XyZ Pintxos y Botanas

SUCH an unexpected delicious hole in the wall in East Village! Amazing flavorful food that is not overwhelming. Some goodies:
— Get lots of red sangria. lots of it.
— Shrimp in garlic sauce — ask for extra bread to mop up the sauce. So garlicky!
— Mussels in white wine sauce — these were hands down the best mussels I’ve ever had in my life. The mussels were so fresh and perfectly cooked, no rubbery overly chewy mussels here. I’ve never had such delicious mussels. Order this now. get extra bread for the sauce as well.
— Potato omelette — this one tasted kind of standard to me
— Complimentary croquetas and then the fish croquetas: so crispy on the outside with a creamy salty inside. Good appetizer
— cuttlefish with zoodles: cuttlefish were kind of way chewy but the zoodles were good with an interesting crunch
— Dessert: fruit tart with meringue: amazing. must get.
Can’t wait to come back!

This place was recommended by a friend and exceeded my expectations.
It was early, before 6:00pm and there were only a couple of people there. Wonderful visuals in the place, interesting art.
I asked the hostess to make suggestions and we went with them. We tried the garlic and shrimp, squid in its own ink. Both were fine. We would up splitting a bunch of different things, all wonderful. In particular, I enjoyed the Mussels and Chorizo.
Service was great, food was great, price was reasonable. In short, everything you could ask for.

When my wife and I walked into this restaurant, we couldn’t believe how tiny it was. However, don’t let the small size for you. We were very pleased with the food that we had. The prices were very reasonable, and the staff was incredibly attentive. I was a little disappointed with the size of the wine glasses you get, but the tasty food more than made up for it. I certainly recommend this restaurant.

This place is super cozy and very nice. The food is so delicious. The staff is so nice

Perfect little hole in the wall in the heart of the East Village. They have about 10 tables, but it doesn’t feel cramped. It’s a great ambiance — intimate and perfect for parties of 2 – 6 people. Very friendly service.
Great food — we had the gambas al ajilo (garlic shrimp), pulpo (charred octopus), carne con chimichurri (steak w chimichurri) and my personal favorite and the most interesting dish was the gulas y setas. They call it ‘Baby eel likeness’ sautéed with mushrooms garlic and chili flakes. The whole thing kind of tasted like interesting mushrooms, but the baby eel was like long skinny almost pasta-​like. This place knows whats up with garlic and they use it well.
+ jumbo glasses of Sangria

Thank GOD they reopened Pintxos! Really wonderful, intimate, setting. The seafood was really great (both shrimp dishes, and both octopus dishes) and our waitress was an absolute doll. The patatas bravas (a favorite dish of mine) were a bit disappointing and paella was a bit al dente for my liking. Even given all that, hard to not recommend this place highly to anyone who likes Spanish food. Welcome back!

Delicious food, attentive server and a sweet place.

Cute little restaurant in the East Village. As others have mentioned, the food is fantastic but what we loved most about this place was the wine list. A lot of new and different wines to try, a bit off the beaten path. It won’t necessarily be to everyone’s liking, especially if you have specific tastes in wine, but for us, it was a lot of fun experimenting!

Cozy intimate atmosphere and amazing dishes!
Croquettes, foie gras, and pork belly were all delicious and beautifully plated. Sangria was great too! I’ll definitely be back. ¡Salud!

Walked in on a Friday evening and we were seated right away. The menu is split between small plates and full-​sized entrees, with a sizeable wine list. We kept to the small plates: bread with tomatoes, clams in a white wine and garlic sauce, langoustines, angus steak, and grilled octopus. Everything was cooked perfectly, well seasoned, and brought to the table quickly. Overall a wonderful experience, will definitely be coming back!

This little gem gets it so right. Such delicious food (I could live off of the croquetas). Great intimate atmosphere and really attentive service make this a great excuse to go back to my old neighborhood. The lamb chops have to be tried (and tried and tried) to be believed. «Silky» is not a word typically associated with lamb, but that’s exactly what they are. So good! I’m not really a seafood guy, but even I really liked the octopus. I’ll be back a lot.

