The Bazaar by José Andrés — Restaurant in Washington

Took my kiddo for their 18th birthday and had a meal/night we will never forget. The restaurant is located in the beautiful Waldorf Astoria. I would like to point out that there is a glass elevator that is operated by the national park service so it only runs to 5pm if memory serves. This just means that after our group had enough liquid courage to actually ride the thing, it was closed. Now, onto the best damn meal! We went with the cheaper experience option. The choices fit more of the kiddo's tastes and it was their day so off on this culinary adventure we go! The meal started with salted platano chips with whipped greek yogurt which was seasoned with tamarind and star anise. We treated this stuff like chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant! Our server ended up keeping this supplied to the table throughout our experience. The first course isn't over yet! Next was Jose's Favorite Waldorf Salad which was a delicious endive salad which was accompanied by a standard at José's restaurants.Thats seafood in a cone! In this case it was the Crab Louis version. OMG I almost forgot about the delicious plate of iberico ham that we requested to be brought out with our first course. Everything was amazing and we couldn't wait for next round. I would be remiss if i didn't mention the fabulous drinks we were having. My wife started with a salt air margarita. Imagine a cloud of salted air floating on the best damn margarita you have ever had. While i started with an around the world in 80 days. I was doing the wine tasting so this was my only specialty drink of the night. So smooth and so delish. Would recommend both drinks for sure. The kiddos were huge fans of their non-alcoholic drinks as well. Our second round of courses had many stars of the show. Surprisingly, the most shocking dish was the boneless buffalo wing. A simple chicken wing that literally just was deboned. Perfectly cooked with a bit of bleu cheese and celery on top. Our table couldn't believe how tasty these were. This was accompanied by seafood croquettes which was the equivalent of a cream of crab soup filled mozzarella stick (sans the cheese), it was good but the oxtail croquettes we had later topped them. The final dish of this trio was Neptune's Pillows. Like a sushi grade eclair, so delicious. It was filled with sesame rocoto and topped with fresh tuna garnished with wasabi. What a ride we were on. It was at this time my wife also decided to enjoy a table side drink. She ordered a Nitro Caipirinha, the Brazilian drink which during this process turned it into an alcoholic slushy. Fabulous! I haven't mentioned my wine experience however I would be a liar if I told you I remembered anything other than how delicious every single one was. Our somalier looked like he was barely above drinking age (possibly a relative of Adam Brody from the OC lol) but he absolutely knew plenty about what he was selling. Onto our next course, another fabulous trio! The star of this show was the Bao con Lechon. A delicious piece of pork belly wrapped in perfectly steamed bao dough. Definitely everyone's favorite in this trip however the most interesting was Not Your Everyday Caprese. Who doesn't love a dish that rhymes?!? A reimagining of a caprese salad with spherical mozzarella bubbles. Yes, cheese bubbles. When they burst in your mouth with a fresh slice of tomato and basil it was a fantastic bite of food. While the tortilla de patatas was another way to enjoy a tortilla that you wouldn't expect. Having it in the form of basically a pudding was tasty just didn't outshine its partners in this course.

Finally (maybe) our last course. There wasn't a clear favorite at the table. I will start with my favorite which was the steak which had a table side red pepper gravy slowly poured over top. The meat melted in your mouth and I don't think there was a drop of that gravy left on the plate. The Spanish Octopus was the other table favorite and in fact is my wife's favorite octopus she has ever had. The octopus was accompanied by bits of chorizo and perfectly...

At almost $250 per person after tip our dinner at the Bazaar by José Andrés was an atrocious value. At this price point we were expecting great food and service, and Bazaar was unfortunately lacking in both respects.

First, the good: The environment around the restaurant is beautiful, situated on the first floor and a second floor alcove overlooking the historic Waldorf Astoria hotel. The restaurant is tastefully decorated with a comfortable and chic ambiance, which based on our experience is about the only compliment I can give to this place.

