Taberna del Alabardero, Inc Reviews

Well what can I say , Love the atmosphere and the decor of the place. The food was AWESOME. The service was AWESOME

This Restaurant is upscale, nice and pricey, the food is wonderfully and the wine selection is extraordinary.
The Paella is very good, although it is not the traditionally Paella.

Their service is 2nd to none! Great paella, and the octopus's appetizer is excellent.

A little piece of Spain. Very good food, good service, nice atmosphere.
100% recommended.

The tapas are the way to go. The dining area is spacious so tables aren't crowded. Service is excellent. The metro is just across the street.

What a lovely way to spend an evening! The patio was wonderful. Fantastic sangria (try the white!) and craveable light bites! I will definitely be returning soon.

It maintains the great level of food and the excellent service of other times. The prices are high but it is expected by the quality.

The best Spanish food in the DC area by far, the place is beautiful and service is always outstanding.

The sangria couldn't have been more perfect to kick off the summer. Excellent and attentive wait staff served savory tapas. We sampled about 6 different dishes and each one was delicious, no disappointments. I will be back... when my friends from Spain visit!

My favorite place for Spanish tapas outside of my wife's hometown in spain! We come here every time we are in D.C.

Cannot recommend it enough!
The food was incredible, service impeccable, and the atmosphere was great!!

Wonderful, elegant, delicious Spanish food. Madrid without flying there!

Rich food, excellent service, music without equal. Concerned about the health of their workers and assistants.

Loved it! Great atmosphere and great service! The lobster paella, Spanish Manhattan's, and almond cake were delightful!

I recommend the ham and cheese board with a good wine!

The dining rooms are beautiful and well -coming. Impeccable service, of course, the European tradition lives on. But the food definitely lacked "excitement "; the paella which was beautifully served, was cold, the mussels were dried, the flavor was defined by blandness, not sure why; the rabbit, the crayfish, the scallops (they were cold?), they were all in ,but leading ( or at least a hint) flavor, savory sensation or that ahhhhhhh moment was not present. Bad day in the kitchen??????!!! We ate paella in Barcelona, Amsterdam, New York. This time, we used a lot of salt, and we were disappointed. Good luck.

Had a delicious business lunch. Great service by the waitstaff.

Authentic Spanish Restaurant in front of Fraagott West Station.
Enjoy a pleasant meal with friendly staff and delicious bread.

Good atmosphere. Romantic, calm and chic. Service is excellent. Pricey for the food served.

Unbelievable food and worth the high price. Amazing service.

Great food, amazing atmosphere. BUT we did find a piece of plastic in my nephew's ice cream and showed the waiter. He did not apologize or even send a manager over to say anything, and did not take it off the bill. For the very high level of restuarant this is I would expect them to not accept a piece of plastic being served to a customer and it should have been taken off the bill and addressed by a manager.

Exquisite as always both the treatment and the food

excellent place to eating and stay at great moments. The flavor and quality of Spain in a bit of Washington.

Cozy. Traditional food with an exquisite presence. A great place.

Ordered online for pickup. I specified the time i wanted to pick it up my food. After i place my order, i got a notification an hour early before my pickup time that my food was ready. So i rushed to pick it up and it only took me 10min. When i pick it up the food was cold and saggy. The guy told me i have to put it in the microwave. i was like WHAT??!! I asked them for a receipt and I guess they dont provide receipt when you order online. If they are gonna cook your food at whatever time they want, they shouldn't be asking people what time they want to pick it up.

Beautiful Setting, Great wine, Wonderful spanish food

Highly recommend planning an evening out here! To start with, the ambiance is classy, but comfortable and the staff are very friendly and attentive. We picked a couple of tapas to start with, the fried eggplant and honey being our favorite pick since it was delicious and something none of us had tried before. For dinner we got the classic Fideua (seafood and vermicelli cooked like paella) which was also very good and plenty of food for the two of us that were splitting it. Near 8 in the evening (Saturday) live music started so we stayed to enjoy that and split some dessert. The torrija with toffee was outstanding, melts in your mouth! Food, wine, service, ambiance were all great! Put this at the top of your places to visit when you're looking for good Spanish food!

A nice place, the attention was very good, a place that without a doubt you have to visit, the SPECTACULAR food, the super cozy atmosphere, I will surely return, I recommend it, if you visit Washington DC you can not stop visiting them

The food is hit and miss here - i ve been multiple times, but every time 50% of the dishes disappoint and the 50% excel.

Good service and slightly old school ambience - but disappointed by the food!

I started with a Spanish gin drink. Then enjoyed the potato salad as my appetizer. Then had oxtail for my main course and a strawberry shortbread cake for dessert. I really enjoyed my meals and I will return because Taberna made my experience wonderful.

