Baru Bistro & Tapas

I really like this spot. I have been 4 – 5 times in the last month. The food is delicious and in addition to a wide range of options they have a lot of light and flavorful dishes. All the cocktails I’ve had were very good. I would definitely recommend giving it a try.

Awesome tapas and drinks. Great service and friendly atmosphere! We had the Chuzos– melt in your mouth skirt steak

Tapas and drinks were really really good but the service was poor. Waitstaff seemed young, unpolished, and inattentive. We would have drank and ate more but Mxxxo was nowhere to be found. John was very helpful and kind. Nonetheless food quality and drinks are good enough for us to go back.

The food was good, until we we got the check. We went to happy hour and ordered items off of the happy hour menu. When it came time to pay, the waiter told us that the items we ordered were off the ‘regular’ menu and not the happy hour menu which had ‘much smaller’ portions. We did not want to cause a scene and paid for everything off of the regular menu. However, if you go there be sure to mention that you are ordering off of the happy hour menu to get the smaller portion as they apparently are not the same thing. It was definitely disappointing and we felt a bit scammed, so just make sure you know where you’re ordering from if you go to happy hour.

I am usually more mindful when I am running errands to not become hangry (Hangar is that state of being so hungry you will become unreasonably angry and bite someones arm off to get to some food) because it really is not becoming. I was trying desperately to get all of my errands done yesterday, and was in the area when my stomach was yelling and threatening and I could tell that it was going to quickly become not a pretty sight. Usually when the hanger hits, I have to do drive thru because it is really not pretty. I ordered the skirt steak skewers, lamb sliders and fried oysters. All was beyond reproach. I was seated near some tourists who evidently found this place their last visit and I do believe they had one of everything and it all looked so good.
The parking was decent, the restrooms could use some toilet paper and attention in general. The group upstairs seemed to be enjoying some sports ball game and seemed exuberant.
All in all, I would come back if I happened to be in the area especially if I had visitors with me.

Poor service. It took 10 minutes for someone to come and speak to us and they didn’t even say hello. Just dropped the menus on the table.
2 bites of food for $ 9. Go to Mais Arepas if you want to get an Arepa.
Put a juicy plate of food on a wood plank that cause grease to run all over the table.
Keep on walking and don’t eat here.

We absolutely loved this tapas joint! Came in for lunch and they had plenty of tables open. The corn and potato appetizer was amazing, the music made for great vibes, and the arepas were so delicious! I tried the chicken and avocado one and it was great. Not too heavy, super good tapas for a light but very satisfying lunch! We will definitely be back again for lunch and/​or dinner.

Delicious tapas. Good flavors and felt full without being stuffed. We sat outside and enjoyed the street. Good service also!

It’s a peculiar location on Magazine and the seating arrangement on the ground floor is limited. Often times uncomfortable if seated inside near the bar, you will get sprinkled on with whatever they are making back there. Apart from that, there is an upstairs, outdoor seating, and it is quite minimalistic and modern. The food is delicious, Novio and I only order tapas, no entre because it is unnecessary. We’ve tried all the tapas and our four favorites are: ceviche, pulled pork arepas, sliders and the crab cakes! It is relatively expensive if you order drinks with your meal, although it is worth it! We love this place and try to go on a bi monthly basis.

We made a reservation for Baru on Opentable in advance of our trip to New Orleans. Upon arrival, we were taken upstairs, where we saw seats at a small bar, so we chose to sit there. The food and service were both excellent.
We enjoyed 4 crudos/​tapas plus a dessert and it was plenty of food for 2 people. The pulled pork arepas were tender and plentiful, the tuna tartare was made with pecans which added a nice crunch to the texture, the shrimp were well flavored with garlic and chili, and the grilled skirt steak skewers were phenomenal dipped in the chimichurri sauce. The cake part of the tres leches cake we had for dessert was good — nicely spongy and syrupy — though I prefer the topping to be more like whipped cream than marshmallow cream. And my cocktail — a paloma — was a bit heavy on the agave and oddly (though creatively) served with a grapefruit slice the diameter of the glass in the middle, which introduced an unusual barrier to drinking the beverage. Still, it was nice to sit at the bar and chat with the bartender and watch soccer on TV.

