When confronted with a long menu with many unfamiliar dishes that look tempting, it helps to ask about the most popular dishes.
The tactic is especially useful with tapas, the small Spanish dishes that have gained such popularity. Barely seven months old, Tapeo — “the art of eating tapas” is a subtitle — is a relative newcomer with a list not quite as extensive as some area tapas restaurants, but the assistance was useful. The popularity of the suggested dishes was well-justified.
Heading the list, the Pechuga de Pollo con Cabrales ($6.95 tapas size, $15.50 as entrée) featured slices of chicken breast stuffed with mushroom and blue cheese served over mashed potatoes, a well-flavored and textured dish that managed to be both hearty and delicate.
The Longostinos al Ajillo ($7.95 and $17.50), several jumbo shrimp sautéed in olive oil and plenty of garlic with bits of parsley, was another favorite that deserved accolades, especially since the shrimp was neither undercooked and slightly raw nor overcooked and rubbery. The oil with its bits of garlic invited dipping and, fortunately, was accompanied by plenty of good, crusty bread.
For a bit of vegetable, the Espinacas a la Catalana ($4.95), a colorful dish of spinach sautéed with a few raisins, pine nuts and chunks of goat cheese, got the — again well-deserved — nod, but not without competition from the spinach fritters ($5.50) and the asparagus wrapped in Serrano ham ($5.25).
If you choose to venture on your own, you have much to choose from: garlic flavored chicken with saffron and white wine ($6.50 and $12.95), pork loin stuffed with chorizo topped with pine nut raisin marsala wine sauce ($6.25 and $13.95), roasted quail stuffed with bacon ($7.95 and $13.50) and pieces of marinated tenderloin in a garlic and white wine reduction sauce ($8.25 and $18.50), among others.
And you may be cautioned about some dishes. The Calamares en su Tinta, ($6.95 and $13.95) is a wonderful Spanish dish with tender pieces of squid sautéed in its own ink and served over rice, but perhaps the unique, and special, flavor of the ink comes as a surprise to those unfamiliar with the dish.
if you go
» Location: 1302 S. Joyce St., Arlington
» Phone: 703-416-6431.
» Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily; 5 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 5 to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday
