El Rincon Espanol

Stay away!
This is probably the worst dining experience I’ve ever had. We popped in, by no means expecting a five course meal based on the exterior of this place, but we at least thought we could get halfway decent food and service at a good price.
Despite being the only ones in the restaurant, (that should have told us something in the first place), the service was incredibly slow and inattentive. The food was inedible, and I don’t use that word lightly. Choking down a few bites was all I could take.
With so many other great options in the area, no one should ever waste their time dining here.

My friend and I were looking for a good Spanish Food. A good paella, so we decided to go to El rincon Espanol. The place is very clean and have new look and food it’s amazing. I had chicken Paella and margaritas. My friend had the paella valenciana and Ganvas. Everything was delicious! Best place to have a real Spanish Food.!!

Someone stole my credit card and used it to spend $ 289 here on a Sunday. I’ve never been, but I guess someone must like it.

I was super skeptical before coming here because it’s literally one of the lowest rating restaurant in Adams Morgan… I never seen/​been to restaurant rated lower than 3 stars in Unilocal,but I was really in the mood for Paella and decided to try my luck.
I was positively surprised and impressed: I had a fantastic pan-​fried Paella Mariana (which was super tasty and fresh), and the service was nothing but great (I was hosted by the nice old man who probably owned the place, and I didn’t experienced anything like «broken English» or rude attitude, people reviewed it on Unilocal must be super unlucky)
The place is actually nice with street-​side glass wall and lovely little bar. All in all I have no idea why previously people give it such terrible reviews. Probably they improved after seeing those reviews. I will definitely come again!

Delicious paella for a reasonable price. I coordinated a lunch for about 35 people and was on a desperate search for a seafood and a meat paella under $ 300. Found this gem and it was a HUGE hit. Manuel was extremely helpful and gave me more than enough food for the luncheon. I even went back just to have dinner for myself. It’s not an incredibly upscale restaurant and it didn’t seem that catering was a common occurrence in their establishment, but the service was superb. Thanks, El Rincon!

You might just walk by but this is a treasure. Family friendly atmosphere relaxing environment prepared fresh excellent food we enjoyed beautiful slow afternoon.

This was the first restaurant I stopped in DC because I was staying very close. The food was good. I tried the Seafood Paella liked the little Paella pots they serve it on and the food was good. It’s not your 5 star restaurant but overall it was good.

I’ve been coming here for years. I love how it’s a family owned long term restaurant. I have enjoyed the trout, but my favorite dish is definitely the leg of lamb. Their prices are much lower than you might expect and they are quite generous with the sides. Sangria is great too.
One thing I don’t like. Their bread and butter is horrible. Honestly, they would be better off just not offering it at all. Hard bread and butter out of individual plastic packets. Just scrap it. Although… sometimes I have arrived so famished I scarfed the whole basket by myself.

This place is not a Spanish restaurant. Most items on the menu are either Salvadorian, or Peruvian. Now Peruvian and Salvadorian food can be amazing, but this was not the case here. Also, the service is terrible. The waitress didn’t know if the food had nuts on it, or if it was gluten free or not. I speak fluent Spanish, so language wasn’t the issue here. Also, its dirty, and run down. The food is cheap but not worth your money. I love family own restaurants, but this one was just dirty, and the food was mediocre at best. Yuck never going back.

This place did not have two of the desserts that I asked for on the menu, after which I was afraid of hearing «No hay» («not there») again and just ordered arroz con leche and a pineapple juice.
The pineapple juice I swear was just the «juice» or more like corn syrupy liquid that you get when you open a can of Dole pineapples. I couldn’t finish even ¹⁄₃ of it for fear that I was drinking literally corn syrup and sugar from a can.
The arroz con leche– rice was kind of hard and there wasn’t much flavor other than a bland sweetness.
We were the only people there at 1pm on Sunday afternoon (everywhere else was packed with people enjoying Sunday lunch/​brunch). The waitress didn’t understand most of what we were saying, which is not in itself a huge problem at a small mom and pop spanish joint, but she didn’t seem like she really wanted to help us and just wanted to get the order over with.
Also being served bread as an appetizer at a spanish place was a bit odd…

