Elcielo Restaurant Washington D.C. — Restaurant in Washington

My girlfriend and I ate here in late September and I have been debating about writing this review, and specifically about what to put in it, since then.

I’ll start with this: the food at El Cielo is exceptional. My girlfriend and I both did the 20 course tasting menu with wine pairing. I genuinely enjoyed the food and from that aspect alone I would give them 5 stars. But, that all but ends my 5 star experience.

The service at El Cielo was disappointing—so disappointing that I cannot in good conscience give them more than 3 stars in this review.

Before our reservation I tried contacting the restaurant multiple times. Your only option for contacting anyone is email because no one picked up the phone the 3+ separate times that I called. I also couldn’t leave a voicemail because the mailbox was full. When I emailed it took over 24 hours to get a response. So, prior to your reservation just hope you don’t need to contact the restaurant for any reason or with any urgency.

When we arrived for our reservation we immediately began our meal service. To start we received two courses. Oddly enough, we were told to eat the second course listed on the menu first and the first course listed on the menu second. This is the sort of detail that is lacking for a restaurant that is purportedly of Michelin star quality.

Additionally, the pace of service was so fast that within 15 minutes of starting our meal we had already been served 5 courses. In fact, we were served multiple courses WHILE STILL CHEWING THE PREVIOUS COURSE. My girlfriend and I felt that we were being rushed through our meal and so we decided that we had to take control of things ourselves. We opted to slow down the pace of service by taking a minute to breathe after finishing the prior course (all while the next course, which they had already brought us, was getting cold). This was all that we could do to actually try and enjoy the food that they were serving us.

Through the remainder of the meal the service (and our experience generally) fluctuated—again, all in the details. The staff struggled with serving our wine pairings and they ended up dripping a not insignificant amount wine all over the table. They also didn’t do anything to even acknowledge that it was my girlfriend’s birthday, which was frankly very disappointing (I’ve had more done at a Chili’s than El Cielo). Additionally, when I excused myself to the restroom I found an extremely dented trash can that looked like it had kicked in by someone and there was only one floss pick in the jar in the restroom (why have that detail if your staff won’t attend to it).

Finally, at the end of our meal we decided to order a round of espresso martinis to cap off the night. We ended up waiting over 20 minutes to get our drinks because they brought them to the wrong table the first time. While sipping on our drinks they also refilled the water that we had been drinking all night. But when they brought me the bill, to my surprise El Cielo went out of their way to charge me $7 for that bit of water we consumed (and which had otherwise been free all night). A real capper on a rather disappointing experience that cost almost $1,400.

If you want my honest opinion, then here it is: the food is very good but there are better restaurants in DC (and especially ones with better service) for less. If you were asking me, this wouldn’t be my first choice when looking for a fancy restaurant to spend my hard...

Lengthy Review Ahead - On Saturday night (1/15/2022), my partner and I visited El Cielo for dinner. We booked our reservations weeks ago and were very excited to be celebrating our 5 year anniversary there. In fact, we got engaged a few hours before dinner and thought it would be an incredible way to close out a day we'll never forget. Unfortunately, we were sorely disappointed.

When you spend over $1,000 on dinner for two, you expect a certain experience and this was worse than I could have expected. An overview:

When we were first seated, our waiter checked in on us and asked if we wanted to order a few drinks while we waited. We had to tell him that we had actually ordered the wine pairing. I feel like this is something they should know and not something that needs reminding. We actually made an error when booking and only added one pairing - once they let us know, we were easily able to adjust and add a second.

The pacing of the food was just really bad. After being seated for a few minutes, plates started coming out left and right. We'd get a quick overview from a server and before we could taste or discuss the food, another plate was coming (we were hoping that maybe this was just the case for the small plates that kicked the experience off, but unfortunately not). It was very obvious that the kitchen was pushing food out for the three tables that were seated in our section (ours included). While I know that this is how a kitchen works, I don't think it's over the top to expect a personalized experience for fine dining. The pacing was so off that at one point, I had three, full wine glasses in front of me at one time - I couldn't keep up with what drink was paired with what item and felt rushed to eat and drink to try and keep pace. Also, the wine was trash.

It was FREEZING and I don't mean a little bit chilly. I noticed a few people wearing coats when we entered, which I thought was odd, but I soon realized why. We were seated in the main room which was, at a minimum, 15 degrees colder than the back room and had one space heater (which obviously did nothing). It was so cold that I had to put my Parka to try and stay warm. This was a winter day in DC, sure, but I truly cannot think of an excuse to not have sufficient heat in a restaurant in winter. I've been warmer at Waffle House.

At the end of the night, once we had finished the meal our waiter was nowhere to be found. After waiting for a bit, we (and the folks at the table beside us) had to get up and find staff to get the final checks.

While the food wasn't out of this world, it was interesting and well presented. But, I have had much better food and MUCH MUCH better experiences for a fraction of the price. We walked away feeling like we'd been scammed. It's hard for me to believe that this is the experience that gave El Cielo a Michelin Star. Could not, in good conscience, recommend this restaurant to anyone.

1/25 update: no one from El Cielo has...

I went for the experience as a table of 3, and quickly my expectations were set very high. The stars of the show are definitely the appetizers and pre-main meal plates. The truffle buñuelo, hiramasa lulo quinoa, aguardiente passionfruit toddy, and the carimañola were my top 4 (in that order) based on how each one was perfected taste wise. I will say, I was a bit disappointed by the quail which I very much looked forward to because I love quail. It just didn’t wow me in any way and had a slight gamy flavor that quail has if washed/cooked in certain ways. The bison and tree of life are also worth mentioning because they were higher up in the ranks of deliciousness. I would definitely come back and order 3+ buñuelos from the a la carte menu along with a couple other new dishes to switch it up.

You start to get full around the time the menu switches over to dessert. Therefore I can’t tell if it’s because we were full but the dessert dishes fell a bit flat. The cherry blossoms were the only dessert I enjoyed. The cholao as a concept was so lovely - bringing together the diverse spirit of Colombia in a dish, however I just didn’t enjoy it. I’m not a fan of artificial candy and since it had pop rocks in it and some jellies I think it was just a bit too candy like. The rose petals are not really anything to be consumed just as a heads up, it’s more like the chocotherapy - just for your senses.

Lastly, we had dietary restrictions on alcohol and pork (which was absent from the menu anyways). I made this known when I made the reservation online, over the phone the day of when the restaurant confirmed with me, and when we were seated and greeted by our server. However we still had a sauce served to us that had alcohol (the sauce from the bison dish) and a dessert that had amaretto. The server explained that the alcohol cooks out however we were aware of that and frankly I find that this is a decision for the customer to make as they might have other concerns/implications. So I was disappointed they still brought them to us when we already flagged it. There was no alternative to the bison sauce however I will say our server and the chef quickly made a substitution and provided us with a different dessert because we couldn’t have the amaretto and guava tart. That was much appreciated. It would have been perfect had that been incorporated into the experience from the start without having to mention it when the guava amaretto was served. But that’s just for the restaurant to note in terms of the larger experience.

They did bring out an edible candle for my birthday which was a lovely touch and nice to note from my reservation details. It was a lovely gesture that shows how charismatic the restaurant and team are. Thank you.

Overall, I would definitely recommend to try once if you can! El Cielo is of the most unique experience menus I have had. Come hungry because there is a good amount of food you’ll be served and you’ll walk out more...