jaleo

average - just barely "like". stopped by for dinner on thursday - may 18th. ordered a potato salad dressed with tuna - bland. nothing to write home about. next, aspanishomelet with wild mushrooms. decent taste. pan fried grilled baby squid with ink on a bed of rice. squid was done right - tender (heat management is a bid deal here with squid). ink too much. last is a skirt steak - grilled medium rare and topped with chive and coarse sea salt. tasty enough but nothing to write home about.
wine list is interesting but way, way over-priced. a simple jumilla costs over 50 dollars!

my favorite way to share a meal is with a large table of friends, sharing ever-flowing plates of hot tapas and pitchers of rich, red sangria, stories and laughter flooding the atmosphere. this was what i experienced while in madrid, spain last year, when a friend took me outside of the city to a small, dimly lit tapas bar to join 20+ of her friends in celebration of a birthday. their tradition, which i hope to steal one day, is for the group to purchase a birthday gift for the guest of honor and he/she takes the entire tab. we ate for at least 4 hours, experiencing sobremesa , thespanishterm for sitting around a table post-meal and relaxing through conversation. while i haven’t visited spain yet this year, i was able to virtually travel there with the fun, adventurous #dctravelblogger group this weekend at jaleo in crystal city . we indulged in multiple tapas and pitchers of sangria, sharing conversations on travel and personal stories as head chef domenick torlucci demonstrated how to make a few dishes. i arrived halfway through a demonstration of preparing  aceitunas ‘ferran adrià ’, or liquid olives, which tasted like an olive soaked in olive oil with a hint of mustard which tasted citrusy once swallowed. the meal continued with, my all-time guilty pleasure, jamón ibérico  – paired, of course, with picos to munch on with the sangria. following that were camarones de cádiz con huevo frito , fried baby shrimp with a sunny-side-up egg on top that we cracked open and mixed. delicious. my favorite dish was the pan de cristal con salmon anumado y huevo duro , smoked salmon on top of crusty bread with a hardboiled egg, goat cheese, and capers in-between. the chef also introduced us to asparagus cooked to perfection, drenched in a nutty sauce; a combination i’ve never thought of before. the presa ibérico  de bellote , or grilled boneless shoulder from an i bérico  pig, was perfectly tender and juicy, the pairings exquisite. the final entrée was, of course, paella , bro

jaleo transformed into a geographic journey, with tables situated all over the dining space to represent the many regions in spain. tapas and beverages were plentiful, and the crowd was entertained by live music and a flamenco dancer who circulated among the patrons.  the atmosphere was electric with the flavors of spain, and we lost ourselves in the excitement. we ate cheese in excess, and found thespanishrice to be our favorite dish of the night. we have acquired a deep affinity for manchego cheese this past year, and again were delighted to indulge at jaleo. w

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 greatspanishmusic. (also, there was a live performance from flamenco dancer emily mazzotti. while i tried to pick up some moves, she took away the show!) the restaurant was 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 anspanishrestaurant where nobody speaksspanishand most people working there is asian. not a true experience. tapas are served on regular plates, something that would not happen on the worst restaurant in spain...the food itself is okay but nothing special...

jose andres, jaleo, sets the standard forspanishrestaurants across the country, and is now offering a little something special this summer. jaleo in bethesda and crystal city want you to experience and celebrate the culture, cuisine, and grapes of spain with their 11th annual paella festival, monday night flight nights, and tour of spain program. recently, i had the chance to check it all out, and it was quite a delicious experience.

a culinary gem in crystal city. jaleo in crystal city, virginia is a tapas bar featuring traditionalspanishdishes. 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 free restaurant reviews, check out kareninreallife.com!

bad, very bad. before i talk about our experience in this restaurant i 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 italian restaurant of 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 ofspanishtapas we've experienced in dali restaurant in boston and loooved it.
i think if jose andres tasted the kind of food that his chefs "create" asspanishtapas he would be ashamed for the way his native cuisine is presented here. but he probably haven't been visiting this restaurant for 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)

do you really know what tapas are?!. it may not be the best or close to perfect traditionalspanishcuisine, but rating it for what it is - it is fairly good! they do a good job at the taste renderings with some dishes, but don't quite hit the upper mark with me! the downside is most folks don't understand tapas, and end up getting the short end of the stick value-wise. tapas typically are snacks in spain, here, it's become a way of making more money on smaller dishes. overall the ambience and service is mediocre, the tastes are above average - but don't expect realspanishfor your taste buds. don't go their hungry!

the good: patatas bravas, lamb, tortilla españa, flan, chorizo, service, atmosphere the not so good: paella was disappointingly salty, hanger steak was tough everything was very authentic tospanishcuisine. the bacon wrapped dates were just alright. overall, a great meal with a few disappointments.

great food; strange service. we were a party of four with 6:30 pm reservations on a saturday night of restaurant week. 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 other restaurant guests.

the selections on the restaurant week 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 the restaurant week 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, thespanishway. this felt like an assembly line, not a dining experience.