The best Spanish food in Washington! Excellent rice with lobster! Selection of good wines. Recommended prawns with garlic and tortilla !!! A gastronomic experience that can not be missed.

Honestly, for a person who loves Spain and Spanish food, this place is nothing more than OK. It is obviously overpriced, the portions are small, offensively small I would say. Even though I'm very much aware of the concept of tapas, this should be correlated with the price. On a plus side, the place has a selection of good spanish wine, AND Pedro Ximenez jerez!

Love going here. Choose it for a formal evening. Of course the service is top notch at this fine dining establishment. Prix-fixe for Valentine's Day was excellent.

Good food and a nice atmosphere. I would go more often but it is a little pricey.

Dropped by for a post-work sangria and snack. Sat at the bar. Was treated like royalty, though all I did was sit there, reading, and sipping on a happy-hour priced sangria ($4.95). Nibbled on some serrano and manchengo, and had a really pleasant time.

I wanted to like this place, but it just seems that everyone here just wants to wait on people that the waiters know or Spanish speakers.

The food was 7/10 but the service was absolutely terrible. I requested to sit at a booth with a nice view of this beautiful restaurant, but I was greeted with a no, booths are reserved for parties. Normally I d understand if the restaurant was busy and packed, but it was only a 1/3 full, and even at the end of our dinner, the restaurant was still not busy.

If you re extremely craving tapas and paella s, go, but I don t recommenced this place.

excellent Spanish food and drinks in a place decorated with country motifs

don't be mislead by the address, taberna del albardero sits off of 18th. if you can't find it you'll miss out on a refined dining experience in a lovely atmosphere. the service is excellent, with the wait staff knowing when to be present and when not to be. the food is flavorful and presented wonderfully, without being over designed.

A large group of friends and I went here to celebrate my wife's promotion. Although we wanted to go to Rose's Luxury on Barracks Row, Rose's was full and Taberna takes reservations. For a restaurant in the center of DC and as expensive as Taberna, we thought it had to be good. Since our party was big, they put us in what looked like a private library room. So cool! However, for how fancy the food read on the menu, we all were disappointed. If this place was in a different neighborhood and less expensive, I am sure we would have found it good, but since we had high expectations we all were disappointed by the mediocre food. Save some money and don't go here. Go to Rose's Luxury on Barracks Row (what we should have done in the first place).

Oh, my Spanish friend said the food here was close to authentic Spanish food, but didn't hit the bull's eye.

Authentic and special place. Wonderful service, great food, reasonably priced large portions and tapas. All together very recommended, you should try it!

Omg, such an amazing restaurant! The Spanish tapas and paella were so good, especially the iberico ham. Our server Carlos was fantastic and so helpful. He was willing to be flexible in any way with our meals. Wine was great and the rice pudding topped off the night. This is must every time we come to Washington DC!

spanish food and the scene at this place is excellent. excellent spot to spend time alone or talk business. i will be bringing family next time. this place has a cool atmosphere. similar to a cafe in las vegas i loved.

Delicious, small portions and absolutely amazing atmosphere.

Awesome food and service...
Highly recommend !!

Excellent food and service. I recommend making a reservation first because the place is always full! I ate a pork with potatoes and it was delicious! For dessert I had a delicious hazelnut crepe! I've been there a few times and I highly recommend it!

On another occasion I ate the black rice paella! The other photo is of the seafood paella ... there was no time to take the photo of the dessert!

A bit seriousness required. Nice food and atmosphere

beautiful decor, polite staff, but the food was incredibly bland, making the high prices completely unwarranted.

Tasty but pricey tapas. Nice but expensive wines. A place I enjoy every few months, but not weekly. A fine place to meet downtown

One of the best paellas I have had. Fantastic food and great service. Will certainly recommend.

Delicious food pleasant atmosphere to go in groups or couple

This restaurant has a lot going for it. It s location, which is close the White House; and it s interior, which is sparkling red like you might find in a historic castle. However, I did not leave elated. I ordered the lunch menu for $30 which included a salad, main course and dessert. The special lunch is a good value when you compare to menu items individually. Thumbs up to the warm bread and salad. The pork skewers and the flan dessert not so much. All items were presented well and the dessert was too pretty to consume. However, the pork was tough even to cut and it was drizzled with a less than inspiring gravy. For such an upscale restaurant, I left feeling like it was not worth the cost.

Absolutely delicious white and red sangria, Spanish tapas are extraordinary. I love tapas but they really need to catch my attention and these did. Kudos to Taberna for a gorgeous venue and top-notch service. The wait staff is excellent.

