Hanky Panky Cocktail Bar — Restaurant in Mexico City

I went to Hanky Panky two nights ago, and wanted to share my experience, and some constructive feedback.

Our group arrived on time and were seated promptly. The ambience was cool, the menus were creative, and our hosts were welcoming and kind.

I'll break down our cocktails:

Tiger Punch: The clear favorite. Unbelievably complex, well-prepared, and well-executed. Milk punches are all the rage right now and this one is one of the best I've had. Awesome.

Gulrot: Between the Sotol and the sage-infused gin, this was fantastically botanical and wild. The first sips felt strange in a good way, and as it warmed up it really opened up. Sleeper hit.

Transatlantic Fizz: Takes 15 minutes to make (I imagine for that excellent souffle tower of foam effect), and it's well worth it. Really fun take on a fizz, and the leftover foam at the bottom of the glass was SO delicious.

So, an impressive batch of really excellent cocktails.

However, the reason I'm writing this review is because of what happened with our other cocktail: the Mojito.

Their recipe is based on a Mojito recipe from Simone Caporale at Sips Bar. The fun thing with this recipe is the use of an agua de menta instead of normally-muddled mint. It's a cool touch.

However, I think something may have been off with Hanky Panky's recipe. Mojitos prepared correctly are definitely meant to be more rum-forward compared to what you'll get at any old bar, so I wasn't expecting a sweet mint bomb. But the drink we received was devoid of any sour, sweet, or mint flavor. The only detectable flavor was just straight Ron Havana Club 3 over crushed ice. I was very surprised to see it, considering the caliber of the bar, and the quality of the other drinks we had alongside it.

I'm a former bartender, and so I understand that sometimes, mistakes happen, so I wanted to make sure that we raised it properly. My friend was put off by the Mojito, and we already had the Transatlantic Fizz on the way, so we just wanted to send the Mojito back, and have it replaced with the Fizz instead. This is only the second time in my life I've ever sent a cocktail back.

Our server was very polite about the issue, and offered to have the Mojito fixed for our tastes. As I said before, we were pretty put off by it, so we politely declined, and said that we'd like to send it back instead, with the Transatlantic Fizz as a replacement. We thought that the message was delivered clearly, but there may have been a miscommunication.

At the end of our round of drinks, we asked for our check, because we were heading directly to a dinner reservation and our timing was tight.

But when the check came, we saw that the Mojito was still on it. We asked about it, and our server left for a bit, but came back, said and they weren't going to remove the Mojito, and once again, politely offered to fix the cocktail to our liking. I reiterated that we had earlier said we wanted to send it back, but we were told that nothing could be done, and not given a great explanation as to why. I would have taken up the offer to fix it, but we were unfortunately running late. The man who came over to process the credit card transaction offered to have us leave no tip, but I ensured we still left 15%, despite the issue.

Which brings me to constructive feedback:

1. If it's the policy of the bar to absolutely refuse to accept drinks sent back due to error, that should be clearly stated at the time of refusal.
2. If a guest doesn't like a drink so much that they send it back, I think it would be hospitable to make an effort to figure out what happened with the cocktail, considering that recipe is going to be sent to other people.
3. I have never seen an establishment, especially of this caliber, refuse to take a drink back, when the feedback on the drink is presented constructively.

So, just a word of warning, and some recommendations for improvement. I am so sad to have such an amazing cocktail experience tainted by such poor customer service, and I recommend other guests proceed with caution if you end up in a...

One of the better cocktail bars we found, although overpriced and unnecessary theatrics to get in. By now, everyone knows exactly how to get into this speakeasy so it's sort of silly to continue the charade. (It's so 2015 but Mexico City still seems to love this concept.)

The entrance is through the taco shop that also provides the mandatory food for the bar. More on that later.

We showed up fairly early in the evening with no reservation, just on a whim. We ended up waiting around 27 minutes before the doorman let us in. Which, okay, is fair if the place is packed. It also allowed us to observe the reservation situation. As we waited we also watched people with reservations have to wait over 15-20 min. Isn't the point of a reservation that it is reserved? The problem I think is that they have no management of reservations. One party showed up a half hour after their scheduled reso and they kept trying to find a way to seat this party first. Look, if you show up 30 min late for a hot spot reso, you've blown it. Most places would no longer honour that. I think this place needs a stricter late-comer policy. I felt bad for all the other people with resos that had to wait so long because these idiots were 30 min late.

