Junk Food Nation, it’s a rainy day here in DC, and I needed a couple cups of coffee to write this extra long post. I’m going to break from my normal packaged-goods-fare to bring you this super-sized review of  restaurant that popped up in my neighborhood: BANDOLERO.  I know I said this blog wouldn’t be a restaurant review site, but anytime a Top Chef opens a pop-up restaurant in your ‘hood where he takes essentially Mexican street vendor food and transforms it into a full concept?  I’m in. And I’d like to share with all of you!

Mike Isabella was on Top Chef during the Vegas season and was one of the final two in the recent Top Chef All-Stars competition. After that All-Star season, he took his famous pepperoni sauce and opened Graffiato, an Italian small plates restaurant here in DC that is SLAYING IT.  I say he is slaying it because less than a year after Graffiato opened Mike is about to launch a SECOND restaurant in Georgetown called BANDOLERO– a small plates Mexican restaurant.

Apparently, the G-town spot is still behind schedule and under construction, but Isabella was unfazed. He took this opportunity to come to MY ‘hood (Cleveland Park in the house, yo) and pop-up a preview of his new eatery!  Reservations were tight and went fast, and I lucked into a spot three days into two-week preview.  Come along with me to…BANDOLERO!

BANDOLERO is Spanish means “bandit.” The Junk Food Gal, who is Latina, warned before going in she had her skepticism-glasses on.

As soon as we entered BANDOLERO you could see the bustle – the place was packed and running like a machine.

The long narrow space had mostly tables of 2, and stretched all the way to the back where the open kitchen and expedite-station was.  Our hostess walked us allllll the way to the back…to the table RIGHT next to the kitchen!  I think in any normal restaurant, you’d be pretty pissed that you were seated next to the kitchen; in modern spaces, however, we felt like we got the VIP seats!  Because…MIKE ISABELLA WAS RIGHT THERE!

Although you can’t see it from this picture, the Junk Food Gal noted that in the back of the kitchen was a small Latina woman whose job apparently was just to make fresh tortillas and sopes. “OK, that’s legit.  This is gonna be good,” she noted.

It was great watching Mike Isabella in action: he quickly called out orders, and I feel like I’ve watched enough cooking shows to know if someone’s going down in flames at the expedite-station. Isabella was in complete control.

Needless to say, the Junk Food Gal was a bit star struck as she snapped picture after picture, holding the camera up shamelessly.  Finally, we abandoned any shred of politeness and asked if we could get a picture with him – which we did! (Maybe I’ll show it off some other time 😉 )

BANDOLERO was constantly packed. When two people would leave, another two would take the spot. This is DEFINITELY going to be the place to be in DC for the next two weeks!

BANDOLERO’s wait staff had t-shirts either with the Dead Man Skull on it or, my personal favorite, mimicking the bullets worn slung across the chest, bandolero-style. I need one of these t-shirts.

Alright that’s enough ambiance-fawning. Let’s get to the menu!

So you follow how the menu works, right? Our selections at BANDOLERO: the enchilada verde, the blue crab taquitos, the suckling pig tacos, the octopus tacos, the mahi mahi tacos, and the lamb sopes. We also opted for the avocado gelato and the coconut flan.  MMMMMM.

BANDOLERO had an amazing selection of drinks too. We opted for the Hemingway Margarita and the “When There’s Smoke, There’s Fire” margarita.

Ok, let’s get down to the goods! Now, let’s be honest – I am no poet when it comes to reviewing how things taste. But read on for my blunt, spartan takes on this shiz.

THE HEMINGWAY: Slightly citrusy and full of booze – wow. They didn’t skimp on the tequila with this once.  The lemon rind was a nice touch, and it did have a nice frozen feel to it. The Junk Food Gal squeezed an extra lime into this one to give it a little more citrus punch.

THE WHEN THERE’S SMOKE THERE’S FIRE: Sweet and strawberry lime tasting, with plenty of tequila kick. Maybe I’m just used to spice, but I only felt the burn of the pepper in the back of my throat a LITTLE bit as I drank it.  I’m sure this would be sufficiently spicy for most people, but I still prefer the Liquid Wasabi at SEI to any spice-infused cocktail I’ve had since.

First up at BANDOLERO was the UNO portion of the meal: fresh Guacamole, Sikil Pak, Salsa, Chicharrones and fresh chips!

TORTILLA CHIPS: Great crunch, and perfectly salted without annoying coarse grains of salt sticking to your lips..  Didn’t break too easily, provided a great platform for the various dips.

CHICHARRONES: As a lover of pork rinds, I can honestly say that these fresh made Chicharrones were LEGIT. Nice and porky tasting, these fried rinds were salty and melt-in-your-mouth good. I usually find pork rinds in a bag too crunchy – these were light, fluffy, airy and oh so pork-tastic.

GUAC: standard guacamole, done the right way – it was smooth with still some small chunks of fresh avocado. VEry smooth and savory, with a nice pocket of heat and spice here and there.  Good stuff. When guac is done right, I can eat buckets. This was done right.

SIKIL PAK: An amazing blend of pumpkin seed, jalapeno, cilantro, and orange, this strange light green spread was delicious! It was a sweet and creamy spread with an almost whipped-cream-cheese texture (no cheese in it, though).  The flavor was indescribable – a nutty and sweet/savory spread that went really well with both the chips and pork rinds.

SALSA: standard tomato-ey salsa that wasn’t as spicy as I would’ve liked it, but had very fresh tomato flavor as well as an usually deep smokiness that really tasted good.  Very tasty – not overly watery or mushy.  Perfect for chips.

