A bit overpriced and the tables are too crammed together. No parking either. Otherwise nice ambience.
They also INCLUDE tip in the bill, even though the service is sometimes mediocre at best. They even have the gaul to have another line on the bill that says "Extra Tip". After a few drinks (and not paying attention to the bill) its easy to leave a second tip by accident! FYI.
So I went to Guarapo on friday night around 930 and I have to say it was pretty impressive. The food was good and great atmosphere. Â Cons...NO PARKING!!! Â If you are familiar with this part of Arlington, then you know what I mean. Also it does get pretty loud, so you will have to yell at your friends if you expect to have any type of conversation. Enjoy:)
Review Source:I've been to Guarapo's on and off over the years, with the most recent visit in the last month. Â It's about as nice of a lounge as you're going to find in Arlington. Â If you like smoking a hookah, this is your spot. Â They have a pretty great selection of shisha, and their bar makes a good cocktail. Â The signature cocktails are hit or miss; the (something? Â green?) dragon is fantastic.
I've never eaten anything, so I don't have an opinion about the food, nor do I mind the service. Â I'm only docking a star because the sound system is terrible and Guarapo turns it up obnoxiously loud late at night, well beyond the point of being unable to have a conversation by screaming directly into someone's ear. Â High volume speaker clipping makes my ears bleed. Â Bring earplugs.
Some friends and I stopped by Guarapo for dinner on our way to an event in DC. Our waitress was very friendly and understanding that we were in a hurry. She got us Peronis all around, hookah, and our food came out lightning fast despite a full restaurant.
I tried the steak and shrimp skewers, both of which were perfectly cooked and full of flavor. Hopefully a good sign of the rest of their menu! Everyone else enjoyed their meals as well.
From my brief experience, Guarapo seems to have the trifecta: food, service, and ambiance. I loved the lounge atmosphere of Guarapo, even at dinner time. It's unfortunate that we were in a hurry, so I'll definitely be back to try more of the menu - both food and drink!
Food was good, drinks were good, service was AWFUL. It took us forever to get our food, were barely waited on, and then the company refused to honor our tax exempt certificate. I was taking our interns on their first meal to welcome them to DC and the company claimed we needed to have a picture tax exempt card, which is not something most companies had. Then, when I tried to leave figuring I could deal with this later, the management took my credit card and went in the back to call a bunch of other people- he disappeared for over 20 minutes and came back saying he couldn't honor the tax exemption. So many things wrong here- first, they don't lose anything by exempting tax- my documentation proves I am exempt. Second- to keep me waiting a half hour when I mentioned it at the start of my meal is unacceptable. Third- I've never heard of a picture ID for tax exemption- who are they serving that they've never seen another certificate? I will not be returning.
Review Source:Guarapo has a very cool ambiance and interesting combo. It has Latin food with a twist -- it is also a hookah bar. The owner is from El Salvador. He wanted to create a different kind of restaurant from the rest which believe me he succeeded. I've never seen something like this before.
All of that starts out sounding wonderful, yet with its interesting concept -- I feel the food quality gets compromised in the process of it which I hate hence why this get 3 stars from. I ordered the Arroz con Mariscos for $17 with shrimp, mussels and calamari with Spanish rice and veggies; topped with salsa criolla. It sounds delicious right? It was lacking a lot. It lacked shrimp, it lacked flavor, it lacked good consistency. Overall a huge disappointment by what the impression I got from the menu.
Service was a bit spotty as well. We had a lot of people pass us periodically, but heaven forbid why would you fill an empty glass when you looked right at it? I asked the server we were supposed to have about a couple of dishes and she didn't seem to very knowledgeable. For a Friday night, I think you should have your best servers out...just my opinion.
Coming back is in debate. For the food, I think I could find better with that kind of pricing. I do want to smoke some hookah though, so maybe I will donate my money to that cause next time around.
This review is really for their private party services but I have also been to Guarapo on other occasions and have never been disappointed. The drinks and food are fantastic.
I actually had my wedding rehearsal party at Guarapo in Sept 2012. We were looking for a place that could host a cocktail, number of people unknown since we had a lot of town guests. I wanted to invite everyone but not hassle them to get confirmations for a sit down dinner. Guarapo was awesome to work with from day 1. We had our party on the second floor. They were flexible with our menu and drink selections (we even had a little tasting- which was very cool!). They had their DJ come in early so we'd have music and let us pick the type of music.