Food and price were decent — ~$ 7 for a chicken quesadilla (although, if I’d gone to Q’Doba I could’ve gotten a much bigger and better quesadilla for the same price). We were placed in an awkwardly located table and given bread and butter to start the meal (rather than chips & salsa). Two of my friends weren’t given what they ordered and the waitress simply said «she made chicken» to explain what happened. All in all, a very lackluster experience. Won’t be going back.

This is definitely a Spanish food joint. It is cramped, dirty, and the waitress spoke broken English at best, but I like restaurants like this. I mean I can sit in a clean restaurant with a waiter in a black shirt telling me about how great their featured appetizer is any day, so it was a nice change of pace.
The waitress messed up my order, but I thought the food was really good. In my mind no harm no foul, but they do lose a few points here because if they had accidentally brought out something I really don’t like and I had to send it back I would not have been happy.
At the end of the day I have mixed feelings on this place. Definitely not a high dining experience, but I really liked my meal and had they not messed up my meal I probably would have given them 4 stars. I will probably be back here to see if the rest of their menu is as good as the enchilada I had.

After walking by this place over and over for the past year, a few friends and I decided to stop in to grab a bite after work. Maybe this was one of those hidden gem, hole-​in-​the-​wall type places? From the moment we walked in the creaky, broken door and looked around the tiny, dirty restaurant, I realized there was nothing gem-​like about this place.
Despite there being just one other party, we were seated in the corner, where my friend’s head was literally inches from the ceiling. The place is just not pleasant, and the food wasn’t able to make up for it. While the staff certainly tried and was attentive, they simply didn’t know how to run a restaurant.
My friend ordered beef enchiladas, and I got a combo (steak/​chicken) enchilada. The waitress brought bread (strange for a Mexican restaurant, I thought — no chips?)…then put chicken enchiladas in front of us, saying something along the lines of, «The chef made you chicken instead of beef, is this okay?» Obviously, I wasn’t going to send them back once they were sitting in front of me, but knowingly putting incorrect orders in front of customers is strange. The waitress asked if I wanted spicy sauce and brought… not salsa, not tabasco sauce, but siracha (in a Mexican restaurant?)
My enchilada was mediocre. Not terrible, but the chicken was dry, portion was small (fair enough for the price), and the rice was dry as well. The food as a whole seems pretty standard and reasonably priced — it’s really just not worth it to have to eat it in a place that’s not pleasant.

Rating is more like 3.5.
We came here to try their Paella Valenciana, and it was yummy! As good as the Paella from the fancier Spanish restaurants.
Cons:
— Not sure if this place added $ 1 to my credit card bill after I signed it because my statement showed up having $ 1 more than what I paid (with tip).
— The appetizer, sampler, wasn’t good.
— Waitress doesn’t speak any English.
— Parking in this area is horrible.

I had a total blast here a few weeks ago. I joined some friends for a night of Cuban salsa dancing (Saturday night) and I found everyone to be really nice. There were a lot of great dancers and there were two excellent performances. I will definitely be checking this place out during future trips to DC.

I got an online coupon for this place, $ 9 for a pitcher of sangria and an app. They had a decent website and Unilocal gave them 3 stars, so I thought I couldn’t lose.
We got a garlic shrimp app, and it was disgusting. It tasted like the garlic had been sitting in a fridge for several months.
My husband got a chicken enchilada, and was gross. It was basically boiled chicken with some sauce on it.
The tacos were the worse tacos I’ve ever had. They were cut up pieces of grilled, bland chicken, a generic salsa and fake cheese.
The Sangria, pretty damned gross! The wine tasted like it had a turned and had a vinegar taste.
The rice was good?
Never again!

