I am a longtime fan of Painted Burro in Davis Square in Somerville. In fact, my first blog review of the restaurant was back in 2012! I quickly fell in love with its sibling across the river too, Burro Bar in Brookline.
When I heard they were opening a location in Waltham, I was eager to check it out. The restaurant occupies the space that used to be Osteria Posto on 3rd Avenue.
When you pull up, you're greeted by a bright pink set of doors.
As you step inside, they have the cutest neon sign.
The dining room and bar area are enormous. We reserved a table on the outdoor patio to enjoy the beautiful weather and to ensure we felt comfortable with COVID precautions.
We arrived at 11:00am to take advantage of their bottomless brunch special. For $21 dollars a person you get unlimited food, for up to 90 minutes. I can only imagine the damage the Bentley and Brandeis college students do with that deal!
Drinks are priced separately, including Painted Burro's signature brunch cocktail, the Hair of the Dog. It's an ice horchata spiked with rumchata and espresso liqueur.
This is one of my favorite beverages in all of Boston. It's creamy like an ice coffee, but tastes a little bit sweeter.
I will say, the serving size is much smaller at the Waltham location. In Somerville, they serve the horchata in a tall, glass, beer mug. I was sad to see them skimp on the best part of the whole meal!
With the bottomless brunch deal, everything is served tapas-style. The portions are smaller, but you can taste a lot of different things.
We decided on the Mexican street corn, the papas bravas, the huevos rancheros and the morning tacos.
I loved the street corn and was grateful it was already off the cobb. It made for a much more graceful eating experience.
The papas bravas were nice and crispy, drizzled with a rich aioli. They were the perfect compliment to the morning tacos, which have scrambled eggs, avocado, pico de gallo, cotija cheese and crema.
My bestie also ordered one shrimp diablo taco which had guacamole, habanero and mango salsa and was topped with pickled red onions.
The huevos rancheros were my least favorite. I don't think I would order that dish again. I'd rather try something like the French toast with caramelized plantains.
Now, some real talk. In Somerville, when you sit down, the server greets you with a basket of fresh tortilla chips and salsa. It's complientary and the perfect thing to nosh on while you make your brunch selections. At this location, there are no chips.
We also waited an insanely long time for a server to come to our table. We were there over 20 minutes before anyone even came to take our drink order.
Lastly, the restaurant is directly over the highway (95) and when you're seated on the patio, the sound of the cars whizzing by down below is quite loud.
I'm definitely glad we checked it out, but I'll be sticking to the original Somerville location from now on.
