J is for Jaleo

http://www.jaleo.com/

Type of restaurant: Tapas

We had: Bunuelos de bacalao (salt cold fritters), pollo al ajillo (marinated grilled chicken), and cordero romero (lamb chops with rosemary sauce)


Thoughts: After a long day of apartment hunting, Allister and I found ourselves hungry in Crystal City. I knew Jaleo was a tapas place, but having been to Spain, and having eaten at La Tasca, I didn't trust an American tapas joint. For those unfamiliar with the concept of a tapas restaurant, its basically a lot of appetizer sized portions. You can get a few for yourself, but often groups come in and order a bunch and everyone just shares. The idea is to get a little taste of everything. Its a godsend for indecisive people like me :) Anyway, somehow Allister talked me into it, and we ended up trying it. I'm really glad we did. It was a beautiful day so we sat out on the patio. After consulting the menu for a while Allister decided that I should choose our food because I knew more about it. I hate being the "decider" so we each picked one dish that we thought would be good and then one to share. Mine was an easy choice. Salt cod fritters were one of my favorite things when I was in Spain so that was that. Allister wanted lamb, and chicken was just an easy choice for both of us. I got the sangria. Again, I will admit that I am biased because of going there, and I typically don't like sangria at restaurants. It seems watery, there's never enough brandy, and often the cheap red wine taste is overpowering. Jaleo's sangria wasn't awful, but it wasn't something I'd probably try again. I would like to try their white sangria though. Allister got a Spanish beer called Estrella Damm. It was amazing. It made me scowl at my glass of sangria just a little. After our food arrived, we were pleasantly surprised. Everything was DELICIOUS! The fritters were perfect, totally reminded me of my fun filled summer in Sevilla, the salsa verde that was with the chicken was excellent and the lamb was amazing! What really struck me was the authenticity of the food we ordered. Everything was just so good.


Overall opinion: Jaleo in Crystal City is great! Their food is wonderful. Their executive chefs Jose Andres and Ramon Martinez do a great job of bringing authentic Spanish tastes to the DC area. They also have an amazing staff...although I might be a tad biased, since I now work there :) But honestly that just makes me vouch more for the restaurant. Seeing it from the inside now, I see that Ramon is in the kitchen every day, really taking care to make sure dishes come out perfectly. The entire kitchen staff work tirelessly to make sure the food is great, and the management is always looking for suggestions. The other day that asked what we thought of the sangria, and I did suggest a little more brandy, so we'll see if they take me up on that. I definitely think people should give Jaleo a try, whether you've had tapas or not. If a restaurant makes food so good that you hear people complimenting the pig trotter salad (seriously? yuck!), it's definitely worth a shot.