The Bazaar by Jose Andres: Opening in the Old Post Office Building

[Tweaked]

Announced today per Jose's IG account.  

Washington Post story

[jrichstar]

Surprising no reviews for The Bazaar yet.  Note it is tough to get reservations: had to book 2 months in advance through the Capital One restaurants program to land one.  Our family of 5 went this past weekend.

All I can say was this was an outstanding experience, maybe better than Minibar and Jaleo.  It's tapas based- some more traditional like Jaleo and some with molecular gastronomy like Minibar.  The big advantage if you like a concept like Minibar is that you can order a la carte.  There are over 50 items to order.  We put together a menu with 23 unique items (some needed an order of 2-3 as they were individual-sized portions) which brought us to 30 items in total.  Nearly every item was super-delicious and in typical Jose Andres style, beautifully presented.  Expected to spend about $100/person without tax/tip, was just a bit higher than that.  They do offer tasting menus with 12 items each which are more expensive.  Recommend going with a group of 4-6 to maximize number of selections at a lower cost per person.

I wish I had time to give you a review of all the items but will mention some highlights: boneless buffalo chicken wings, philly cheesesteak, potatoes pal gasol, conch fritters, onion soup, not your everyday caprese, neptune's pillows, spanish octopus, eggplant escalivada and oxtail croquetas.  We also had 3 desserts which were great and had a delicious Ultimate G&T cocktail.

Service was friendly and all this food was staged nicely so it came out in 4-5 stages and not all at once.

Finally, The Bazaar is in the atrium of the Waldorf Astoria.  It's beautiful in it's own right but the underrated positive is that with the high ceiling and essentially no walls, we could actually converse with each other in a normal voice.

The Bazaar is another Jose Andres treasure in DC! 

[lion]

Jrichstar, thanks for the review. Putting it on the radar for the fall. 

[KeithA]

On 8/22/2023 at 5:26 PM, jrichstar said:

 neptune's pillows,

 

Great review. Thanks for sharing. I have to ask what is neptune's pillows?

[jrichstar]

27 minutes ago, KeithA said:

Great review. Thanks for sharing. I have to ask what is neptune's pillows?

The "pillow" is a small homemade sesame biscuit.  It is filled with spicy tuna.  The pillow is topped with a piece of tuna sashimi and fresh wasabi.  Very tasty for sushi lovers.  What Neptune has to do with this, I have no idea.

[DonRocks]

5 hours ago, jrichstar said:

What Neptune has to do with this, I have no idea.

Think of the Ancient Roman God of the Sea, and not the planet named after him?

Neptune supposedly had salacious sex with … Salacia, who bore him three children including Triton (half-man, half-fish).

TMI?