We had a visitor this weekend so we took her to the Library of Congress’ re-opened exhibit areas and then to Jaleo for tapas dinner on Saturday night. Then we went back to Napa 1015 for the totally awesome brunch Sunday morning. (Where they recognized me and boyfriend from a few weeks ago. Gratefully there were a lot more people there for brunch and I also got a friend to go there for dinner last week for her birthday and she said it was amazing. But I digress.)
Jaleo is by far the best place in DC I’ve been for tapas. La Tasca doesn’t even compare. And fortunately, Jaleo is in several locations around DC.
The food ranges from the very traditional Patatas Bravas, roasted potatoes with aioli and tomato sauce, to funkier stuff like artichoke hearts with grapefruit slices and olives. OMG was dinner delicious I am salivating just recalling the dinner.
We got 9 dishes total, 2 desserts, a glass of sherry and a bottle of wine. Damage was about $135 + tip. Dishes ranged in price from about $6-10 each and the wine was a Rioja for $34. This was dinner for 3 and way too much food, but we wanted to impress our guest and give her a lot of options for her first taste of Spanish food.
I got the artichoke hearts with grapefruit and olives, wild mushroom rice (basically a risotto), and cannelones with foiegras and pork. Boyfriend got Chorizo in crispy potato pastry, chicken croquettes, brussel sprouts with grapes, apples and apricots, there was mashed potato in cabbage leaf with goat cheese (’Trinxat’), sauteed cauliflower and Patatas Bravas.
Dessert was the warm chocolate birthday cake with with bergamot flavoring and yummy vanilla ice cream and Basque cake with semolina cream, cinnamon-vanilla sauce & ice milk, and a very nice sherry for the guest. Dessert was amazing. I highly recommend the chocolate cake if you go soon. It’s a seasonal special.
In retrospect, 9 dishes was too much for the three of us. Jaleo has huge portions. 2-3 is usually enough for a person. But I’ve been places where 3-4 is more the norm. (Thirsty Bear in San Francisco comes to mind, but I also remember their fish cheeks and beef with rosemary dishes. Yes. That good.)
They also have a wine shop near their Crystal City location. CRAP. I wish I knew this before. boyfriend and I had a really amazing wine there before that just knocked our socks off. But now I can’t remember what it was, else I would buy a case of it tomorrow. A rioja. Of course. What else would you have with tapas?
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