I love the music and service. I'll be back again for sure.

Phenomenal service and fantastic food. Went here for restaurant week with some friends from work. Everyone ordered a different dish and every dish was superb. Highly recommend this establishment to everyone that enjoys great service and great food.

The food was terrific and we just happened into a live Flamenco show with music and dancing. Class act all around. The service is top notch. Don't look for innovation but if classic Spanish is your desire, you're here.

Amazing food. Definitely pricey but I loved it. Very red decor.

Spectacular! We had Spanish paella, Spanish wine, olives, bread, olive oil... All of the authentic and delicious! However, my favorite part was the flamenco show. It was so entrancing that I had to stop eating. Highly recommend it.

Extremely overpriced with small portions of food , you get charged even for basket of bread with no butter , disappointing experience .

We came here for one of my siblings birthdays and the place was pretty good. We are expecting it to be excellent, but unfortunately it didn't meet our expectations. It was one of those new restaurants that are family went out to go try and many times we end up returning a lot, but I don't think anybody will be returning to this place.

I ordered Paella de Langosta. I dont know whether this is because of covid making their business slow so they just wanted to get rid of old food or what but if I could give 0 stars for the review I would. I wanted to like the food but obviously the lobster was not fresh and I wasnt going to take any chance eating anything else in he box. The only thing eatable was the bread. The rice didnt look like yellow rice (not in person) it was greasy and mushy. In the pic it look yellow but it is not. The lobster was so mushy it crumbled in my hand when I tried to pull the tail out of the shell. The claw was so mushy it didnt come out in one piece. It just was not eatable. Eat at your own risk. They did however, give me my money back but I just had to let people know about this. I love paella but this was not a hit.

Great place to have brunch I just love this place!!!

After trying Taberna Del Alabardero at a charity event years ago, I finally made it to the restaurant for happy hour. When you walk in, you see a fancy bar in front, lounge area to the right and dining room to the left. You have to be able to climb stairs to access the restrooms upstairs.

Happy Hour occurs Monday from 11:30am to 10pm and Tuesday to Friday from 3:00pm to 7:00pm in the bar and lounge area. The Happy Hour menu features food and drink specials.

I started my meal with a glass of Sangria Blanca, which was garnished with apples and orange. Despite skipping breakfast and lunch, I overestimated how much I could consume in one setting.

I ordered four tapas - Toasted Bread with Tomato and Garlic, Serrano Ham and Manchego Cheese, Truffled Mushroom Croquettes, and Fried Calamari. I liked everything except the croquettes because they were too rich, creamy, and heavy.

I plan to return to enjoy a sit down dinner some time in the near future.

We have had Taverna del Alabardero cater events at our home for several years now. They are always prompt, bring everything they need, look professional and do a wonderful job.

We typically do small plate/ finger food (Jamon, Potato, Cheese, bacarones, gazpacho, tuna tartar, and salmon) and then a few main courses (pork loin, meatballs) and best of all the chef cooks Paella in person for our guests. Always a show and so tasty.

we have had a few different desserts and enjoy most. most recently they had a passion fruit chocolate that was outstanding, a chocolate cookie and a fruit yogurt also very good.

would recommend them for any event large or small without hesitation. Sarah was easy to work with and made it simple to enjoy our night.

Nice atmosphere, above average food (would recommend patatas bravas), but paella is overpriced and not the best

Come on now, for the first time! I really liked the food, I wondered how good the food might be to finalize and serve the dishes without the help of the team, but the price might seem high for lunch at a glance, but they were fantastic and totally worth the price.

The food was delucious. I asked for Paella but got fidue instead. It was still very good.

Very authentic food from Spain, prepared with best fresh produce. Caring and loving cooking, make for a delightful meal of earthy cooking, some delicious rices, the jabugo ham hand cut is superb, and for those who enjoy a good plate of lentilles, like myself, really delicious slow cooked dishes remind me of my gradmothers potages.The ambiance is elegant and not stuffy, with just the right amount of lively noise of people talking lively. Some days they have live guitar and flamenco short performance, long/short enough to enjoy, and continue enjoying your meal. If you enjoy a no frils excellent fish or meat with veggies or salad, the cook will do wonders too, personally I have to look after my calories intake, and although my friends can eat everything I also get a delicious and beautiful meal without the guilt. Excelent wines, and you feel free to consult which wine goes better with your dish.The employees go the extra many miles to pamper you, great service. They have a yummy Happy Hour too

Exelente!!!! Just go to TAPAS wonderful food, wa service good wine and atmosphere. Highly satisfied. Victor and Hugo are great offering you best service.