jaleo

great (wine) experience. several friends and i met at this location a couple of weeks ago and had a wonderful time there. having previously lived in dc, i had already been to the capitol-area location and more or less knew what to expect. first of all, the space will surprise you if you're used to their other locations. what it lacked in whitewashed charm, it more than made up for in modern grandeur. the highlight of our evening was the oenophilic passion of their beverage director, jill zimorski. for transparency's sake, i should admit that jill and i worked together about a decade ago at a great, now-defunct, frenchrestaurantin charlottesville, so i expected her highly-informed approach to our wine service. jill steered us to multiple bottles of perfectly-pairing and unique wines - and gave us great insight into why these were such interesting bottles. the food and table service were much more than adequate as well. if / when i am back in this part of northern va, i will certainly make it a point to return.

let me just say, if i ever make a significant 10 year marker, i hope i can throw a party like jaleo . this past wednesday was jaleo’s 10 year anniversary in crystal city, and boy, did people show up to enjoy the food,drinks, and atmosphere. jaleo invited guests to take a journey through andrés’ native spain with an evening packed with authentic tapas, demonstrations, and a live band band playing some great spanish music. (also, there was a live performance from flamenco dancer emily mazzotti. while i tried to pick up some moves, she took away the show!) therestaurantwas transformed into 4 distinct stations, valencia, barcelona, sevilla, santander, and cadiz – each showcasing their unique flavors and specialties. five dollars from each ticket sold for the anniversary party benefited world central kitchen  - andrés’ non-profit (inspired by his work with dc central kitchen ) that helps developing countries in crisis build kitchens to feed the hungry with local ingredients. i spotted jos

okay place...it is however an spanishrestaurantwhere nobody speaks spanish and most people working there is asian. not a true experience. tapas are served on regular plates, something that would not happen on the worstrestaurantin spain...the food itself is okay but nothing special...

a culinary gem in crystal city. jaleo in crystal city, virginia is a tapas bar featuring traditional spanish dishes. if you’ve never dined at a tapas bar, they encourage each person to order two or three small dishes to share with the entire group, so everyone can enjoy a wide variety of food. of course, if you’re the only person in your party ordering gluten free, your culinary experience will be somewhat limited.

fortunately, jaleo offers a gluten free menu, but it has a disclaimer for those with gluten allergies. as usual, there’s a risk of cross contamination, and the fryer is shared with other non-gluten free foods. that being said, i safely enjoyed a salad with tuna, potatoes, green beans, tomatoes and hard-boiled eggs, shrimp sautéed with garlic, and flan for dessert! now, i’m off to the gym! after eating a georgetown cupcake earlier today and flan tonight, it’s time to pay the piper. =)

for more gluten freerestaurantreviews, check out kareninreallife.com!

bad, very bad. before i talk about our experience in thisrestauranti have to say that we love the cuisine jose andres presented to food lovers in his other restaurants like zaytinia and (unfortunately closed) cafe atlantico.
we also had an ok experience in his oyamel.
but in this jaleo location we had a very disappointing experiences and had it twice (i don't think there will be any more because we've decided that enough is enough)
now to the point:
ambiance - nice
food - promising in menu descriptions but never delivered anything but disappointments in more or less degree depending from the dish. most of the sauteed or roasted dishes are drenched in oil of very bad quality. even in "endives, goat cheese, oranges and almonds" they managed to pour so much oil it was almost inedible. we had an impression that oil is the main component of their dishes. speaking of taste it wasn't present in any dish we've tried except of beet soup (that was ok but definitely wasn't worth $9.50 they charge for it). the dessert ("apple charlotte") was basically dough stuffed with applesauce on the top of which was half melted ice cream. ugh! our impression was we are sitting in an italianrestaurantof poor quality southern italian cuisine. their was nothing that reminded us of a wonderful spain tapas with flavorful sauces and refreshing taste of unique and creative small miracles that are happening in your mouth with every bite. that kind of spanish tapas we've experienced in dalirestaurantin boston and loooved it.
i think if jose andres tasted the kind of food that his chefs "create" as spanish tapas he would be ashamed for the way his native cuisine is presented here. but he probably haven't been visiting thisrestaurantfor a long time.
service - pretentiously "nice", intimidating with pushing their opinions about dishes when not even being asked, absent and ignorant when needed, not friendly and all together not professional starting from the hostess and finishing with the waiters. as i mentioned we've been there twice and both times with the different staff we experienced the same kind of service.
value - not good for an experience we had (5 dishes + 1 dessert + 1 coffee + 1 tea = $75 all including)
conclusion - not recommended (particularly if you are a foodie)

recommend!. pretty big fan of this place. definitely hard to find something that doesn't appease your palate with such an extensive menu. my husband and i went there while in town for our anniversary. this place was packed as it was a saturday night. we were seated at an ok table... now, we're both in therestaurantindustry and know the irritants that come along with it... changing tables being one. we saw one little corner table, secluded to the side and after already being greeted and waited on, we asked if we could change. totally accomadating, nice, and incredibably service friendly. food was great and service wonderful. with the busyiness of it all, we were a little worried but it was awesome.

great food; strange service. we were a party of four with 6:30 pm reservations on a saturday night ofrestaurantweek. the place was already packed. two of us arrived at 6:29 pm and the host wouldn't seat us until the entire party had arrived. i know that restaurants don't want to have large tables occupied and then have no shows but for a party of four that is unlikely and having to stand in the doorway was not a good start to the evening. had i been seated at a table i would have ordered wine while i waited. instead i had to stand in a crowded area in front of the entry door, blocking the way of otherrestaurantguests.

the selections on therestaurantweek menu were excellent and we had a wide variety of tapas. nothing disappointed and, having lived in spain, i found the food to be authentic with a twist.

however, and this may have been a result of therestaurantweek menu, they required that we order everything at once and then they randomly and quickly brought all the tapas to the table. that is absolutely wrong at a tapas restaurant. you should make a selection of your first round of tapas, have an opportunity to leisurely eat them, discuss them, and make your selections for the next round. their service model greatly reduced our enjoyment of our experience and their profit. if we had been able to linger over each round of tapas more wine would have been consumed, thus increasing their profit margin. we were dining with people who had not had tapas before and they found the food presentation to be totally confusing and off-putting, and i certainly couldn't explain it since i'd never experienced anything like it in spain.

i would go again to jaleo, but i would be insistent on having the service my way, the spanish way. this felt like an assembly line, not a dining experience.