The party was everything and more that we had wanted. Our family is still talking about how good the food and drinks (especially the mojitos) were. The ambiance was perfect- the space was modern and comfortable. And the price was amazing compared to what a sit-down dinner would have been for a fraction of the number of people. It was a great party that everyone really enjoyed. I definitely plan to come up with another party excuse soon to hold at Guarapo :)
The food was uniformly impressive -- excellent and interesting, across all of our orders.
The ambiance wasn't great. Â It's a hookah bar, and it becomes more like a club at night (including loud music). Â I'm cool with that scene, but not while I'm trying to have dinner with a few friends.
I think there are other seating arrangements available, especially in the summer or if you come early. Â I'd recommend that, but not your typical late winter dinner.
This place is too loud. The food was okay. And the manager is a jerk! He was ordering around his staff and mistreating them. For a sit down restaurant and a hookah bar, the music was blaring. we definitely suffered a temporary loss of hearing after we left the place.
Our waitress, Tatiana, was very sweet. The three stars on here are only because of her service and pleasant nature.
i came here at the end of a night of bar-hopping with some VA friends. Â arlington is definitely not my scene/vibe, but i'd come back to guarapo just to have a drink and people watch. Â we were probably there no more than 30 minutes but between the excellent service, tasty drinks, and interesting/hilarious patrons, i was sold. Â a sampling of our viewing pleasures:
1) Â a significantly older conservative- / corporate - / old-money-weathly looking white man on a "date" with a very young, "sexy," weavetastic, naomi campbell wannabe chocolate babe. Â they could not have been more opposite than the sun and the moon. Â i cannot even illustrate for you how much fun it was to watch them. Â dude looked very much like one of the mean, rich old farts who had the bet on eddie murphy and dan aykroyd in the movie "trading places," and the girl looked like she had the same profession as jamie lee curtis in that same movie. Â he was puffing up on the hooka and ordering her every drink under the sun; she was sipping and smiling, and bumping and grinding on him like an audition for a luke video. Â his attempts to "dance" with her had our table doubled-over in hysterics. Â but he was having a fantastic time, so good on him.
2) Â typical college girls whooping it up and acting like hooka was getting them higher than high. Â okay, so this was more annoying than funny, but it's still kind of funny.
3) Â typical sketch dudes who look like jersey shore and ambercrombie had a love child, attempting to hit on the girls from #2. Â now this, IS funny to watch. Â from all angles.
4) Â argument b/w what appeared to be either a couple on a date with a third-party that wasn't being added in as smoothly as they'd imagined, or an existing polyamorous trio going sour.
5) Â large table with an incredibly diverse group that was really together even though they looked so different you'd swear someone just plucked people from as many different walks of life as they could for some advertising campaign. Â they looked like united colors of bennetton meets sesame street meets MTV meets frumpy housewives of fairfax. Â they had drinks and hookah and food, and their varying members looked comfortable, petrified, fascinated and/or overwhelmed. Â i watched them the most, and could've stayed another hour just trying to figure out how on earth they fit together.
decor: sort of sexy-club-lounge-trendy even though it's clearly a restaurant during the day. Â vibe: uh...different. Â and LOUD (music and people). Â might've been an off night, but as i said, very interesting people-watching here. Â i can't speak to the food or hookah, but the drinks i had were perfect and our server was great.
Went to Guarapo Saturday night to start out a friend's bachelorette party. The drinks were great, the food was amazing, and the hookah was delicious! The manager also brought over two bottles of champagne for the table on the house. Any place that gives me free booze is 5-star in my book!
We ordered a ton of small plates and shared everything. My personal favorites were the empandas, arepas with beef, and the goat cheese and honey dip. I highly recommend the Blood Orange Margarita. Â I really liked the ambience and lighting -- we were there early in the night, but I can imagine it's a really cool place for late night.
Hopefully I'll get a chance to come back soon!
Best Hookah in NOVA.
I really enjoyed the time I spent at Gua-Rapo!
The Double Apple flavored hookah is outstanding. The drinks are stiff and the food is excellent. AND...
There are a lot of beautiful women inside: Waitstaff, Clientele and Hostess. AWESOME!
Ask for Bonn (like the German city) and/or Phuong for your servers. They are prompt, fun and sexy! What else can you ask for in a waitress?!
