Cafe Atlantico holds a Latino Dim Sum brunch every Sunday morning up until 1:30 in the afternoon, and after reading a glowing review, I decided to get a few people together for their tasting menu. The tasting menu consists of 14 dishes for $35, or a 12 dish vegetarian tasting menu for $25, which was great for Jen. The restaurant is painted in bright, cheerful colors with large abstract paintings hanging from the walls. It’s a bit odd to have separate hostesses on both the first and second floors, but I didn’t really question their policies. We were seated quickly, and just barely catching the tail end of the tasting menu offering in the early afternoon.

We were first treated with a canape style dish of cherry tomatoes paired with cantaloupe and heavy hits of parsley, which really weren’t too impressive, and actually had me slightly worried with such a weak starting dish. Not to say that it was bad, but it wasn’t particularly flavorful, and seemed like an odd dish to serve as a palette cleanser.

Tomato and Cantaloupe

Then the flurry of dishes began. We were served with raw oysters with a mango lime oil, mango-anchovy ravioli, and tuna ceviche with coconut. The server was clearly not very confident in his English speaking abilities, and trailed off in his announcement of the mango-anchovy ravioli, so we were all under the impression that it was just a mango cream ravioli.

Including Jen.

She took a bite, and almost threw up on the spot. Think of bringing a glass of water to your mouth and taking a deep gulp, only to find as it burns your esophagus to lava that you’re drinking a glass of straight Kentucky Moonshine. I don’t blame her, and actually felt really bad, because anchovies aren’t exactly a mild flavor. In fact, I actually enjoy anchovies, and even I found these things pretty disgusting.

From top left, clockwise: Oysters, Mango-Anchovy Ravioli, Tuna ceviche

The oysters and tuna ceviche were decent, but didn’t really stand out at all. The flavors were bland and uninspired, and there was nothing particularly intriguing about the textures of any of these three dishes.

Oysters with Mango-Lime Oil

Tuna Ceviche with Coconut

This wasn’t heading in a good direction.

The next dish was a vegetarian dish, plantain chips with shaved slices of pineapple. The plaintain chips weren’t particularly remarkable, but the shaved pineapple was definitely something different and worth crediting to the chefs preparing our food. The dishes were a huge step up from the previous three, but only because the three seafood dishes were so disappointing did it really make the pineapple and plantain chips shine.

The next round of dishes were little shooters of potato and vanilla mousse with caviar (sans caviar for Jen). This turned out to be one of my two favorite dishes of the meal, with a great smooth texture and taste. The other shooter glasses were filled with a hot and cold foie gras with corn soup, but these had no substantial taste to them, and seemed to be little more than cups of slightly flavored foam. If there was supposed to be a sublime enjoyment of this as a Picasso of edible delicacies, it was completely missed by me.

Potoato Vanilla Mousse and Hot/Cold Foie Gras Corn Soup

The other dish that turned out to be a solid dish were the conch fritters with a liquid center. Deep fried and slightly crispy on the outside, with a molten hot center, these were fantastic.

Conch Fritters with a Liquid Center

Jen was treated with a jicama-avocado ravioli, which turned out pretty well, but again, seemed odd with the soft ravioli skin on the outside and a creamy avocado inside, with little crunch or texture to offset the flavors. She enjoyed them, but I felt like it was another poorly executed dish, although it did have a very nice aesthetic.

Jicama Avocado Ravioli

The mushroom with egg 63, a sauteed mushroom dish topped with a poached egg, was definitely interesting, but there was almost no way to get all of the poached egg into your mouth with just the mushrooms it was served with. I felt like the dish could have used some sort of bread or absorbent vegetable to help sop up the egg without having it all go to waste. What does the 63 stand for? Probably the number of iterations it took the restaurant to get this dish to even this crappy level of ‘perfection’.

Mushrooms with Egg 63

I feel like at this point, I should really stop going into each and every single dish. Overall, the Latino Dim Sum was a huge disappointment. There are definitely some choice dishes that stand out and salvage the meal from being a complete disaster, but overall, the experience is a giant FAIL. When you are one dish away from the finale, you are allowed to order any of your sampled dishes again, so we had another round of the jicama-avocado raviolis, the mushroom vanilla mousse, and the conch fritters, which helped bring up the enjoyment of the meal a notch. The guacamole isn’t included in the meal, but I put in an order for the table prepped green cream just so we’d have something else that couldn’t be screwed up. In truth, their guacamole is actually very good, and another solid dish that helps balance the army of bad dishes from the tasting menu.

Tableside guacamole

In Paris, they call it L'Avocado Cream de Fattique

The last dish, a dessert, is best described as a crustless french toast with queso cheese and maple syrup. It’s an interesting dish that works, but isn’t richly satisfying as you would expect.

