Bandolero Popup At Tackle Box

When we arrived last night, my reservation had been canceled. That’s OK, we’ll get you a table in 15 minutes if you’ll wait at the bar. Fine.
Thirty minutes later I checked back to see if they’d forgotten about me. Sure enough, they had. Apologies all round.
They seated us and the waiter launched into an unintentional parody: «Have you been here before? No? First time? OK. We serve small plates that are meant for sharing…» Seriously? It’s 2012 and we’re still having to sit through this song and dance? Jaleo opened in 1993, I think we’ve gotten the hang of the small-​plates thing by now.
So: One star for service.
Five stars for the food, though, which was preposterously good: Beef «ceviche» on little tostadas. Suckling pig tacos. Nachos topped with crispy goat and goat cheese.
And five stars for the cocktails. I had something called the Capo, which looks like a girly drink but involves mezcal and smoky Laphroaig and bitters.
I’ll go back in the hope that the service eventually rises to the level of the food.

Went to Bandolero on opening nite. As expected, the food is delicious — its a fun play on Mexican food, and definitely fills the craving minus all the grease + overstuffing that usually occurs when you go out for that type of food.
The lobster tacos were the standout, cocktails were delicious (suggest trying the Malverde, it was pretty special), wine list was small but very reasonable. Atmosphere is quite different from anything else in Georgetown — was pretty shocked at the noise level, but I presume this is something that will be worked out over the next few weeks. It’s a nice change for Georgetown, definitely a ‘scene’ that has yet to come to the area. Will definitely go back but my initial take-​away is that this is a place for a group of 4 or more looking to get a little rowdy, not your slow paced, nice calm dining experience.

Stopped by Bandolero at Tackle Box on Cinco de Mayo since we heard they were offering the menu a la cart. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was the eye candy — seriously, tons of hot men are staffed here, and luckily some of them know how to make excellent drinks! While waiting at the bar for my friends, I ordered the Our Way margarita with blood oranges (delicious) and had an even better spicy cocktail called Where There is Smoke, There is Fire (at least, I think that was the name… things were starting to get hazy after a bit).
When we sat down, we ordered the guacamole, goat nachos, enchilada roja, alambres, and the suckling pig tacos. We asked that the guacamole be made without cilantro ’cause a member of our group cannot stand the herb. The server didn’t agree to it but said he would ask the kitchen about it. Luckily he brought a fresh made guac to the table without cilantro, so major props to the kitchen for accommodating us. The guac came with chips, pork rinds, and a smoky salsa which were all solid. The goat nachos were good, but I did wish there was more goat in the dish. The tacos were all very small — maybe a couple of bites each — but we were warned when we ordered. The suckling pig was delicious — salty, sweet, and meaty — while the enchilada roja was average. The alambres was well cooked — medium rare — with a nice chimichurri sauce.
I’m so glad they had a stint at the old Tackle Box — best of luck to them in their new location in Georgetown!

Full disclosure. I find Chef Mike Isabella’s cuisine to be quite enjoyable and I think his Graffiato offers one of the city’s best Tasting Menu values to be found. Therefore, I was looking forward to checking out his Bandolero pop-​up at the Tackle Box in Cleveland Park. I was joined for dinner on a Tues night by Carol W, Ruth C, and another friend who shared a similar desire to sample 5-​courses off of his Bandolero menu. By night’s end, my thought was we should’ve waited until Bandolero actually opens in its permanent home in Georgetown and all the kinks have been ironed out.
While the Tackle Box likely met all of requirements for being the venue for this pop-​up, hopefully, Chef Isabella will take careful consideration in the placement of tables, the acoustics of the space, placement of speakers, and the music volume in his own house. Our party of four was seated at a table underneath a large speaker which was blasting out a good, eclectic mix of music. The excessive volume bouncing off of the hard floors and bare walls unadorned with any sound dampening materials, made conversation very difficult and placing our order with our server even more so. Ruth C’s Malverde, a mezcal based cocktail, was heard and delivered as a malbec, and our table’s order of Sopes was heard and delivered as tortilla soup.
We started off with cocktails. I had the City of Gold, an Espolon reposado tequila based drink made with cardamaro, St. Germain, 5-​spice syrup, and lemon juice. For me, it is fast becoming my favorite drink in town and was the highlight of the meal. My second cocktail, the El Diablo, an interesting concoction made with Fidencia blanco mescal, crème de cassis, lime, and ginger beer. As for the food, it was a hit or miss proposition. Without getting too into the weeds…
The highlights: The Blue Crab Taquito possessed simple, subtle Thai-​style, flavors that really were a revelation; the Empanada, which was delivered with a beautifully light, crispy crust encasing a cheesy, nicely sweet corn filling; the Alambres, a spicy, tender cut of hangar steak grilled perfectly and served with a decent chimichurri sauce; and the Suckling Pig Taco, which had a moist, succulent pig accompanied by apple and habanero mustard.
The misses: The chips that came with the Chicharrones & Chips were a bit flat tasting and heavy, lacking the expected crispness; the Sopes, a lamb, chipotle goat cheese, with pickled jalapeño dish that I likened to a «Sloppy Joe» in both appearance and taste but was so incredibly over salted, I could’ve sworn I felt undissolved grains of salt coating my tongue; and all of the desserts we tried except for the Mango gelato dusted with Chile de Arbol were unmemorable.
Bandolero at Tackle Box seemed to show that Bandolero is still a work in progress. Whether it was uneven execution by the kitchen or Chef Isabella isn’t done refining his recipes and hasn’t finalized his menu for the real Bandolero, other than the cocktail program, it doesn’t seem to be quite ready for prime time, yet. Call it a 2.5 star experience.

