Tico Restaurant DC Reviews

Cute bar and nice happy hour. Could use a tad more pescatarian options...just a tad. The calamari was awesome!

I went here for dinner. This place is packed on weekend nights. It was a very young and fun place - great music and great food. The tacos were a little expensive; there should have been 3 tacos instead of 2 but oh well. The garlic prawns were tasty and had great bread on the side.

Nice ambience. Quality food overall. Tacos come in twos pilled high with toppings. Creme Belle was stellar with the perfect amount of crispiness and flavor.

Food and drinks are creative and delicious, the staff is friendly, and the vibe is fun.

Love the bartenders! Gregory is awesome! Proficient, professional and the food is amazing! Great environment!

Great flavors, especially the salmon and the cauliflower. A bit pricey for the sizes, but it could be definitely satisfactory. Staff was on point and environment was quite adequate and comfortable. Would (will) come back!

My experience is limited to brunch and I always order the duck confit, but it's delicious and I look forward to it.

Tico is loud, full of energy, and serves delicious food. The space is open and inviting, giving off a trendy vibe. We visited on a Friday evening and the restaurant was full of people laughing, drinking, and enjoying themselves.

The menu is filled with delicious tapas, too many to try in one sitting but you cant go wrong. We'll be back.

Little bit pricey but fresh and delicious food. Host and waitress are wonderful and super friendly. I definitely come back again.

Yum! A bit pricey but fun atmosphere and good dishes. A little chaotic but it didn't bother us.

This was a fun place with a lively atmosphere and good food. The tequila flight could have been better but the mixed drinks looked good.

I loved their family style option where they bring out plates for you. Everything was delicious and we got the smallest option and it was SO much food! It was so good though, we didnt want to not eat any of it. Would definitely recommend.

Drinks are good but service is slow and inattentive. Food portions are good.

Edited: after poor service the waitstaff changed and we got awesome service from Dominic who was determined to make our visit better. Kudos to him and Hugo at the bar for making this experiment much better!!!

Every time I walk by Tico, it is PACKED. Wanting to get to the bottom of this potentially delicious mystery, I decided to go to this restaurant with a few of my friends. The space itself is pretty awesome. Low lighting, tasteful music, and friendly staff.

Where I ran into issues was with the pricing and portions. I ordered the Shrimp a la Petra after reading its mouth-watering description but was shocked to see that $14 yielded just two tacos. The food was delicious, yes, but even in this city, I know that $14 can go a lot further.

Will I be returning to Tico? Not likely, at least for a while.

Fantastic food and atmosphere. Server was very friendly and the food came out quickly. I highly recommend.

A very good atmosphere, a nice room, attentive waiters, dishes to share with many flavors and rich in taste (and sometimes spices!). A good address for prices that are still a bit high. But the experience is worth the detour!

Great brunch! Unlimited food and drinks and it all tastes great too! Love the atmosphere and the location.

Good food. Omelette was a little dry but still good.

Amazing happy hour! We loved the nachos, chicken and pork tacos, and the margs! Will be coming back!

Excellent service. Tried shrimp a la diabla. Delicious!!!
We will return.

Great margaritas in a casual hip setting. Liked the roasted cauliflowers. Fine hanger steak and guacamole. Good beef and pork tacos.
Friendly staff

Food was great, but not a fan of small plates. Guacamole was good but not a lot for the price. Pork tacos are delicious. My friend had the salmon large plate which he loved. They brought out cake for my friends Birthday, which was nice and very good. I would go back for sure.

Great food, drinks and staff. Very allergy friendly. If you get the option where the table shares plates they bring plenty of allergy friendly food but not all dishes cater to that to not take away from the table. Great food

Higher priced but delicious meal. All plates (besides the burger) are sized to share. Modern and colorful decor inside.

Modern and spacious. Good location and service. Food was good.

Good service and fast also. Just not enough TVs if u watching a sporting event. Went there for the World series

Cocktails and plates of inventive Latin American inspired food from Chef Michael Schlow, how can one go wrong? This bustling 14th street haven for foodies is a great place for parties as well. Loved it. P90x cocktail is a favorite.