Pan dulce with cinnamon syrup

Jen actually didn’t really care for this dish, but I couldn’t get enough of it. Mostly because I was still drowning out the anchovy flavors from earlier.

While this foray of flavors could be touted as a great value, in the end, I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone as a destination. There are some standouts that don’t make it a complete outrage, but I could be served up with four cold pizzas from the night before, and be exponentially happier. If anything, I think this place really highlights the fact that it does take an adventurous kitchen to create fine foods that are unique and look amazing, but you simply can’t neglect the most fundamental point, that it has to taste good, too.

minibar, a small six seat section of the restaurant, stands as its own entity from Cafe Atlantico, and the two only share the same space, but not the same chefs or menus. I won’t hold Cafe Atlantico’s poor food against minibar, and still hope to one day give it it’s fair day in court.

View a map of Cafe Atlantico here.

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Restaurant Week in DC is always a mixed bag. There are plenty of restaurants that honor the basic idea- you get to sample the food, service, and atmosphere of one of the many participating establishments at a fraction of the price of a normal meal. Of course with any sort of open enrollment dining program like this, some restaurants will use the opportunity to simply shell out less than average quality dishes and service just to cash in on bargain seeking diners such as yourself, or say, a pirate who’s at port for a few weeks. What? Pirates need to eat too.

Jen and I took the opportunity to check out Casa Oaxaca at the south end of Adam’s Morgan in Northwest DC. This restaurant is about two blocks away from the noise, lights, and vom strewn streets of the main thoroughfare of Adam’s Morgan, which I’ve managed to steer clear of for most of my time here in DC. The general area just doesn’t appeal to Jen or me. So having a restaurant on a block that sees more neighborhood resident patronage than midnight whalebone four dollar intern specials and vomit free sidewalks are already a step in the right direction.

The restaurant is a thintangular split level establishment, with a modern Oaxacan theme up top, and a more relaxed, come wear nothing but your favorite futball team jersey (goooooooooooooooooooal!) and a weekday drinking problem. Both are actually very well decorated and have a lively atmosphere. I was a big fan of the painting upstairs where we sat. iAy dios mio! Caliente. I couldn’t find the owner to ask whether or not I could purchase such a fine work of art for my own home, but mayhaps that’ll be on the agenda for my next visit.

Everything at Casa Oaxaca starts the off with a small treat for every diner, courtesy of the chef.  We were given miniature corn tortillas topped with sautéed onions, spices, and Oaxacan cheese. Deeeelicious, and Zone friendly to boot!

The owners also have another establishment in Arlington, a more relaxed Oaxacan tapas bar called Guajillo (pronounced no-ha-blah-ess-pah-nee-ole), which is on the list of places to stuff our faces full of tacos and guac.

Speaking of green tasty treats, Jen and I started our meal with an order of their guacamole, which came to our table with a basket of chips, the house salsa, and the offer of a super spicy salsa that was quickly agreed to by the both of us. The guacamole was fair, but I think the spicy table-side prepared one at Oyamel beats the one at Casa Oaxaca hands down. Opt for a different appetizer to start your meal. We initially ordered the Ravioli de Huitlacoche, but after a warning of a 20 minute prep time for this dish, we thought better and went with a quick dip.

The house Sangria, and I'm boldly making the claim as a n/a it's the best in the city.

I had the Duck Confit salad start, a small but tasty and well proportioned dish accompanied with jicama, grapefruit, and slices of red onion. The heavy shreds of duck complemented the texture of the jicama and the lightness of the salad (argula, I think?) well. Completely awesome execution. If it were any better, it’d have to be at the expense of Anne Boleyn all over again.

The main course of my Restaurant Week picks were the Pork Medallions in a black mole sauce, which had heavy tones of Oaxacan chocolate, garnished with roasted sesame seeds and served with a molded serving of seasoned rice. I skipped on the rice, but Jen tried it and said it was pretty good. The pork was juicy and even better when devoured with the black mole sauce.

The last dish of the night was the dessert, several churro sections filled with a sweet cream cheese, just like your Aunt Juanita used to make for you as a niño pequeño. Tasty, but don’t expect it to hold up well the next day if you’re bringing leftovers home.

Service is fairly attentive here, and the little dish brought out compliments of the restaurant (they figured it’d be a better business decision than a quick slap to every patron’s ass on your way out) to you is a nice touch.  I’ve yet to try  tacos at this restaurant, but between Oyamel and Casa Oaxaca, you’ll find that each restaurant does different things better.   The black mole sauce on just about anything here is great, as is the duck confit salad.  Oyamel’s spicy guacamole wins hands down.  If you’re looking forward to a big main course type dinner, Casa Oaxaca would be your best bet, while Oyamel is a better option for sampling lots of different types of food.