I love this place! Especially now that they have the upstairs open with the balcony overlooking magazine. Such a cute restaurant! Last time we went was with a party of 4 and we decided to get every appetizer/​tapas and share it all instead of getting any entrees. It was SUCH a great idea! We’ve literally tried everything on the menu! I couldn’t get enough! You have to get the fried oysters, crab cakes and très leche for dessert! Our waitress was sooooo awesome, too! She made the night great! You can have a private party upstairs as well, just an FYI! I’m trying to find any excuse to have a party just so I can have it there!

Latin tapas restaurant located in the beautiful and eclectic Garden District. This cute little spot is spacious enough inside to accommodate a small crowd as well as outdoor seating for those who prefer to catch a few rays.
Being a tapas restaurant the portions are small however; the dishes pack a mean flavor punch! Tapas is just never enough food for me so I go with the intentions of snacking not complete satiety.
I started with the succulent Crab Cake accompanied by a delicious Beet Salad… I wanted a second order it was so divine. I decided to try the Salmon Ceviche served with addictive crisply tortilla chips. I enjoyed the magnificent food and friendly service.
~Christy

Really enjoyed this Tapa Bar located on Magazine Street. The Drum marinated in lime was tender and fresh, as were the fried oysters. The small bite grilled steak on a skewer was cooked beautifully and was juicy. The owner checked in with us and is very engaged in making certain that the guests were happy. The staff was well trained, pleasant and thorough. Downstairs main dining room with a bar and additional dining up.

My friend and I went to Baru on New Years Eve. The restaurant is trendy and cozy. dimly lit, so it can be very romantic, but not too formal. I had been for dinner one other time previously and really enjoyed their tapas. They usually don’t take reservations, but there was exception for New Years Eve. For the holiday, they had a 5-​course prix fixe menu with a glass of cava for $ 80. The menu looked good, and we were excited!
The amuse bouche was a raw oyster a la chalaca with pomegranate seeds. For the second course, I had the lobster ceviche and my friend had the lamb tartare. Both were delicious! I had heard great things about the ceviche at Baru and the lobster ceviche lived up to the hype! The balance of lobster, satsuma leche de tigre and avocado was perfect! We both had the quinoa chowder for the third course– hearty, filling, and super delicious. The bacon and shoestring potatoes were a nice addition that added variety, flavor and texture to the fairly generous size portion of chowder. I had the lobster tail with yucca gnocchi for the main course and my friend had the grilled skirt steak with cheese fries and asparagus. The lobster tail was de-​shelled and well-​seasoned and placed on a bed of yucca gnocchi. I love gnocchi and this was one of the best I’ve ever had, perfectly cooked and super flavorful! The consistency was on point. My friend ordered her skit steak medium rare, but it came out medium well. The server was very understanding and happily replaced it with a perfectly cooked medium rare steak. For dessert, we shared the chocolate torta and passion fruit crème brûlée. Both were pretty rich. The crème brûlée was a little runny, but my friend enjoyed it.
The cocktails were amazing! I had the El Pepino Picoso — tequila, cucumber water, agave, with a touch of jalapeño/​cilantro. And my friend got the Maracuya — vodka, passion fruit, amapola seeds and grated ginger. They were strong, but well mixed, delicious, and did not taste of too much alcohol. They were also not too sweet and well worth the $ 10/​drink.
I was super impressed with the ambience, quality of food, and drinks! I would definitely come again and will be looking out for the lobster ceviche and yucca gnocchi on their menu! Looks like they also have a happy hour, from 4−7PM on weekdays. 50% glasses of cava and select cocktails, I believe.

I had Baru on my list for a while and I finally made it over for a colleague’s birthday dinner. I ordered a mango mojito but ended up getting a blackberry mojito by accident and decided to try it, and it was actually better than the mango (I did get the mango for my second drink).
We ordered a bunch of the small plates and shared everything. Some of my favorites were the lamb sliders, grilled skirt steak, and crabcakes. I was really excited about the chicken wings, but they were a tad bit too sweet for my taste. We also got a couple of larger items. I think we had jerk chicken and churrasco. Can’t remember if there was a third one. The steak was delicious. Chicken was also good, although the Jamaican colleague among us said that he wouldn’t really consider it jerk.
I had really enjoyed the meal up until this point, but what really sealed the deal for me was the dessert. We ordered three desserts to share: flan, cuatro leches, and chocolate tort. I loved all three of them. The chocolate tort was very rich – just how I like it. The flan had the perfect consistency, and the cuatro leches was awesome in its spongy, moist goodness.
What a great meal.

