jaleo

bad service. had dinner here on 5/16/09 and their service was third rate. the waiter disappeared. food is just dumped on the table. have had bettertapasin portland. i have eaten here before and the service and food were better. i think they have slipped and are getting by on their past reputation. management needs to be held accountable.

crystal city has been one of my go-to places for happy hour as my day job is close by.  the decor transports you to the south of spain with its bright colors,tapasand sangria.  in the heart of winter, i was transported to sunny spain for a valentine’s day lunch (see tastemade video below).  indulging in tapas, paella, and cava took us both back to our wedding in barcelona .  recently, i returned for lunch to host a #dctravelblogger get-together where a group of travel-minded bloggers converged for a virtual trip to spain.

my favorite way to share a meal is with a large table of friends, sharing ever-flowing plates of hottapasand 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 littapasbar 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 , the spanish term 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 multipletapasand 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.tapasand 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 the spanish rice 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

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

deception:tapasand no bread to suck the juices. i've been enjoyingtapasat jaleo since i arrived to dc in 1997.
last year i went and they did not bring the bread and oil as usual, after asking they told me they bring only bread upon request...
yesterday i visited the one in arlington.
this time they refused to bring bread.
it seems that jose andres is not involved any more and should take his name from the place, if he is still involved, he needs to pay attention to his restaurant. it became another typical chain restaurant.
how can you servetapaswith no bread??? this is inexcusable and a cheap move.
other issues i found:
- service was horrible
- dishes were bland, pollo al ajillo had no garlic, served with a dark sauce and chicken consistency was uniform, that chicken was boiled and not seared. bean salad the same, lack of taste.
-tapassizes seem to be getting smaller

it is a shame, i used to enjoy this place very much and i will not be coming back.

a culinary gem in crystal city. jaleo in crystal city, virginia is atapasbar featuring traditional spanish dishes. if you’ve never dined at atapasbar, 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 spaintapaswith flavorful sauces and refreshing taste of unique and creative small miracles that are happening in your mouth with every bite. that kind of spanishtapaswe've experienced in dali restaurant in boston and loooved it.
i think if jose andres tasted the kind of food that his chefs "create" as spanishtapashe 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 whattapasare?!. it may not be the best or close to perfect traditional spanish cuisine, 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.tapastypically 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 real spanish for your taste buds. don't go their hungry!

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 thetapasto the table. that is absolutely wrong at atapasrestaurant. 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 oftapasmore wine would have been consumed, thus increasing their profit margin. we were dining with people who had not hadtapasbefore 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.