— Service: great service. staffs were very friendly and attentive.
— Atmosphere: cozy and intimate. it can be a date spot or a place for a girl’s night out.
— Food: for some reason, every single dish sounded promising but fell a bit sort of expectations. After seeing all 5 star reviews, my expectations were pretty high. Well, but regardless of my expectations, food was just ok. It wasn’t bad but there wasn’t a memorable dish.
what I ordered:
— Olives: standard
— Almejas en Salsa Verde: I guess it’s just a different style than what I’m used to as the broth was very thick and was too salty.
— Croquetas de Jamon: it came with slices of crispy ham as a garnish which was a nice touch. Croquette was very creamy for my taste and didn’t have enough chunks of ham.
— TALLARINES DE sepia y zuccini: it had all the ingredients that I love but didn’t impress me. I didn’t taste zuccini or squid ink particularly. it was overall a bit salty/​mushy/​greasy.
— Rabo de Toro: ox tail can be greasy and this dish didn’t have anything to counter balance. This was also salty and greasy.
In sum, wine was good, service was great but food was overall too salty to my liking.

I absolutely love XyZ! Amazing ambiance, delicious food, and great service. Everything I have tried from here is incredibly good, in particular the sea food and organic wines. I am so glad XyZ is now apart of the East Village community, it is a really great additional and I will definitely continue coming here!

Great service, excellent food, and good wine! We got a complimentary appetizer to welcome us and thoroughly enjoyed the experience! Definitely a must try new restaurant :)

Great service and a wonderful place if you want to get away from the traffic at the Village. The wine selection is cool, seeing as they are serving only organic wine from Spain — there is a different wine on the glass each Friday.
Hurry up and visit it because I think is gonna get pretty crowded, pretty fast.

With the artist Ray Smith as a part owner and the other a transplant from San Sebastian (chef too) in the Basque Country of Northern Spain — this restaurant has a great ambiance and delicious food. We had txipirones (small squid-​stuffed squid) en su tinta, mejillones con chorizo, paella negra, langustinos, everything was authentically delicious.

A friend and I dropped in on a Thursday evening, and it was a great idea. The place was empty, which was super weird because it was warm and inviting. I got a giant glass of delicious sangria, and she ordered one of the organic Spanish wines which she was pretty into. During our drinks, the friendly waitress brought us tapas, a delicious cold soup that wasn’t gazpacho. All around, a really great happy hour experience.

Great meal with lovely service. Mussels in white wine sauce with chorizo and a red snapper ceviche with mango chutney and guacamole. They also served a ham and béchamel croquette. I ordered a fruit tart with meringue for dessert
I’m new to Basque cuisine distinguished from Spanish, but I was still impressed.
The service was impeccable with two servers working a small space. I counted 22 table chairs plus 8 chairs at a small wall «bar.»
Definitely a place to check out!

Pintxos used to be one of my favorite restaurants in NY until its closing in 2008 Wonderful tasting, fresh dishes in an unpretentious, friendly atmosphere. I was therefore thrilled to see the same people opening XyZ in East Village where I now live. I was even more thrilled after my wife and I tried them out last weekend. Very friendly and cozy, and each dish we tried — from the salad to the ham croquettes and the seafood paella, was prepared simply and tasted delicious.
We will be regulars here.

I just had an amazing dinner here last week! We are lucky that Chef Javier Ortega from San Sebastián, brings a piece of the Basque Country to New York. The food is absolutely fantastic, traditional delicious Pintxos, every single dish was prepared carefully and you can clearly taste the high quality of the produce. I love the gulas, meillones rellenos, pulpo, and my fav paella! Also the terrine and meats! In any case I don’t think you can go wrong. The daily specials with a twist of new cuisine, is a must try too! All this served by the sweetest staff, with a lot of knowledge of what they serve. I highly recommend this gem. You feel very special here, the full experience was just fab! And Spanish Organic wines! Yum!