The bad: There are two kinds of tapas places - ones that offer an exciting and diverse experience with smaller shareable dishes that everyone can mix and match to enjoy, leaving full and satisfied, and ones that seem deliberately set up to enjoy higher profit margins by charging grossly inflated prices for truly tiny morsels. The Bazaar felt like a prime example of the second type. We've been to quite a few tapas places and we understand the premise of ordering a lot of small dishes to share (which is part of the fun). But never until coming to the Bazar have I spent over $700 for three people at a tapas (or any) restaurant and left hungry and disappointed. The plates were miniscule, with the most substantial dish we received being a flimsy $55 espresso encrusted beef that looked to be a half an inch thick and probably totaling a few ounces at most. Truly tiny, with most of the other $20-$40 dishes being literal bites, constructed from foams or other insubstantial ingredients (like cubed potatoes in an octopus dish, which felt like a cheap filler). Again, small shareable plates are expected at a tapas restaurant, but there was nothing shareable about these dishes.

On the pacing: Our waitress made a rushed and confusing explanation about how the kitchen would stagger dishes depending on what we ordered, what would be shareable and what should be individual bites. I don't know what was lost in the execution, but on a not so busy seeming night the dishes sporadically came out at no discernable interval, to quickly be whisked away ("Can I take that?") by roaming dish clearance staff who were ever present, in contrast with our server, who was hardly ever there. We had to ask for our waitress four times throughout the meal to order more drinks or to check on drinks we'd already ordered (which came out very slow). Twice the staff member clearing our plate said that they would ask for our server, only to go on to the next table and clearly not honor our request. Lastly, and everything else could be forgiven if this was not the case, but the food was simply nothing special. The flavors were poorly balanced and surprisingly bland. "Sweet chips" tasted of nothing and the primary flavor of the miniscule "caviar cones" tasted of store bought cream cheese. A dish with a citrus note tasted of citrus and nothing else and a salmon dish was raw in the middle, with no palpable seasoning. The "deconstructed carrot cake" was pathetic and unflavorful, which was a disappointment at the end of a meal when I was hoping for something more substantial.

This letdown of a meal has put a hamper on what has been an otherwise wonderful stay at the Waldorf Astoria DC. The restaurant seems to heavily rely on their location, over charging moneyed one-time patrons who are too used to pricy bills to...

Updated review:

after a not so great experience, we were invited to give the Bazaar another try. We all have bad days, so I agreed. Les took amazing care of us, and really made us feel very welcomed. He was great at explaining the menu and steering me toward dishes that were safe for my allergies.

This time, the food was so good. The leeks were phenomenal. The right balance of flavors, acidic and sweet at the same time. Fresh greens added a lot brightness to the dish. The steak with peppers was absolutely delicious with the perfect balance of flavors in the sauce. There’s no heat to the peppers, so if you’re not a fan of spicy food don’t let that deter you from this dish. The beef cheeks surprised me, they were so tender with a rich, savory sauce.

My husband enjoyed the taco and Caesar salad. The taco is a one bite experience combining the flavors of caviar and iberico. The salad is stacked leaves, with lots of dressing and anchovies, along with small pillow like croutons. He also tried the salmon, which came with small potatoes—he said it was delicious and enjoyed it.

All in all this was a much improved experience and I really appreciate the opportunity to dine here again. If you have dietary restrictions or allergies there are options! I ate here dairy free and gluten free and was able to enjoy many dishes with some small tweaks.

Previous review: I stopped at this property for lunch, and I’m sad to say I was very disappointed with both the food and the service. The Brussels sprouts were too fruit forward and felt more like a fruit salad than a vegetable dish. The accommodations for my allergies seemed limiting (they couldn’t prepare patas bravas any way but in a shared fryer, also be sure to check on ingredients because not all ingredients are listed on the menu). The ham and eggs lacked texture, it’s a dish of tomato sauce with runny eggs and ham—no bread, no crunch, quite mushy. The salad was a small portion without substance, it leads with celery more than anything else, which isn’t pleasant if you aren’t a fan of celery. Our napkins were damaged and dirty when we arrived at the table. The coconut rice was delicious, and was the stand out dish. But I was charged for a version with scallops even though I received a version without. When I pushed back on this, they removed $4 from the cost… which doesn’t feel like an appropriate amount for scallops. But I was so frustrated with the entire interaction that it wasn’t worth pushing back anymore. The service was disappointing and unbecoming of a hotel of this caliber. We love José Andrés and love to support him and his causes, but I’m sad to say that this restaurant left me underwhelmed...