We were about to leave when we were allowed in to sit at the bar, under the stipulation that if they needed the seat for a reso, they could kick us out. No biggie. We only wanted a drink or two anyway.

The bar inside is dark and pretty cool. I liked the atmosphere. But... it also had a bunch of empty seats. Two large booths were totally empty. I have seen people complain they have to sit with other people here, and that is because almost all the seating is these large booths. But at this point, the bar was full of couples and so much of the other seating was just unused.

The bartender we had was friendly and skilled. It seemed like despite there being a handful of other staff behind the bar, he was the only one working.

The best thing was the cocktails. We'd been searching for well-balanced, interesting cocktails for a while. These were not too sweet and used ingredients you can't find elsewhere. It was a pleasant change. They also have an impressive backbar with a huge selection of spirits. Service was very quick and the bartender was super-friendly.

The bar area can be very loud if you have Americans/Canadians nearby as they like to yell their entire conversations, which happened to us with a group of 3 half the bar away, who wouldn't stop trying to show-off how much they know about cocktailing. It was cringe af. (They don't know as much as they thought!). All the Spanish speaking patrons are much better company.

There is an issue with food. You must order food even if you don't want it. I have no idea why this exists. And it's not cheap either. I think it would be better to just charge cover if there's some money reason for forcing people to waste food for cash. And it was awful. So, so sour. It was inedible and we each had one bite and left it there. I suppose if you're actually hungry it's a good idea, but forcing people to order food they don't want is so wasteful.

The cocktails are pricey but I thought they were worth it for the skill and fact it's rare to find less sweet cocktails in Mexico. And it is a gorgeous interior with exceptional bartenders. You definitely get your money's worth for the drinks. (The food however, no.)

The exit is really cool, although be careful. When we left, the taqueria was packed full of people waiting to get in and we hit one of them with the door since there's no way to see if someone is on the other side. Also, the bar was still 1/3 empty when we left.

It may be worth it to try to grab a bar seat if you're in the area and have no time limit on waiting, but otherwise I wouldn't go out of my way to make a special trip here. It was pretty good, but not quite worth the wait or the...

Update: 3/8/25 We went last night and unfortunately things have changed. The featured cocktails are pre-mixed and just poured from bottles, no more hand crafted. The rotation of cocktails is completely different which is cool but - between my wife and I we had four featured cocktails and they were all overly sweet and lacking the reveal of different flavors they used to have. It’s as if a hedge fund bought them and they’re optimizing for profit. It’s no longer as lively or busy. Maybe we got them on a bad Saturday night or folks are moving on. We did meet a nice couple who operate their own bar in Minnesota.

First time: Sep 2023 This bar is on a lot of lists so decided to try it out. I fully expected it to be a tourist trap or cheesy so was prepared to get one cocktail and head elsewhere. My wife and I ended up spending 4 hours at the bar. Had made an OpenTable reservation for 7pm Saturday night in September. Yes, the hostess in the taco shop is kinda snooty and it's kind of funny how people jockey to get in. Anyways, 10 minutes after we arrived the hostess led us through the back and seated us at the bar. The bar is dark, small and lively. The bartenders are very friendly and take pride in making their cocktails. The cocktail menu is unlike any I've seen in that the cocktails are very unique. I ended up getting 4 cocktails that night and all were great in that they presented unique flavors (not your typical manhattan, boulevardier, old fashioned, negroni, martini, mojete etc. which i love too), the flavors built on each where each sip was delightful. I got the S.P.Q.R, God Save the Queen, Guelaguetza and something that was kind of like a Manhattan. Don't remember what my wife got but i had a sip of each and they were great too. We also got 3 starters/tapas that were nice. A big bonus, and we were likely just lucky, is that the couple on our left was really fun to talk to and when they left another fun couple took their place. Anyways, if you like different, super well crafted cocktails than try...