Jaleo - Review

Intro
Jaleo - Highly Recommended
480 7th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20004
Phone: (202) 628-7949

After my food altering trip to Spain, I've been checking a lot of restaurants in NYC to find some solid tapas. No idea why, but most of the tapas restaurants in NY were pretty disappointing - whether it be poor execution or the place trying to do too much. I have no idea why it cannot be done since it's pretty straightforward - like Italian food, take great ingredients, apply proper technique and cook it simply. Any who, I've been a big fan of Jose Andres for a while, so figured I had to check out Jaleo. So pissed that I did because this place is spectacular and pretty damn angry that I can't get this stuff in NYC. Overall, I give the restaurant an 88/100.

Our Menu

Huevo frito con caviar **
Caviar on top of a fried organic egg
Bread dipped in a fried egg and topped with salty caviar - completely delicious. The only thing i would change is I would make the egg whites a tad softer using my steam method. Still great though. Can't say enough good things about the bread they serve here.

Pan con tomate y queso Pasamontés **
Toasted slices of rustic bread brushed with fresh tomatoes with Pasamontés farmhouse Manchego cheese
Simple, but delicious and 100% brought me back to Barcelona. Crispy flavorful bread topped with a sweet tomato and salty, earthy Manchego cheese.

Remolacha con cítricos *
A salad of red beets, citrus, Valdeón cheese and pistachios with Sherry dressing
Fun dish when combining all the ingredients together. Got the sweet sour thing with the beets, sherry dressing, citrus and earthy cheese - kinda like a blue. Very bright and refreshing dish and good to break up the heavier dishes coming up.

Cebolla asada con queso Picón **
Roasted sweet onions, pine nuts and Picón cheese
Completely delicious and so in my strike zone. Almost caramelized onion type flavor with something that seemed like blue cheese. The sauce was pretty intense as well and seemed like it was similar to the lamb. Rich, salty, and sweet - pretty f'n awesome.

Arroz cremoso de setas *
Wild mushroom rice with Idiazábal cheese

Basically a mushroom risotto with less liquidity. Pretty f'n good and sad that I would say this is better than a lot of risotto's served in NYC at some subpar restaurants. Rice was perfectly cooked and had perfect al denteness.

Patatas bravas – 2009 ***
Sliced, fried fingerling potatoes topped with a spicy tomato sauce and alioli

This might have been my favorite dish of the night, since it was so simple yet so delicious. The potatoes had such an intense potato flavor and was perfectly creamy/fluffy on the inside. Add the sweet tomato sauce and the ridiculously creamy and delicious mayo and you have something spectacular. I have Andres' tapas book and I always questioned is it worth it to take that long to make the alioli...after tasting it, it 100% is.

Gambas al ajillo **
The very, very famous tapa of shrimp sautéed with garlic and guindilla pepper

Very tender and sweet shrimp cooked in the amazing garlic oil. This is so simple, yet so many restaurants do this wrong - either poor shrimp or overcooking the f out of it. A tad salty here though, but still great.

Vieiras con calabaza y clementinas *
Seared scallops with butternut squash puree, clementines and pumpkin seeds

Nicely cooked scallops, though I prefer it a little bit under. The sweet butternut squash and clementines made a nice complement to the scallops.

Lomo de cerdo con salsa de cabrales *
Pork loin with roasted onion and Cabrales sauce

Intensely flavored cabrales sauce that was to die for. The pork had decent flavor, but the pork was overcooked. Combined with the sauce and the roasted onion though, it hid the fact that the pork was overcooked.

Flan ***

I love flan and this was done perfectly. Densely flavored, but the texture easily melted in the mouth. The sweetened cream was pretty damn good as well. Just sick stuff...

Chocolate Torte *

What seemed like a chocolate angel food cake on top with chocolate mousse on the bottom. Almost too intensely chocolaty for me, but still fun.

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way

































Overall Restaurant Experience (88/100)

• Food (8.8/10) – Great tapas that brought me back to Spain and the patatas bravas rivaled the ones in Spain. Still pissed that we can't get this stuff in NYC.
  
• Service (8.0/10) – The server was very knowledgeable about the menu and was pretty enthusiastic which was refreshing. The food came out way too quick though as dishes came out right away to the point where we had 5 plates on the table. Would have been better to have some rest in between plates.
  
• Atmosphere (7.0/10) – Pretty big joint and extremely packed. The place was a bit dark but the walls were white brick. In the center of the place was a huge bar that was pretty crowded as well. Place consisted of equal amounts of couples and large groups. Noise level was pretty damn loud. Funny note - d-bag next to me flipped out at our waiter because he as pissed they didn't have some sissy lime drink which he swore they used to have. His wife was furious which made for some entertaining dinner theater.
  
• Price (9.0/10) – $35.10 for 4 tapas dishes and 1 dessert - the restaurant week menu. I'm usually anti-restaurant week since they put the worst menu items on the restaurant week menu and the places are always overcrowded. Here they have some solid items on the restaurant week menu. Extremely happy with the food and great deal for the price.
  

Closing Comments
Definitely a must go if you're in the area. My quest for NYC tapas will continue though, but I'm still pretty pissed I can't get this quality in NYC. Pretty absurd to me...someone should buy Jose Andres tapas book and just recreate the items pretty easily I would think...