Bodega Spanish Tapas & Lounge — Restaurant in Washington

Food was great HOWEVER, I had the worst experience the other day with a server by the name of Yohanna.

I came in and ordered the small paella and two appetizers. When I ordered she said that I should order the large, but I told her that two apps and a small paella would be more than enough for myself and my daughter. Our food was brought out in a timely fashion and tasted great. Our two appetizers came out and we enjoyed them. However, after we finished the appetizers, she quickly came out and asked if we wanted croquettes (something we had already ordered). We told her we already ordered them, received them, and ate them. She then tried to get us to order another appetizer (green beans) that we had ordered and ate, and we reminded her that we already got them and ate them and that we were fine with no more appetizers since we had a paella coming. It just felt pushy and odd since she knew we ordered these and she watched us eat them as she checked on us for drink refills.

When the time came to settle up, Yohanna brought us the bill. When I looked at the bill to look for an itemized receipt, I noticed there wasn't one in the bill folder. I asked for one and Yohanna sighed, then pulled out our crumpled up itemized receipt from her pocket. I took a look at the receipt and noticed she charged me for a large paella. When I clarified and reminded her that I ordered a small paella, she then said that what was brought out was a large and that "by the time she realized we had a large paella instead of small, that we had already started eating" and that it was too late at that point to charge for the small paella. I said that it was disappointing to be in a position where we ordered the small dish but had received another but didn't know the difference in size. For all I knew, I thought I was getting the small paella when I ordered. The whole thing seemed incredibly deceitful and under-handed since she had my itemized receipt crumbled up in her pocket and seemed to intentionally not include it in the bill folder, hesitated to give me the itemized receipt, then tried to make it seem like it was my fault because I ate the paella that she brought out (as if I knew I was getting the large and not the small).

All in all, the food is tasty but I would not recommend Yohanna as a server as she felt extremely untrustworthy and...

An all-around solid restaurant with a fun and energetic ambiance, a variety of tasty food, and speedy service. I came here for a weekend lunch with a friend, and it was shockingly busy for a Sunday at 1:30 PM! I'm really grateful that we had made a reservation because every table was full...and the food certainly lived up to the hype. The prices were decent, but honestly a little bit on the higher end; we tried the two tapas: the ensalada de peras y nueces (field green salad with pears, walnuts, goat cheese, and a honey vinaigrette), pulpo a la plancha (seared octopus with potatoes and smoked paprika). I really enjoyed the salad, although they were a bit heavy-handed with the dressing, so I'll definitely ask for them to place it on the side the next time I stop by. The octopus was wonderful, with a perfect texture and level of flavor, but I found the potatoes a bit bland. My friend and I then split a paella marinera con bogavante, which was quite extravagant; it contained a variety of seafood, including monkfish, clams, mussels, scallops, squid, shrimp, and a whole lobster! We got the individual portion and split it betwen the two of us, but we were honestly only able to eat about half of it, so you can definitely split a single one between three or four people, or maybe more if you order a few extra tapas. It was incredibly flavorful and absolutely delicious, although, honestly, I think that there was almost too much going on. Next time, I might try the arroz abana or paella vegetariana instead, since I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of things in the paella marinera con bogavante (as wonderful and exciting as it was). The service was generally phenomenal, although it did take a bit of time for them to get our check out to us (I think we were waiting for about 20 minutes after our table was cleared, and then an additional 15 minutes after we gave them our card?), but that's 100% understandable considering how busy they were. Overall, I think that Bodega is a really solid spot for a slightly classier evening dinner or weekend lunch, considering their wide selection of tasty dishes, variety of drinks, and...

I've never eaten at a Bodega before, neither has my wife. We were trying to entertain some out of town guests and after driving around in Adams Morgan for about 30 minutes trying to find parking, we decided to come to Georgetown instead. We were so relieved to find parking at a garage nearby and then just traveling on foot to see what options we had for food after 10pm. Bodega won for us. Me nor my wife couldn’t pronounce the foods they had on the menu good despite the English text in captions on the menus, which was a nice touch but that didn't matter to us as we were hungry. My wife, and our two guests had yhe same thing which was basically mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans. I had lamb chops, a scoop of mashed potatoes with gravy and that was all that came on my plate as it looked like something a five year old would yet. I was expecting an actual meal. It was delicious but I left feeling hungry still. So glad that the Häagen-Dazs was still open as I gored on some chocolate peanut butter ice cream. Overall at the Bodega, great customer service, friendly staff, including from the managers / owners who were on hand. The atmosphere was quaint, dark and intimate. Price wise for all of us it came to $148 and that included two homemade sangrias, a martini, and a bottle of Estrella Dark for me. Never had it before and it was great. For four people in Georgetown? It's Georgetown folks and let's not forget inflation. I highly reccomend for folks that's trying to entertain out of town guests or celebrating a special occasion. In our case we were celebrating our anniversary weekend, a great panel we hosted at Awesome Con at the Convention Center, and finally being able to meet and hang out with our out of town friends....