Barmini

I went to Barmini on Saturday night for drinks. Thanks to Yelp, I didn't have a hard time finding the secret doorbell. I was kindly greeted at the door by a hostess with an Ipad. She kindly escorted us to our seats. After being seated, our waiter severed us complimentary small drinks. I forget what the drink was called but it was amazing. The drink menu at Barmini is insane. It took me 20 minutes to look over the entire menu. There are so many unique drink combinations. I had a hard time choosing a drink because I wanted to try all of them. If you don't want to pick a drink off the menu, bartenders are more than happy to freestyle a drink for you. I tried some drinks off the menu as well as drinks the bartender made from scratch. Every drink I had was prepared well and very flavorful. One of my favorite drinks was the Veruca Salt. After sitting on the sofa for a while, we moved over to the bar area. It's amazing to see how well trained the bartenders are at crafting up cocktails. The bartenders are awesome. I decided to order some food after downing some drinks. I chose the Thai seasoned chicharrones and lobster roll. The Thai seasoned chicharrones was a great snack (very tasty). The dipping sauce complimented my chicharrones very well. The lobster roll was out of this world. Seriously, delicious is an understatement. If you want to have a party in your mouth, definitely try the lobster roll. The lobster was fresh and very flavorful. Customer service was excellent. Barmini staff constantly made sure I was doing alright. The manager was talking to all of the customers in Barmini. He was very down to earth and professional. Barmini is small and very exclusive. I appreciated the exclusive feel. Barmini has unique and modern décor (The cactus sofa and bathrooms are cool) .The ambience is great. Barmini is a great date night spot or it's perfect for enjoying drinks with an awesome ambience. I really enjoyed myself at Barmini by José Andres. If I lived in DC, Barmini would definitely be a regular spot for me. Do yourself a favor and checkout Barmini by José Andres. Thanks me later!

Augh -- really people?  Hubby and I did early drinks here before going off to dinner.  As a recent transplant from SF  I guess I'm just used to the really awesome cocktail bars there... But no, I've had waaaay better cocktail experiences at many other Washington DC bars and restaurant than at Barmini.  

Where do I start?  First off, the atmosphere of the establishment is a too precious and pretentious.  If you're going to do the modern atmosphere with the speakeasy feel of having to give codes at the door, etc., then there is a way to do it right and a way to do it wrong.  Barmini does it the wrong way.  I love modern decor that pushes the envelope of taste, but this decor was modern for modern's sake.  The furniture was generally uncomfortable and did not allow you to have a relaxing time here -- as if they don't want you to stay and have a few extra drinks.  I also felt the service and reception was snotty, as in look you up and down to see if you're in Prada type of way.

As for the cocktails, I did like getting the welcome drink upon arrival.  That free drink was the highlight of the night, to be honest.  Hubby and I ordered 4 drinks total and a bunch of nibbleys.  All in all, it ended up very near 200 dollars, which I think is generally outrageous.  I would gladly fork this money up though if I felt that the drinks were so special and yummy; but it was not.  

I forget the four drinks that we had, as they were generally uninspiring.  We did get the Veruka Salt, which the wait staff told me, "If we do have a signature drink, this would be it..."  The couple next to us, said that they loved it.  To me, it tasted like nuoc cham sauce with liquor.  Don't get me wrong, I really like nuoc cham -- on my vietnamese vermicelli bun.  I don't think they translated this taste profile into a cocktail well.  

As for the nibbleys, we had the cheese sandwich, the oysters, the roe, and something else I don't remember.  The roe nibbley wishes it were French Laundry's smoked salmon cornet app that you get at the beginning of the meal.  Instead it was the fishier, less tasty cousin.  Also, we ordered the roe, no one bothered to tell us it was one tiny small cone (for the two of us).  

I also didn't like that when we asked for recommendations from our waiter on the very extensive cocktail menu, we were told... "well, we have so many, it depends on what you like."  and then left it at that.  I get that you have an extensive menu, and I get that people have a lot of different cocktail tastes.  But then, YOU as a cocktail restaurant concept, must ask "what do you like?" and then try to match it up.  You know, like how sommeliers do it with wine at restaurants.  

So, nope, would not return.  Dear Jose Andres, I'd like my 185 dollars back.

I drank Barmini cocktails throughout my dinner at Minibar because the first one was so good that I wanted to keep tasting more (and so never switched to wine).  My favorite was Some Like it Hot, with spicy tequila--I love drinks with a spicy tequila base and this is the best one I've found in DC.  When we moved over to the bar itself, the service was great but some of the seating arrangements were awkward/not very comfortable.