Bambule, Washington, D.C.

Leo and I headed up to Friendship Heights on the Metro this afternoon for some shopping at the Mazza Gallerie, and other neighborhood stores. The Metro was packed like sardines this afternoon--what was going on? It made us so hungry, we had to wander in to Bambule, a Spanish tapas bar, for a late lunch.

We stood forever at the door waiting to be seated, but the staff seemed to be preoccupied with setting up the patio deck for a big wedding reception. Eventually, one of the waiters went back to the kitchen and yelled at one of the waitresses in Spanish, and she eventually breezed out and told us to sit anywhere we wanted. We found a table in the middle of the dining room, which was actually a nice looking place, with burgundy draperies and ceiling hangings on stucco colored walls with dark woodwork. We sat and sat with no menus, no water, and no wait staff coming over to greet us. Eventually, Leo got out his cell phone to see the clock and announced that if they weren't out by 2:55 (ten minutes from then), we were leaving.

About 2:52. a waitress wandered out to pour water, but I asked her to bring us fresh glasses that didn't still have lipstick on them. That, of course, delayed things even more. After the water arrived, she wandered off again before eventually bringing us menus. After yet another wait, a different, older waitress came out to take our orders. Once we ordered the food, we tried to order sherry, and she said they didn't have any! I can't imagine a tapas bar without sherry!

Anyway, we started with gazpacho, which was cold, crisp, flavorful, and really good. The vegetables had been coarsely ground, rather than diced. The soup had a nice lemon zest to it. We had six tapas plates, including a lovely cerviche, a cheese plate, sliced sausages in sauce, a couple of veal slices, a pork dish wrapped around a potato, some nice calimari, and some sausage roll like things. Leo had some kind of round puff pastry filled with apples for dessert and I had an interesting cheesecake like thing which was freshly baked in flaky pastry (and still warm!), kind of like a small burrito. It was a tasty meal.

Unfortunately, I doubt I go back to Bambule again, since the service was so inattentive and disinterested.