I have been obsessed with the Columbian/Venezuelan arepa since a visit to Florida years ago. They seems to be more plentiful on the East Coast, so when I read an article about places to find arepas in the DC area, I jumped at the chance to try them.
First stop: Guarapo which is conveniently a short jump on the Metro from DC. The spot is more loungey than anything, but sure enough, the menu included a sampler of arepas. The sampler came as a build your own style, with three different meats alongside the flat, round, unleavened cornmeal patties. The  carne con aji, (cubed steak) pollo desmechado (shredded chicken) and carne desmechada (shredded beef) all were flavorful and provided three different areapa experiences.
If you arrive early, take advantage of the happy hour menu, which includes many Latin American items and $6 mojitos and margaritas.
This could have been an awesome place... it could have been an awesome night... if only DJ Zeuben had stuck to the awesome remixes he played for an hour or so, before he switched to weird middle eastern shit.. sigh! Do't get me wrong, I have nothing against middle eastern music, but when you got the buzz, and you really want to dance, and the DJ sets the mood for awesome techno and trance, we..eelll... middle eastern just does not do it for u!
Anyways, the middle eastern turned to 1980's music, and then then 1960's and God knows what! From YMCA to Staying alive, and I will survive! BIG buzz killer! And believe the the DJ had some really awesome remixes in his kitty, his mixes were awesome in the beginning.. and then... there were none.. sigh sigh sigh!
The place by itself, well, it was nice. We sat upstairs, the food was decent, sort of pricey, the ambiance was really nice! They had nice comfy cubicles, with really nice candles burning around,and soft lighting.
It is a nice place to hang out!
Just get a nice DJ please next time.. I am willing to give it a try again... or maybe they shud stop him drinking after his 3rd drink! :p
Pseudo ethnic food? Came here for happy hour after work with the BF and was not impressed (the decor is really nice, and the service is solid, but the food and the prices just...aren't). Very pretty, long restaurant with lots of small tables. Reminds me of Eleventh street lounge actually... the same guys who do Chi-Cha on U st.
Happy hour runs Mon to Fri from 5 to 7, tapas style. Full HH menu here: <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.latinconcepts.com%2Ffiles%2FGuarapoMenu1_07_09.jpg&s=463d91a1cfd1814bcb2024286e79bed630b7db1d5f55b4850bfea256d32911cd" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.latinconcepts…</a>
FOOD
The yucca fries and my pollo desmechado were bland. Pet peeve: bland chicken. If I want bland chicken, I can make it myself at home thankyouverymuch. $9 is a lot for bland chicken and grilled corn cakes.
There's an empanada trio (pick 3 for $6). The one with chorizo was okay, but overall I wasn't a fan. The plantains were good, althought those are kinda hard to mess up.
The one standout was off the hh menu - ceviche! Very good ceviche, although it was a smaller serving.
DRINKS
They do have a redeeming drink list for cocktails on happy hour ($5 for some boozy, exotic fruity concoction - not too sweet, and very refreshing). Try the mango drink, with mango puree, rum, and lime soda. They also have a decent list for beers on happy hour ($4 for peroni, blue moon, yeungling, heineken, miller, amstel). Beer goes up $1 off happy hour. Cocktails go up $3. Off of the happy hour list, the caipirinha is very solid.
In conclusion, best to keep to drinks and less to food for this place. Nice place to lounge, metro accesible, good service. Can't say I'm motivated to try this place for actual dinner though based on the happy hour food. Maybe Latin Concepts just isn't my style.
I'm here to raise Guarapo's stars and rep because they have done what no place in DC has done - put my absolute two favorite things in the world together under one roof: salsa dancing and hookah smoking. I must say that doing them in reverse order (hookah smoking and then salsa dancing) was challenging but nonetheless, made for a great night! The hookah is smooth and the lounge upstairs sleek but not pretentious. The people are interesting and a diverse crowd. And the drinks are so excellent - I've crowned the Pink Panties my favorite drink anywhere. It is, in fact, somewhat alarmingly pink but rum-based and with several other ingredients that make it my kind of girly goodness in a slender martini glass.
Being a vegetarian I've never tried to come there for dinner but can vouch for the two plantain appetizers - they are so good and add another positive sensory experience to the many  others provided by this place.
Watch out - it gets really crowded on a weekend evening. If you want a comfortable couch seat upstairs to smoke, get there early.
I have no idea what was the hype about this place. Heard of it for a couple of years and last Saturday had the opportunity to go for the first time with my Yelper friends.
Came in and saw most tables packed. After spotting some of our friends at the bar we decided to get a table. The host was nice enough to accommodate us in the far corner near the window. I cannot say much for the drinks as I was not drinking...I ordered juice...$4 each glass a bit pricey for juice and ice..... Then I ordered the 3 empanada sampler chicken, beef and spinach with cheese. The order came the three minute empanadas were flaky and very greasy to the touch. I was hungry so I ate the beef...the chicken needed more flavor and the spinach....yuck was a gooey green mess!...
We decided to move our group upstairs thinking that the dancing was going to be awesome...unfortunately the music sucked...even I tried to make some moves that did not go with the music! The floor near the bar was wet... not great for Lame dancing even! Temperature in the room was extremely hot. We decided to come back downstairs...the music was better but absolutely no room whatsoever. The poor fans were not enough...after dehydrating we left early by 1:15am with the sour feeling that definitely not a place expecting latin music, salsa moves or even smiles of approval that everyone was having a good time....a disappointment!
Guarapo needs to make up its mind. Are you a club or restaurant? If you're a club, put a stop time on when people can order food (take note from Paper Moon), clear some tables and allow for a dance floor. If you're a restaurant, then get an ipod out in lieu of a DJ so people know not to crowd the floor and hold up service.
I'm a big fan of some of the Latin Concept restaurants and while this place didn't rock my socks off, it certainly didn't suck, either. Unlike other Yelpers, I actually enjoyed my Dragon Mojito but felt $9 a piece was a bit over priced ($7.50 would have been fair). I'm usually a fan of Mint hookah but I think they totally rip you off with the amount of flavored tobacco they give you. Points lost for their hookahs. With a large group, I usually go through at least 1.5 charcoal pieces. Here, we didn't even go through one.
As for the music, the downstairs DJ was really great. He mixed flawlessly and kept the theme of his music the same but was able to mix up the beats so it wasn't boring. The volume also wasn't over powering. However, the upstairs DJ really sucked. How this guy made it into the club scene is beyond me. His tracks were bad and his mixes were off. I can mix better than this fool. In fact, he was the reason why I left the club completely. My spicy chicken sandwich from Wendys had more flavor than this guy. The set up of the upstairs is just as confusing as the downstairs with an abundance of tables but a larger dance floor. I've never seen a club so dark before, either. Furthermore, they only had Corona in bottles. I need bottles when I dance or you'll end up spilling it on yourself and/or others. Egh.
The pros of this place were, as I said, the Dragon Mojitos. Throw that in with what I thought was excellent and speedy service and you get an average experience. I'd really like to see Guarpo get their stuff together and figure out a better layout for patrons to better enjoy themselves. That, and stop being so stingy on the hookah!!
Watered Down Mojitos. Â
If I wanted flavored water I would have gone to Safeway. Â Not talking about the generic stuff either. Â I could have bought myself a six pack of name brand flavored water for 2.99. Â Shit, I even have a Safeway bonus card- I could have gotten a 2/$5 special! Â Why in God's name would I pay $9 dollars for a 6 oz. glass of flavored water at Guarapo?
And if I wanted 1997 trance music, guess what? That's right, I would have stepped into my time machine and gone to a trance club back in '97. Â Hell, while I'm back there chillin in '97 I would have found a Safeway, used my Safeway bonus card, AND got 1997 prices on top of it all.
AND if I wanted to throw away $20 just to smoke hookah, I would have gone to visit my uncle in Iran and smoked Hookah there for free. Â With the $20 I saved doing that I would have gone back to 1997 in my time machine, run into a Safeway, used my motherfucking Safeway bonus card, and got $20 dollars worth of flavored water.
Mind Explosion.
But no, I winded up staying at Guarapo and spent about 9 dollars for each mojito I drank. Â Not to say that they tasted bad at all, just way to weak. Â There's two floors to Guarapo, a restaurant bar downstairs which was playing some fantastic international music, and a dance club upstairs which was playing some rather shot old school trance. Â Word to the upstairs DJ: If the girls ain't dancing then nobody's dancing. Â And if nobody's dancing then my review will be 2 stars. And if you're getting a 2 star review from me, then I'm going to be making up weird stories about time machines and Safeway bonus cards. Â I don't even like Soviet Safeway, but you're making me go back in time to buy flavored water there. Thanks asshole!