BLUE CRAB TAQUITOS: Our waiter told us that the BANDOLERO taquitos were different than standard taquitos – they weren’t rolled up, but rather were served in tiny taco shells.  Served standing up on a dollop of what appeared to be dark purple mashed potato, these blue crab taquitos were amazing.  Not hot, these cool bites were full of nice crunch and strong crab flavor!  The crab itself was heavy in crab taste and had a sea water-freshness to the meat.  The slaw was nice, crunchy, and offset the flavor of the crab well. Really good.

MAHI MAHI TACOS: The Mahi Mahi tacos came next, rolled up and lanced with a lime.  The tortilla, it goes without saying, was fresh and tasted of corn.  The Mahi Mahi was bread lightly and had a nice crisp to it, but not TOO much – this was no fish stick. Instead, the fish meat was tender and full of flavor.  The inside was spread with avocado and really upped the creaminess factor.  The simple red cabbage slaw made the dish, and overall it felt like I was having the best fish taco I’d ever put in my mouth.

LAMB SOPES: Lamb picadillo is essentially ground lamp stewed with tomato and spices and sometimes raisins and olives until it becomes almost like a heavy meat sauce, which is what this was.  The Masa cake underneath is a sope – or a corn cake that is fried and crunchy.  It’s like a little disc of corn crunchy toast.  On it was the lamb meat sauce, covered with the chipotle cheese and pickled peppers.   The sopes cake was amazingly fresh, and crunch very pleasingly. The lamb was deep flavored and smoky, and the sweetness of the meat and the tomato mixed so so well.  This was a deep rich bite, and the cheese and pepper were no match for the powerful flavor of the lamb.  Really rich, but really good.

OCTOPUS TACOS: I forgot who told em that Mike Isabella was known for Octopus. Well, they were right. These Octopus Tacos were divine.  The octopus was soooo tender and cooked with an amazing smokiness.  The cucumber relish was sour and crunchy and perfectly contrasted the octopus and provided just the right amount of acid for the seafood.  The tortilla was spread with what seemed to be a creamy mash of some sort which held the whole thing together.  Amazing dish.

SUCKLING PIG TACOS: You know, we almost didn’t order these.  If the Goat nachos had still been available, the first cut was going to be these pork tacos.  I love pork tacos, and originally thought, well, these will just be standard – nothing special. Even when the Junk Food Gal ordered these, i still thought, “Well, I guess we’re settling.” I was wrong. Dead wrong.  These ended up being, IMO, the best dish of the entire evening!  HOLY S.

These suckling pig tacos were…incredible. Firs, the pork.  I can’t even think of how they cooked it, but the meat was tender and juicy and was, well, full of pork flavor WITH all the great flavor of pork fat still included!  I hope that makes sense.  pork lovers know that it’s that great pork fat flavor that makes a nice pulled pork go a long way – and this meat was ON POINT.  It tasted like they had just stripped this meat off the bone!  It was sweet, it was smoky, it didn’t taste overly seasoned, it was like the best sweet pulled pork I’d ever had.

Then the add-ons. The apple slaw – brilliant. Sweet, crunchy, and in perfect balance.  The cilantro flavor washed over the bite and produced an amazing flavor (and I don’t even LIKE cilantro), and then the spicy habanero mustard gave the whole thing a nice bite of sour and spice.  Perfect balance. Best bites of the night.  A revelation for my mouth. Insert another hyperbole.

In short, this was the one dish of an already incredible meal where I actually stopped and thought, “I did not expect to be tasting something like this.” My eyes widened.  It was indeed a revelation.

ENCHILADA VERDE: A solid dish, but definitely in the unfortunate position of following the suckling pig tacos.  The verde sauce was tasty and creamy, and the enchilada itself was standard and well constructed.  Surprising to taste the mushrooms inside, but overall a creamy savory dish.  The Junk Food Gal knows her enchiladas, and said this was OK.  She also was a bit shell shocked after the suckling pig.

COCONUT FLAN: I love flan, so I was excited to get this dessert.  I wasn’t disappointed: The flan was a little heavier than standard flan I’d had. This was almost like a nice bread pudding (sort of). It still had a nice custard consistency, just a little heavier.  Delicious tasting though, lightly sweet and creamy.  The coconut cream on top was light and fluffy and full of coconut flavor.  Taking a bite of flan with a piece of fresh pineapple with a dollop of coconut cream – it was like I was eating a pina colada.  Which was awesome. The dried pineapple on top eaten by itself tasted like a Lifesavers candy – I loved it.

AVOCADO GELATO: The perfect end to the meal – a nice cool palette cleanser.  Standard creamy ice cream taste, sweet and fresh, and not too sugary.  When a big scoop of the gelato was placed in my mouth and melted…I could taste the avocado flavor loud and clear!  A brilliant use of natural flavor in ice cream.  Very light, and sealed the meal off with humility.  Good stuff.

SO….there you have it, Junk Food Nation.  Not junk food, but some of the best Mexican street food turned gourmet restaurant concept I’d ever had.  Best meal I’d had in a while.  For the DC folks ready, this food was better than Oyamel.  Sorry, it just was. And I love Oyamel. But I love BANDOLERO more.

This restaurant is going to KILL in Georgetown and be as successful as Graffiato, I just know it. Isabella has a hit on his hands here.  If you can get in in the next two weeks, do it.  You won’t be sorry.

Thoughts? Hit me in the comments below or hit me on Twitter @junkfoodguy or on my Facebook Page.

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy