin pop. Glass cases are filled with a pastel field of pink sweet buns, glossy guava-oozing pastries and their vanilla custard cousins, crispy, heart-shaped orejas (elephant ears, or, at French bakeries, palmiers), and conchas (shells). A pan of bright orange flan glistens with otherworldly texture and appeal. Alfonso Sosa, 40, baked the cakes in the window, frosting each with loops of lavender and sky blue. He cannot remember the exact date, but he noted that they were just meant to be samples. The edible ones, which he fills with pineapple, strawberry, chocolate, cherry or peach, made to order for $25, are pristine. Mr. Sosa arrives at 3:30 a.m. each day to bake everything himself at the family-run cafe, which he has owned for a dozen years. He has raised prices only reluctantly, by a nickel or dime.

Tasty soft tacos and sandwiches — Cuban, pulled pork or bacon, egg and cheese — are $2 to $4. Strong coffee (with warmed milk) is 60 cents. A chubby doughnut rolled in sugar is a quarter. Maribel Meza, 35, Mr. Sosa’s sister-in-law, works the morning shift at the counter, in front of a cellophane-wrapped crucifix hung next to a sign: “Please try our delicious baked goods.” At the mention of the cake adorned with the doll in the window, Ms. Meza remarked: “Oh, the sexy lady. Sometimes it’s embarrassing. It’s the most popular in the store.”

c/o Yelp

454 Graham Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
view map
718.389.7497

Cuisine: Mexican
Our Rating: ★ ★
Cards: All major
Price: $
Hours: Mon-Fri, 8am-10pm; Closed Weekends
Booze: Beer and wine
Subway: L to Lorimer St. or Graham Ave.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
Citysearch says:

A smattering of paintings by local artists and red walls constitute the bulk of the decor at this Mexican-American cafe. Comfy, worn-out armchairs provided sip spots for cappuccinos and lattes during the day, while servers sling burritos, tacos and burgers to the table seats in the evening. Locals swear by the fish tacos and complain about the sometimes pokey service. The long bar doubles as a pastry counter and mini library stocked with pamphlets from the neighborhood.

New York Mag says:

Opened in 2003 by Steven Camarillo and Lori Erlitz, this inexpensive restaurant by the BQE has a hip yet all-embracing feel. Its prefab decor of fake brick and stone-face walls-remnants of its former incarnations as a coffee shop, five-and-dime and, according to local legend, funeral parlor-is embellished with tin ornaments, Loteria cards and a glowing tank of exotic fish. Hearty entrees on the Mexican/Southwestern menu include fish tacos, which hold a flavorful, battered filet of sole with ripe fixings, beans and yellow rice plus tartar sauce by request; and Yoli’s enchiladas, topped with a mild green sauce, and best enjoyed with tender chicken rather than too-tough steak. Brunch draws an amiable crowd for crunchy French toast and delicious “Cele”citos-crispy corncakes with eggs, jack cheese and skin-on home fries. Service is reliably lackadaisical, but always friendly.

Mesa Coyoacan

372 Graham Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
view map
718.782.8171

Cuisine: Mexican
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: All major
Price: $$$
Hours: Mon-Fri 5pm-1am; Sat-Sun 12pm-1am
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Graham Ave.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: No
We say:

A traditional Mexican restaurant from chef Ivan Garcia, original menu designer for Barrio Chino and most recently chef de cuisine at Mercadito. There’s nothing avant-garde about the menu, most of which will seem familiar at first glance–his “grandma’s recipes,” as Garcia put it, down to house-made tortillas–albeit with modern touches such as Berkshire pork in the carnitas tacos and grass fed beef for the carne asada. Look for tacos (3 for $9), a sampling of ceviches, sopas, and tamales, as well as entrees, including enchiladas de mole, pork-and-fruit-stuffed poblanos topped with walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds, and spiced lamb in chile ancho, chile guajillo, and avocado leaves steamed in a banana leaf, none over $15. Those price points and the warm interior (Chino-style wood tables for up to 14; salvaged 1940s wallpaper; and actual family photos hovering over the dining space like a glowering abuelita) you can expect Coyoacan to finally turn the former Pampa Grill space in Graham Ave’s “Fish Tank” building into the destination those architects clearly meant it to be.

Metromix says:

Ivan Garcia, who for two years was Patricio Sandoval’s chef de cuisine at Mercedito, has flown the coop to open his first restaurant, in Williamsburg. It’s Mexican, natch, but unlike Sandoval, whose vividly flavored dishes tend to skew modern, Garcia is keeping his menu strictly traditional, with recipes handed down by his grandmother. (The restaurant’s name refers to the Mexican town where he was born.) La comida? Ceviche (octopus, shrimp, scallops), plus an array of tacos with a healthier twist—steak tacos are prepared al pastor (spit-grilled), while chile-laced fish tacos are grilled, not fried. Garcia is also serving traditional mixiotes—meats, such as lamb, cooked in banana leaves, which he pairs with cactus salad.

c/o NY Mag

102 Meserole Street
Brooklyn, NY 11206
view map
718.963.2960

Cuisine: Latin Fusion
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★
Cards: All major
Price: $$
Hours: 11am-Midnight Daily
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Montrose Ave.; J,M to Lorimer St.; G to Broadway
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
We say:

This Latin Fusion restaurant opened in February 2006. The delicious cerviche, the pulled pork, and the quesadillas are impeccable The quinoa & beans side is exquisite too. Plus, they have buy 1 get 1 free drink specials until 8pm. Mojito Loco offers free delivery until 11pm.

