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1776 I St. NW
(202) 429-2200
Hours of Operation and Prices
Lunch: M-F 11:30-2:30; Entrees: $10-$18
Dinner: M-Th 6-10, F-Sat 6-11; Entrees: $15-$26
Closed: Sun
Pre-Theater: M-Sat 6-8 pm, $30
Tapas: Served throughout the day, $5-$8
Other Information
• All major credit cards
• Reservations recommended
• Dress: Jacket & tie
• Complimentary valet parking at dinner
• Nearest Metro: Farragut West
• Handicapped Accessible
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It's comforting to sit in a Spanish restaurant and hear nothing but Spanish spoken at the tables around you. But that's not the only reason Taberna del Alabardero breeds confidence. This formal, Old World restaurant has grown more solid over the years, and more interesting as well. Much of its menu is predictably continental, but it's been adding more distinctly Iberian dishes. And now it offers four paellas - one with pasta instead of rice, one black with squid ink - though they are still available only for two people.
Except at the tapas bar. And that's what particularly draws me to this restaurant, for a quick or late lunch, an unstructured dinner or an evening snack. The curved bar is decorated with a parade of dishes, so you choose by viewing them or from a menu: crisp brown ham and cheese croquettes; crunchy, cold vegetable-stuffed mussels; half-moon, beef-filled empanadas; small, open-face Serrano ham or smoked salmon sandwiches; paella portioned appetizer-size, and much more.
The cold seafood salad is a mild and elegant seviche, with sumptuous shrimp and raw, marinated scallops in a bright, crisp mixture of chopped onions and peppers. There are salads of artichokes and ham, or vinegared octopus. Hot tapas include extraordinarily succulent leg of duck, long-cooked into the softness and crispness of a French confit, its juices soaking into sliced potatoes. Fresh sardines are grilled, the wonderful Spanish ham is saut‚ed with artichokes or stuffed with cheese into crumb-coated, rolled breast of veal. And every day a family-style stew, sometimes as homey as just leeks with potatoes, simmers at the ready for tapas or full entrees.
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