Love Tico! It's a really cool spot to pop into for happy hour and brunch. Dinner options are also really good. Staff has always been friendly each time I visit from greeting you at the door to making sure you have a menu if the bar is packed and you're waiting for a seat. This place gets packed on Friday night happy hours at the bar. A few items off the menu I like are the chicken empanadas, beet salad, chicken taco, and Serrano ham. Suggestion for brunch are the pancakes. Tico is one of those spots that a go to when you just want to grab a drink and talk with friends.

Everything here tastes great, but the must order is their nachos

Delicious food and very accommodating to allergies. Also great atmosphere, colors, patterns and art.

Breakfast burrito was amazing! Restaurant had a nice decor and the windows on the front can open when it is nice outside. Gave 4 stars because a cup of coffee was $4...

Fast service, great ambiance, and best of all bold flavored food that left me wanting more!

Food and service was amazing. Portions were small on the 'to share' menu but if you know that going in just anticipate paying more. It was worth it. Shared dessert was tres leches with mango sorbet and a wonderfully rich chocolate cake.

We were seated, silverware was brought to the table and for 15 minutes we say there and NO ONE came to take our order.
I'll never return.
I'll never recommend this place. I had never had this experience. I had to explain to my son why that happened and I had no words for him.

A good spot grab happy hour. Solid drinks, great atmosphere, and tasty food options. I go here at least once a month.

A great brunch place with tons of options & flavors, good value & service.

It's an alright restaurant but the dishes aren't interesting enough or flavorful enough to justify small plates. The dishes were incredibly sauce-heavy to the point of drowning out the more basic flavors in the food. Likewise, Spanish influence just means, "everything has jalapenos in it".

I wouldn't say I feel disappointed by it, but I wouldn't recommend it to others and I would probably never go again. There are too many other amazing options nearby.

Went for happy hour. The margaritas are delicious! Fried chicken taco was delicious and chicked was cooked to perfection. Nachos were perfect in every way possible!! Definitely a cute place to go for happy hour or for a cute dinner

Meet Tico, the newest restaurant on the block. Tico serves a spanish/mexican style cuisine. The space inside is fantastic -- low noise pollution, some interesting graffiti style murals and a full-on opening (folding style) window front so everyone can enjoy the cool summer air.

The food has followed the current trend of small style plates (tapas) which is for whatever reason the rage in DC. I would definitely recommend the beat salad and the meatballs -- holy god the meatballs. (At this point its safe to say I have a meatball addiction). Stay away from the fried oysters and the calamari salad -- the former being too bready and the latter being to "fishy". The Tacos were fantastic though -- just make sure you get 3 as 2 will not fill you up unless you have had plenty of sides.

On the bar side of things, they serve a huge selection of tequila and some intriguing drink options -- give the shuffler a try or their tequila version of the moscow mule!

All in all this place is very similar to El Centro - so it's a toss up in my opinion but definitely worth a shot

Great brunch. Service was a bit slow and kind of annoying at times but food and drinks were excellent.

The food its wonderful, and the service, definitely worth the stop in, visually interesting carvings and such. And right there near where I used to live in DC. We totally enjoyed our celebration there.

Chil and relaxed spot with good food and decent happy hour drinks. Friendly staff and a laid back vibe helps make this a good spot to dine.

It s cheap and loud and the service is commensurate.

Walked in off the street at 10:45 am and got seated for 5 right away. Very friendly staff and really cute place!

Monday happy hour at the bar was excellent! Of course hibiscus margaritas were delicious - lamb tacos, fried chicken tacos, fried pork rinds all so good.

Fantastic bartending! All the recommendations we're wonderful. The small plates are tasty and not too small :)

Menu has mostly fried food and it's not that special. The food came out mediocre and the service was fine.

I can't rate this place high enough! The food was on point, flavors are turned all the way up. Try the sweet corn and bacon starter, you'll be blown away. The Tres leches cake is a must for desert, also. I want to go back right now!

Tacos were excellent, although portions were a bit small for the price (for example, in my order of 2 shrimp tacos, there were 4 shrimp total). Service was also slow, despite it being a less busy time. Would try eating here again, as many of the small plates looked delicious.

Party of 8 w/ a small child. We had a bit of an issue at the beginning sitting abreast of the front window on a ~97 F early PM day...until the reflected sun "moved." The food was very good. The service staff ("Shirelle," hope I spelled your name correctly), was uniformly excellent.

Food was good, nice ambiance and a good place to enjoy a casual night out.