My friend and I went for dinner because we love Mike Isabella, and we love good food. We did the $ 65/​each tasting menu, which gave you a shared «uno» course, then three choices each from the second course, and a dessert. We decided to split everything so we could try as much as possible.
The first course was guacamole, a pumpkin seed pesto (can’t remember the name), and salsa. The chips were pretty normal chips, nothing special nothing terrible. The salsa was really smokey and just a little spicy. It’s hard for me to judge it since I’m from Texas and love true Tex Mex, but I ate it. The guac was also pretty good, but nothing fantastic. The pumpkin pesto was good, but both of us thought it was just a little odd and perhaps a little bland.
For the second course, we had the mahi mahi tacos, suckling pig tacos, the Alambres (hangar steak with chimichurri), sopes (lamb picadillo), mole negro (short ribs with mole sauce), enchilada roja (chicken enchilada with fresh crema and Mexican chocolate). Of these dishes, the mole negro gets 5 stars. It was incredible. Super moist, and great flavor. The suckling pig tacos were delicious. The habanero mustard and sliced apple added a little bit of sweet to well seasoned meat. The sopes were pretty good as well, and came in a little corn shell sort of like a masa cake. I liked the flavor, but they could have used a bit more spice. The alambres was cooked well, and I liked the presentation. Overall good grill flavor. Unfortunately both the mahi mahi tacos and the enchilada roja were not good. The mahi mahi was fried, which is fine, but didn’t taste fresh and reminded me of a fish stick from elementary school. Which, fish sticks are good I guess, but not when I’m shelling out $ 65 for dinner. And the chicken in the enchilada wasn’t seasoned, and tasted like leftover chicken that had been shredded. We didn’t even finish that dish.
For dessert we had avocado ice cream, spicy mango ice cream, and coconut flan. My friend loved the flan and I loved the avocado ice cream. The mango ice cream was a little odd.
We also had a few of the different drinks. I enjoyed the habanero infused tequila and strawberry margarita, as well as the tamarind margarita. The habanero/​strawberry combo was awesome. I loved it and would recommend it to anyone.
The service was great, and our waiter was really good with recommendations. The only two dishes we really didn’t enjoy were two that we picked on our own, everything else he had suggested.
Overall: I think the price was a little high, but the drinks were good/​strong/​unique. While a few dishes weren’t great and fell flat, I thought the mole negro, suckling pig tacos, and avocado ice cream were really well done and will be worth another visit.

Experienced the Mike Isabella popup, Bandolero, Saturday night. Some items on the menu were fantastic such as the Blue Crab taquitos. For the most part the menu items ended up being bland and lacked the punch expected. Not my favorite for this type of cuisine. We were expecting better after having eaten at Graffiato a couple times.
The staff was also a little sketchy. Gratuity was included in the tasting but the staff did not remind us when they brought the bill out. Had to call the restaurant afterwards to correct the mistake.

A work in progress, yes, but Bandolero is worth your time.
My friend and I had the tasting menu on the first night, first seating in Cleveland Park.
The menu had many tempting choices. Unfortunately, my first two tries from the cocktail list were not available, but the cocktail I had was strong and tasty. And Negro Modelo on tap? Someone’s a genius.
The first course of chips, guac, salsa, and pumpkin seed pesto was quite tasty. I couldn’t stop eating the PSP, it was dense and earthy.
We tried a number of items. The taquitos were perfectly sized (like a double amuse). The soft tacos were likewise perfectly sized for a full bite of yummy goodness. Only the wedge salad was a bit of a disappointment. Crumbly cheese and dressing good, wilty bibb lettuce, not so much. The nachos were tasty and filling.
Dessert was stellar. I had the mango gelato (really really really creamy and gooooood). My friend had the coconut flan, it was fabulous.
Regarding management. I have to disagree with another reviewer’s comments about crappy management/​Graffiato service. The manager who came by our table asked us our opinions, and we gave them, straight up. He really listened to our detailed feedback. I’ve dined at Graffiato multiple times, and the servers there were awesome (both upstairs and downstairs). Service on this occasion was a little hesitant, but as this was the first night, and the server was friendly, and the management attentive, this won’t deter me from coming back to Bandolero.