Return to Jaleo

The last time I ate at Jose Andres' iconic tapas restaurant was a few years ago. A number of meals and a renovation later, I dropped in last Saturday night with a friend to check things out (may also have had something to do with Zaytinya having a 1.5 hour wait time).
We put out name on the list and sauntered up to the bar to grab a drink. After evaluating our proclivity for prolonged consumption of libations, we ordered a full carafe of red sangria. It was a standard sangria, nothing special really.

We took the opportunity to check out the new interior, a combination of soccer and legs themes. The bar is adorned with a extra-wide panorama of people jumping? and various outfits. The ceiling is adorned with a selection of red-orange-yellow hexagons that seemingly tie in the foosball dining tables in the eating area. The men's and women's are separated by only a frosted glass wall section with the space above and below open into the adjacent rooms. It was a little disconcerting at first to see women's feet as I looked to my left while at the urinal but I got over it quickly.

After checking on our table, the hostess acknowledged that they had a number of tables where the patrons had already paid and were just hanging out. Hungry and impatient, we decided to grab the next two stools that opened up at the bar.

Rolling with our joint indecision and not having any diet limitations to deal with, we left it up to Jason the Bartender to select a few things for us to consume. Thankfully, we were not disappointed.

We were started with a quasi amuse bouche cono salmon. It was a fried cone filled with a salmon tartare and topped with trout roe. I normally dislike roe but it disappeared into the rest of the bite and proved a delicious start.

Next was the croquetas de pollo, a type of hush-puppy fritter. They were good but nothing special in my mind. Perhaps if the exterior were more crunchy to offset the supersoft insides.

Thankfully, these were soon followed by the pulp a la gallega maestro alfonso. When they are arrived and I realized it was octopus, I had very low expectations and anticipated chewing on the pieces for the better part of the next hour. The octopus tasted great and was easily masticated and consumed in only a few bites. This and the next plate were easily my favorites for the night.

Finally, they dropped off lomo de buey con valdeon, a grilled hanger steak. Adorned with crumbled blue cheese and encircled with another sauce of it, Jaleo presented this extremely well. The stone mustard accept and perfectly grilled steak made every bite a treasure.

I look forward to my next visit and trying out some other new items!