Gothamist says:

Restaurants that we’d recommend off the L train’s Montrose stop are few and rarely worth visiting twice. Mojito Loco is an exception, with recipes coming from the Peruvian chef-owner’s fearsomely delicious arsenal. The dining room itself is a vortex of well-kept neighborhood restaurant and ’80s music-video showcase house (think: Rod Stewart on repeat). And at Mojito Loco every hour is happy hour, which means extra-strong $5 margaritas in six flavors, mixed drinks for $7, and beer starting at $2.
The winning-est plate in the house is the roast chicken (pollo a la brasa) for $8.75, a half-bird rubbed down with a hearty dose of spices, meat melting off the bone. Rice and black beans are plated separately, and a creamy garlic mojo sauce, crucial for dipping, arrives in ramekin on the side. Plates arrive with little accoutrement, but do not disappoint. The meat in the steak sandwich is thinly sliced and grilled only with onion, scorching hot french fries on the side, and is best dunked in the same garlic sauce.
While food is straightforward, it takes advantage of traditional Latin-American ingredients — jicama, quinoa, yucca, rocoto sauce, and cotija cheese – making frequent appearances on the menu in ceviches, served over tilapia, and in marinades. Nearly all are worth trying, especially since the most expensive dish on the menu registers at $17.50, with more than half under $10. Service is attentive, but unhurried, with a single friendly waitress tending both house and bar.

c/o Grub Street

178 Kent ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
view map
347.384.2300

Cuisine: Mexican
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★
Cards: All major
Price: $$$
Hours: Tue-Fri 12pm-4pm (lunch), 4pm-11pm (dinner), Sat-Sun 12pm-4pm (brunch), 12pm-12am (dinner)
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Bedford Ave.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
Zagat says:

There’s one thing hipsters love almost as much as skinny jeans (hint: it usually involves margaritas and a side of guacamole). Residents of Williamsburg should be psyched to learn that Mexican restaurant Móle, which has a few locations below 14th Street in Manhattan, has opened an outpost in the ‘hood. The new location has been quietly serving for a few weeks, and you can expect a menu of standards like burritos, quesadillas and fajitas. Drinkers in the ’nabe (aka pretty much everyone) can knock back a few prickly pear margaritas at the mosaic bar, where indoor and outdoor seating are available.

Papacitos

999 Manhattan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11222
view map
718.349.7292

Cuisine: Mexican
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: All major
Price: $$
Hours: Sun-Wed 9am-11pm; Thurs 9am-11:30pm; Fri-Sat 9am-1am
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: G to Greenpoint Ave.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
NY Mag says:

With ample use of bright colors and fake palm trees, co-owner (and Brooklyn Label founder) Cody Utzman modeled Greenpoint’s go-to Mexican joint after a West Coast beach town, without the sand. Classics here, however, don’t hide Brooklyn-friendly twists. The number of taco fillings (or nacho toppings) including chicken, beef, pork, chorizo, carne asada, and grilled tilipa, is rivaled by vegetarian/vegan counterparts like grilled veggies, seiten asada, spicy tempeh, and soyrizo. You can get your burrito chimichanga style (fried and topped with salsa) or “wet” (smothered in enchilada sauce, cheese, and sour cream). Seating expands to an outdoor patio that stays busy through summer. If you want to linger, art for sale on the walls makes for a good topic of conversation, but proceed with caution when discussing the not-for-sale collage of Farrah Fawcett circa Charlie’s Angels in the men’s room.

c/o Grub Street

168 Wythe Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
view map
718.388.8833

Cuisine: Seafood/Mexican
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★
Cards: All Major
Price: $$$
Hours: Dinner/Brunch Hours TBD
Menu: www.rosaritofish.com
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Bedford Ave.
Delivery: No
The Downtown Diaries says:

The moment we’ve all been waiting for… or maybe just I’ve been waiting for… Rosarito Fish Shack / Mezcal Tequila Bar officially opens today in the old Williamburg Cafe spot.  This Mexican pescaderia & cevicheria will be serving a variety of fresh seafood as well as Tequila, Sangria, and Micheladas.   I’m excited to have an alternative to the bourgeois Walter Foods and am even more excited for the…. wait for it… the FISH MARKET they will be hosting every Sat and Sun from 8AM -1PM.

Currently only open for dinner, this neighborhood first promises us brunch is coming.