The paella here is good while everything else is mediocre. Its a small location so the service is pretty good and they are friendly.
They have a mix of Mexican, Spanish, and Argentinean food so there are many options.

The service was hit or miss, and there was quite a bit of ruckus stemming from a renovation project (odd that they would do this during the dinner service), but the sangria and food were good. I wasn’t a fan of the tortilla because they add red bell peppers to it, but the calamari, stuffed mushrooms, and chorizo are recommended. I have to agree with the other reviewers who commented about the stale bread. Our bread was hard as a rock! It was pretty much inedible.
We only had tapas and skipped the paella based on the fact that the menu stated it could be prepared in only 10 minutes. That’s a clear indicator that they make it ahead of time and probably just heat it up prior to serving. Every other tapas place I’ve been to, the wait time on paella is around 45 minutes.

I chose El Rincon out of convenience; I was in a hurry, had only a few moments to spare before my next apartment viewing (I’m in the process of apt huntin in DC), and it was right in front of me. I’m from Austin so I think I already KNOW what good Mexican food is. There is nothing you can show me that I haven’t seen or tried before, and a better version of it. I also wanted to stick to trying things that I’ve never had, like Ethiopian or Afghan food… but alas, it wasn’t meant to be for me today, time was short, and my tummy was growlin’. So, reluctantly I went in. At least it was a hole in the wall… I will never set food in a chain Mexican place. No self-​respecting Texan would. I’d rather be shot.
Today was not the day for me to be flexible with my anti-​meat standards, though this trip to DC has certainly been a test of just how pure my flexatarian principles are. The server «strongly» recommended the grilled salmon to me after I inquired about the tuna special. She was absolutely right on the money. Holy mamma. This was the most flavorful, tender, and moist salmon I’ve ever had. It was accompanied by some potato patty thing (I think?) which I relished every bite of. The rice was long-​grain, more like basmati than anything. The black beans were seasoned just right. There was also a small salad, which was fresh, made with romaine lettuce, not iceberg… major bonus point, and topped with fresh tomatoes and avocado.
The server was very attentive, and the meal was wonderful. It was also only $ 10 for more food than I could finish. The only drawback was that, being from Texas, I’m used to chips and salsa accompanying every meal at a Mexican place. Here they had some kind of french bread that was kept too long in the warmer, and just not very good. I am not sure if chips and salsa were an option that you could pay for, I didn’t see that on the menu.
I’ll be back here.

We were here for the first time last Friday after living up the street for years. I have no idea why we never went in. I agree with other Unilocalers that the place is not the cleanest I’ve ever seen, but sitting inside I feel like I’m on vacation, or at least far far away from the District. Maybe it’s the décor? Telemundo on the TV? The regulars all speaking Spanish around me? The mariachis practicing in the corner? Yes, it could be any one of these things.
Our first time in, we ordered the fried calamari to start. The breading was thick and not too oily. Delicious.
For dinner, we each ordered the specials and, holy chevre, were these dishes special. My fiancé got a giant piece of steak (nice cut of meat, too) smothered in brandy sauce, mushrooms, onions, and fresh cracked peppers. I got the salmon stuffed with spinach and mariscos — bay scallops, lobster, and crab meat — covered in a rich, creamy hollandaise-​like sauce. Both dishes came with tasty sides, especially the half yellow zucchini filled with broccoli, cheddar, and bacon.
To wash it all down, I ordered a half carafe of sangria. Their sangria would be way too sweet for me most nights, but that night I was in the mood for it. A warning to the cheap dates like me – if you order a half «carafe,» they actually bring you a half pitcher (not bad for $ 8.95). I could not finish it (you may accept that as a challenge).
We ended up taking about half the meal home, which was awesome at 11pm and the next day at lunch.
A few nights later, we ordered some dishes to go – stuffed plantain, garlic chicken, and beef tacos. A much lower-​key meal, and still delicious.