Tico has fantastic brunch, but I dined for Restaurant Week. Very tasty!

The hibiscus Margaritas were dilicious and so was everything we ordered. Will definitely return.

We experienced friendly service and tasty food during a weeknight dinner visit. Yet with the exception of the superb desserts, I was disappointed in the value for money. Perhaps I will try it again for weekend brunch.

Disappointing experience. From the get go, even though we insisted our third person was just minutes away, we were denied seating until everyone in our party arrived. I get that that's the policy, but it's a very stingy one. From there, the service remained poor. After seating and pouring us water, we didn't see the waitress for 10-15 minutes. It was someone else that asked us how we were doing and he ended up taking the order.

The food tasted fine but the portion sizes were small. The "for the table" section is basically a bunch of appetizers with entree prices. Even the $14 tacos only include two tacos. And the drinks came in tall, thin glasses. I think this was the first time I've ever spent more than $100 at a restaurant and left feeling somewhat hungry (we ordered 5 items).

In summary: poor service, good food, but way overpriced. You'll get a better bang for your buck almost anywhere else.

I can't tell you enough how perfect is this pl. Margaritas!!! Food!!! Service!!! Cleanliness!!! I want to go back!

Fabulous atmosphere, fabulous food, little pricey, highly recommend. My favourite spot!

Be prepared for slow service on a busy day, slow kitchen, slow drink service and small portions that mostly consist of potato based dishes.

The Bottomless Brunch here is amazing, try the Earl Gray Gin Fizzes along with the churros and chicken fennel tacos!

Everything here is delicious....but please get the octopus. Cooked to perfection. Definitely up there with the best octopus I've ever had, and a generous portion

The dining experience at TICO was "top notch." I was there celebrating a friends birthday. Everyone enjoyed as well. Great food, atmosphere, and drinks. I will highly recommend this restaurant to others. I wish you all well in the near future. See you soon.

I've always found tapas a bit overpriced by definition, fortunately the quality of the food here makes it entirely worth it. Do yourself a favor and leave some space for the churros.

Had our rehearsal dinner here, Adria was awesome coordinating everything, our guests loved it. Food is on point, and delicious. Don't skip the mac and cheese.

I was shocked to find that this place that I've been walking by for years has such a robust brunch. It's unlimited food and drink for $40, which is definitely worth it if you come hungry. Plates are more like tapas, with just 3-4 servings per plate, but you can continue to order to your heart's desire. Almost everything I ate was delicious, especially the Cuban sandwich, duck hash, and fried chicken tacos. The bloody mary was also nice and spicy, but not overpowering.

Only weird thing was that, even though we had 12 people and the menu boasts "unlimited" food, the waitstaff wasn't pleased when we got there and asked for one of every plate to start off. With that many people and just about as many dishes, this should be a standard first-order that should be easily placed.

Great food and $35 all you can eat and drink. Must go there.

Great food, only went once but I was impressed with what I ordered, the shrimp appetizer was the best.

I sat at the bar and had a great experience. I ordered a cocktail and chorizos. Both were excellent! The service was fantastic. The bartenders are friendly and fun!

Unlimited drinks and tapa style tex-mex brunch at this place is fantastic!! Our server and the bartender were very nice and attentive. No mix ups with our four top table. It was super busy when I arrived around 11:40AM, but there was a little space at the bar that I could wait at. Their spicy blood marys are delicious as well. It's hard to find one that hasn't been ruined with Tabasco sauce.

Great happy hour. Great bartenders. Unique and delicious plates. Great date spot for sure! I recommend the Tico Punch & any of the tacos! Enjoy!

Neat ambiance. Decent drink selection, but neither drink we ordered was anything stellar. Original margarita was about as average as it gets. We did not order food, but hear it is good. Artwork was more new age style (graffiti).

I ve been to Tico a couple times before for happy hour. This is the first time I m visiting on a Sunday afternoon.The bar was pretty crowded and I was looking for two seats while waiting for a friend. I sat near the bar and the bartender did not acknowledge me for about 5-10 minutes. I was the only person of color at the bar. A white couple sat nearby and he immediately acknowledged them and provided menus. When he saw me look at him with disbelief, he then acknowledged me and asked if I m waiting for someone-not if I needed anything. Guess who won t be coming here ever again. Thank you Tico :-)