BLUF: Absolutely amazing tapas. So amazing that lots of people are there… but worth it and I can’t wait to go back.
In all fairness we went a 830pm on a Friday, but this place was jammed. We got a seat at the bar upstairs which was good enough for us. I would suggest going earlier and trying to get a table outside. The place is super awesome with great atmosphere but the bar is the worst place to experience that. Sit outside and upstairs for the perfect night.
The cocktails were great. My wife got a capiriniaha (the brazilian drink that I can’t spell but should since that is where we went on our honeymoon) and it was great. I got a grapefruit/​mezcal drink and it was fantastic.
We ordered only tapas even though the main courses looked amazing. Honestly everything on the menu looked amazing.
Started with the chorizo. I didnt like it cuz I thought it was dry but my wife loved it and she rattled off all the reasons it was good/​legit chorizo made with quality spices and meat. Fine, she wins. They came with yucca fries that I loved because I love yucca
Unfortunately, I wont be able to name the others as easily. The next thing we got were steak kabobs with homony patties. These were pretty good.
Next we got a fried mashed yucca ball topped with pulled pork which was incredible. I really loved the yucca ball thing.
Next we got the lamb sliders with some spanish cheese on a standard dinner roll type bread. This is might have been the best thing that we got. Came with 2 and I almost stole my wife’s.
Finally we got the avacado/​mushroom on spinach tortilla chip. I got it appease my wife’s veggie preference but I might have liked it more than she did. Unreal. Such an amazing combination.
Service was very nice and helpful but sitting at a bar made it suffer to some degree. I bet if we had sat at table we would have been able to enjoy the night a little more which is probably the only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.
I would love to go back and try new things or get the exact same things. Amazing place. Busy.

Will New Orleans cuisine ever cease to amaze me! Doubt it, this place is amazing. Fried oysters are to die for. West Indian crab cakes with a beet salad, skirt steak all equally amazing. I intend to come back and try it all. And it’s reasonably priced! Definitely in my rotation now

There are so many things I love about our experiences here that I don’t even know where to begin! The huz and I were celebrating our anniversary by going on a drinks/​apps restaurant crawl down Magazine. We went to 3 different places and Baru outshined them all. So great we even ended up going back for seconds in the same night.
First of all, what a sweet glowing bar/​balcony space upstairs! I had no idea it was even up there. The bartenders are super friendly, the cocktails delicious and decently priced as well. The bartender even topped off our first round of Cava free of charge since it was a special occasion. We enjoyed the tuna tartar with plantain chips (really really tasty) and hurried off to our next reservation.
But feeling unsatisfied with where we went, we just headed on back to Baru right after (both restaurants being in walking distance) got our same table and tried the blue crab potato salad. Yum! The portions are just right and the lighting was perfect. We will most definitely be returning to this magical balcony very soon!

What a lovely little find! We were in the strange ‘early for dinner, late for lunch’ time when we stumbled upon this fabulous restaurant. Christina our server/​bartender was perfectly attentive, the ambience is simple yet interesting, and the food spectacular!
Try the ceviche. And the pork belly. And then the beet salad. Then perhaps more ceviche. And it doesn’t hurt to have a pisco sour to accompany the food

Found this place by accident when the restaurant we’d planned to go to was closed. We were drawn in by the smell wafting down the street and were not disappointed.
They serve tapas as well a full sized entrees that are packed with flavor. I tried the lamb sliders, the Caribbean style shrimp and the crispy chicken tapas — all were amazing. The jerk chicken over rizotto entrée was something I never would have thought to order for myself, but I ate almost all of my boyfriend’s plate!
Last thing I’ll say is the service was great and the margaritas (with some kind of spicy salt on the rim) was the best margarita I’ve had in ages. Great place, definitely going back!