It took a while, but the acclaimed DC chef and restaurateur José Andrés finally opened his restaurant inside the Old Post Office Pavilion this year. After initially planning to open a restaurant at the then Trump International Hotel, chef Andrés pulled out following inflammatory remarks disparaging Mexicans from Trump during his first presidential campaign. The Trump International was eventually replaced by Waldorf Astoria, paving the way for chef Andrés to make a triumphant return with Bazaar, an upscale Spanish restaurant concept that he had already established in Miami and Las Vegas. My wife Jun and I made a visit a month ago to check out this new restaurant. What struck us was the stunning décor of the restaurant space next to the lobby area of the hotel (which we had never visited before). Was the food as splendid as the chandelier in front of the entrance? It was hard to say so with resounding approval.

The menu at Bazaar is a mix of modern and traditional Spanish dishes, mostly ideal for sharing. A word of warning: before you realize it, you might run a very hefty tab ordering a large number of these dishes thinking you need to do so based on the generally modest portion of each item. The Crab Louie cone, which was not much longer than my index finger, cost a whopping $10 for two pieces; sure it was a good bite before we proceeded to larger dishes but definitely worth that much. Four pieces of fried potatoes with caviar on top? Yes, they were delicious but $32? I don’t know. Since we were in a Spanish restaurant, of course we needed to try some jamon ibérico carved from the gigantic pork right in front of us. A one-ounce plate set us back $40. It was tasty but we agreed that we had had better jamon in Spain.

Same goes for short rib steak with piquillo chips; I guess we were expecting a bit more from a $48 dish. Aside from the price, the dishes were largely solid. The colorful dragon fruit ceviche with cobia and passion fruit inside was a refreshing dish, and the ingeniously named Neptune’s Pillows with spicy tuna on top of pastry puffs as well as stuffed piquillo peppers with cheese inside more or less worked, too. For the dessert, the deconstructed form of key lime pie looked prettier than it tasted delicious, and a rather curious expression of Canelé de Bordeaux was largely forgettable.

Getting a reservation at Bazaar on its website looks exceptionally difficult for prime times but I am not sure if that really reflects how booked the restaurant is. The restaurant certainly seemed to set aside some tables for walk-ins and the large dining area wasn’t quite fully packed during our visit. The restaurant has a full bar with many acclaimed Spanish wines (I think Bazaar might have the largest selection of wines from the emerging Bierzo region known for the elegant mencia-based red wine that I have been a fan of in recent years with such renowned producers like Raul Perez) and inventive cocktails. Again, beware of the price tag… I ordered a cocktail without even looking at its price and it turned out to be over $50 (and it certainly wasn’t an eye-opening drink either). If you are looking for a casual outing involving a few bites and drinks in a beautiful setting, Bazaar is not a bad place to check out assuming your wallet can handle it. The main takeaway for both of us after dining at Bazaar, however, was that it was a solid mix of crowd-pleasers but not the world class quality we had expected from a celebrated chef personality like José Andrés.

KenScale: 7.75/10 (Jun’s Score: 7.75/10)

Address: 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20004

Website: https://www.thebazaar.com/location/washington-dc/

Reservation via Website