Bandolero Pop-up Restaurant Preview

LivingSocial voucher

After purchasing two tickets for the LivingSocial deal, I followed the instructions that I received and made dinner reservations for 7:15pm on Saturday February 18th for the pop-up preview of Bandolero Restaurant.  Basically, LivingSocial, a Washington DC-headquartered online coupon company, was hosting Chef Mike Isabella’s preview of his upcoming restaurant venture in Georgetown to help kick off LivingSocial’s newly leased building in Penn Quarter where LivingSocial will host pop-ups, cooking classes, and all sorts of other activities in their new space.

I guess I don’t typically get to the Penn Quarter area at prime dinner time as I have never had any problems finding street parking in the area but this time we circled around the area a few times and could not find any street parking.  So, as we were running out of time and wanted to make our reservation time on time, we bit the $16 parking tab and decided to park within two blocks at the E Street Cinema parking garage.

We walked into the LivingSocial building space (918 F St NW, Washington, DC) right at 7:15pm, had our IDs checked, and checked in at the lobby downstairs.  We then headed up to the 2nd floor reception area where we each got a glass of champagne.  Our table was already ready so we had only just sat down on the couches in the living area when our name was called to follow somebody up to the restaurant area on the 4th floor where we were promptly seated.

Michelada

Once seated at our table, before we had had a chance to get halfway through our glass of champagne, the accompanying first course drinks were served.  The drink was the Michelada – milagro blanco, tomato lime, mole bitters, corona – essentially a tequila version of a Bloody Mary.  The drink definitely served as a good appetizing drink.  The first course came out shortly thereafter – warm chips and chicharrones served with:

• Guacamole – classic
• Sikil Pak – pumpkin seeds, jalapeno orange
• Salsa Roja – guajillo, tomato, garlic

The chips and dips were all very good but the chicharrones were definitely the highlight of this course.  Light and crispy deep fried goodness just tastes so good!

Mmmmm . . . chicharrones

For our second course we went with:

• Albondigas – spicy pork meatballs, sofrito
• Sopes – lamb picadillo, chipotle goat cheese

This course was paired with a Margarita – milagro blanco, patron citronage, agave, grand marnier, lime, blood orange.  I was tempted to select the blue crab taquito, but based on our server’s recommendation and the fact that I have Kiwi roots, I went with the lamb dish.  For those who aren’t big lamb fans, the lamb was well made and did not taste very lamby.  The sopes were delightful little pockets of flavor with the lamb topped with chipotle goat cheese and a little pepper slice.  The spicy pork meatballs were also very good.  Four of them came in a little bowl topped with some chopped veggies.  The meatballs had good flavor but for my palate they could have had just a little more spice to them.  In my opinion, the sopes edged out the albondigas.

Sopes – lamb picadillo, chipotle goat cheese

The third course was a selection betwen various tacos.  We went with:

• Mahi Mahi – served with chipotle, avocado and lime
• Spicy Chicken – served with avocado, relish

At first we were a little surprised when the mahi mahi was presented – were we being served fried fish sticks?!  However, after biting into the taco, it was apparent that we were having a delicious version of the classic “fish taco”.  The mahi mahi was cooked perfectly with a lightly fried batter and flaky innards.  My wife commented that perhaps the mahi mahi dish could have been better with corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas.  I thought the flour tortillas were actually just right since the corn tortillas may have overpowered the mahi mahi.  The spicy chicken dish, served on corn tortillas, was also very good.  The shredded chicken had a great flavor profile in itself and went wonderfully with the topped lettuce, avocado relish, and little bits of cheese.  I would say this round was a tie between both dishes.  This course was paired with City of Gold  – milagro reposado, cardmaro, St Germain, lemon.

Spicy chicken taco with avocado and relish

For our fourth course we selected the:

• Alahambres – hangar steak, chimichurri
• Mole Negro – pork ribs, sesame seeds

In comparing which dish was better in this round, the pork ribs definitely won.  The tender meat slid off the bone with ease and tasted absolutely delicious with the sesame seeds and sauce.  The hangar steak portions were extremely generous but perhaps this was the downfall of the dish.  The hangar steak was served in a manner that almost made it look like three pieces of sushi/tuna sashimi on the plate with Chef Mike’s famous pizza sauce drizzled around it.  The hangar steak was well cooked – I’d estimate they made it to be medium rare as it had a good dark sear on the outside with a reddish center.  However, it just seemed the meat cubes were just a tad too large so it did take a little bit of chewing effort to polish off each piece of meat, even when cut into smaller manageable pieces.

Mole Negro - pork ribs, sesame seeds

The accompanying drink for the fourth course, Malverde, was comprised of sombra mezcal, cucumber, cilantro, agave, hellfire bitters.  The drink definitely tasted cucumber-ry.  Not being people that typically have such drinks, the drinks just tasted different.  Perhaps it was due to the bitters in the drink that made it seem odd to the taste buds?  The drink also seemed like an odd combination with the dishes in this course.

For our fifth course, aka dessert, we got to have both the Flan and Mexican Chocolate Pudding.  The flan had canella and orange and was served with pickled mangoes, while the Mexican Chocolate Pudding was served with mezcal crema.  Both desserts were good.  The flan had a unique flavor profile, probably due to the canella.  As such, the chocolate pudding edged out the flan in this round for me.  Dessert was paired with a Sparkling Cocktail – el jimador blanco, prickly pear, and sparkling wine – a nice finish to a great meal.

Flan with canella and orange

At the end of the our evening, we didn’t see Chef Mike Isabella in the dining area chatting with folks like we had seen earlier in the evening so we asked somebody about it and instead we got to head down to the kitchen on the third floor to chit chat with Chef Mike Isabella for a bit.

Meet and greet with Chef Mike Isabella

What was our damage at the end of the night?  Well, the tab came out and our sum was $0!  Technically, that’s not quite true as I had been paid $119 apiece when I had purchased our tickets from LivingSocial.  Was it worth it?  Definitely!  We ate and drank extremely well and we got to meet Chef Mike Isabella.  Not only that but during dinner my wife and I both felt like we were on Top Chef during restaurant wars.  The only thing missing from our popup restaurant experience was a feedback card!  Thanks LivingSocial for a wonderful experience and I look forward to enjoying more such evenings in the future!

Overall, we had a wonderful dinner experience.  If our preview is indicative of the dining experience at Bandolero, Bandolero will no doubt be a big hit.  I don’t know what the final prices for the various courses will be, but the portion sizes were generous and if that carries over, I don’t see anybody complaining about Bandolero not being a good bang for the buck, or leaving hungry/thirsty!  I must admit that I’m typically not the biggest fan of tequila but all of the drinks were good.  I particularly enjoyed the Michelada and would definitely recommend that to start off your Bandolero experience.  If I do make it to Bandolero after it opens,  I’ll probably be trying the other dishes that I didn’t get to try but if I were going to have some of the dishes again, I would go for the sopes, mahi mahi, spicy chicken, mole negro, finishing it off with the Mexican chocolate pudding.

Below is a more comprehensive photo documentary of our experience:

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February 21, 2012 | Categories: Dinner, Restaurants | Tags: Bandolero, chicharrones, chicken, DC, flan, guacamole, hangar steak, lamb, LivingSocial, mahi mahi, meatballs, Mike Isabella, pork, pork ribs, pudding, spicy chicken, tacos, tequila, Top Chef, Washington | 2 Comments