So visiting the Bandolero pop-up, previewing a new DC venture by Mike Isabella of Top Chef fame, turned out to be a perfect storm of things I don't like. Worst of all, the food wasn't that great. Mediocre is the word that most often comes to mind. (Fortunately, good company and Negra Modelo draft beer made it a great evening anyway.)
One of my companions at dinner, Peter Gilbert, offered a blow-by-blow account of the meal in his No Limits blog that I'm pretty much in agreement with, though I question how any other Latin cocktail could surpass a caipirinha.
Certainly the $65 prix fixe, not including drinks, ridiculously overpriced the food we got in terms of quantity and quality (hence, rip-off), even if you consider that since tax and tip was included it corresponded to $50 on a normal menu. While it's long been clear that the primary purpose of a small-plate menu is to increase the restaurant's profit margin, a prix fixe pop-up seems designed to amplify that effect, even though it should essentially be a marketing expense.
The reason I don't watch Top Chef -- I only know Isabella was on it because Andrea is an avid watcher and for that reason was eager to try this restaurant -- is that it turns cooking into a sport, making food something like a football that gets skillfully passed around until it lands on the diner's plate. I have no illusions that Top Chef is closer to what happens in a restaurant than anything that goes on in my kitchen, but I don't have to watch it (you know the old saying about sausage...).
Bandolero was not very Mexican, confirming once again my belief that it's pretty much impossible to get good Mexican food this side of the Mississippi. I liked the Umbels' previous restaurant, Hook, and wish them well in this endeavor, but as Peter optimistically says, it is a work in progress.
1 comment:
Well said, as usual, Darrell!!
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