While there is no shortage of Spanish restaurants in the DC metro area, thanks largely to the pioneering chef and restaurateur Jose Andres, I certainly wouldn’t mind checking out another newcomer that can capture the charm and vibrant energy of this nation’s culinary tradition. Late last year, Ruben Garcia, a top lieutenant of chef Andres at minibar who also trained at some of the finest Spanish restaurants such as El Bulli, opened a new restaurant named after his great-grandmother. Given the chef’s pedigree, I had very high expectations for Casa Teresa, which is located next to a new food hall called the Square. After visiting the restaurant, however, my wife Jun and I concluded that the food at the restaurant, while overall solid, could use a bit more work (assuming we were not ordering the best dishes from the kitchen).

There was no particularly bad dish from Casa Teresa on our visit. On the other hand, Jun said there was no single showstopper that she would absolutely come back to the restaurant for. We had to start our meal with some Jamon Iberico which we oftentimes find to be not an inaccurate barometer of how good a Spanish restaurant is, and it was of course delicious but not at the same level we had tried in Spain a few years ago. Maybe the superlatives in the menu didn’t help, either? The chicken and bechamel fritters (accompanied with the description “My Mom’s World Famous”) were slightly too rich to my palate, and the piquillo peppers (prepared “Casa Julian style”) didn’t quite taste as marvelous as they looked. The grilled Galician octopus with mojo verde and mojo rojo sauce was one of the bright spots in our meal and I could tell that Jun (one of the biggest and most discerning octopus fans) enjoyed it. Maybe at the risk of bringing leftovers home, we should’ve ordered one of the large format dishes. Instead, we settled on a moderately sized acorn-fed Iberico butcher’s pork cut (with the “legendary” tag) accompanied by pa amb tomaquet (the classic tomato bread). Our server highly touted this dish, and our impression was that this was a well-prepared pork dish but didn’t have quite the impact we had expected. We shared a couple of desserts, and I found the soft flan to be more successful than the Basque style cheesecake with goat cheese that I thought could’ve been a little moister.

Getting a reservation at Casa Teresa wasn’t too challenging but the stylish dining room was more or less packed in the course of our early dinner so if you want to give this place a try, booking in advance is recommended. I appreciated the diversity of wine selections sourcing wines not just from popular regions like Rioja but other lesser-known corners of the country (Spain is certainly one country I would absolutely love to learn more about in terms of its fascinating wine landscape). I took some time for me to contemplate how food the experience at Casa Teresa was since there was no stinker that I hated but ultimately I agreed with Jun’s assessment that the restaurant doesn’t quite have the IT factor that would entice us in the near future. When we have a larger gathering, perhaps I will use that opportunity to see if the restaurant can change our minds with other dishes, particularly from the large format section.  

Address: 919 19th Street NW, Washington, DC 20006

KenScale: 7.75/10 (Jun’s Score: 7.5/10)

Website: https://teresadc.com/

Reservation via SevenRooms