3.5 stars. Here I fucking go with the half stars again....
Gimme some low lighting, funky lamps, 'ouse musak, cold beer and flavored hookah and I'll be alright. This place has all that shite and the service is great. Well, it's good. I have to remind myself that great service is more than just not sucking. And their service definitely doesn't suck.
I think I really like the layout of this joint. It's deceptively big inside and they don't cram everyone around a bunch of round tables like I've seen at other hookah bars. They keep the feel of a lounge but you're smoking fucking hookah. Tiiiight.
WHY do you keep the tables when ppl are trying to dance?!!??!
Drinks were meh and like everyone says expensive and not that great...bouncers are overzealous except one guy but I can't remember his name now...big Black guy with curly hair, very nice man.
Music upstairs is good but not really good for dancing and it's waaaaaaay too loud, downstairs the live band was really good but again, damn tables everywhere so no one could properly dance :P Air needs to be ventilated when heavy table-tripping dancing is involved. Take the hint.
Wow. Â Be very careful when you buy drinks here. Â Especially when you're a bit tipsy. Â The drinks are super expensive. Â Not only that, but they take it upon themselves to add gratuity.
I usually only tip $1 per drink. Â Whether the drink is $3 or $10. Â That's my rule. Â But the bartender tells us the price WITHOUT saying that it included gratuity. Â And we were only 5 people. Â I have to say, that was INCREDIBLY shady what she did. Â If they want to include gratuity, fine. Â But don't just tell me "That'll be $64" and not say anything about the added gratuity!!! SO ANGRY!
So I drunkenly gave extra tip on top of the tip she already gave herself!!! Â So be careful when you are drinking here!!!
I present my review in the form a haiku:
Hookahs and douches oh my
Why no songs with words?
I hate you so much.
*********************
Huge space but they ruin every inch of it trying to be something bigger than what it really is. Â This is Arlington! Â You're located nextdoor to the Post Office! Â Stop being so pretentious, please. Â
I've been here a few times and each trip I hate it a little more. Â Trash from every corner of the earth throw on their $500 pre-ripped Diesel jeans, then skip on over for a Night of the Roxbury type evening. Â Be careful going with large groups--my first time there they charged my card with other peoples drinks--i took forever to fix but i refused to leave till they addressed it. Â While smoking hookah can be fun, it looses it's charm in this venue where men inhale while starring at you with squinted eyes, as if to say, "oh yeah, you know you want this." Â They give the plastic hookah covers which is thoughtful but it ruins the decadence--like watching an porno orgy with condoms. Â The table service is slow (the lady waitresses appear to tend to the men first), but the drinks are solid. Â Really, this place is a meh.
Returned to Gaurapo's a few weekends ago and I still like it. Â Maybe I even like it more. Â
The mango guarapo (fruity "foo foo" girly drink) is delish - straight up mango puree with some rum... and no hangover in the morning after eight of them. Shisha's still good. Â They were playing Armin and Nadia Ali for a little while, which made my heart flutter (until the live music. Â No, creepy dude, I wont dance with you).
The crowd is hot. Â You probably will see all of them at Lima later that night.
Allow me to reiterate the general consensus - OVERPRICED!
After trying out this place twice on two different occasions, I have to say that there is nothing about it that makes you want to go back. The service is below average, especially downstairs in the dining area, drinks are just about alright (barring the guarapos; they are tight), and the acoustics make me want to cover my ears.
You know something is wrong when the drinks cost about the same as the most expensive entrée on the menu and then are not even awesome. The only thing on their menu that I personally feel stands out is the yucca fries. They are seriously the second best thing after sweet potato fries, and are a wonderful accompaniment to alcohol.
Not everything is wrong with this place, though. They seem to attract a varied clientele, possibly owing to their apparent Puerto Rican heritage. Very few people spoke English as their first language the times I visited this place.
My recommendations - the guava flavored guarapo, yucca fries, and the tropical ice cream. The latter has a scoop each of melon, coconut, and mango flavored ice creams. Very nice!
All in all, a good place to spend your weekday evening if you are tired of all the other places and/or have some cash burning your pocket.
I've been here a bunch of times but only once for dinner. So I'm not going to review their dinner because I don't remember it.
I am however going to review their lounge and bar.
OK - first off I hate the uppity-ness of the place. The door guys and employees must think P-Diddy is about to roll up and get a table and bottle service. Wrong. But by their attitudes you'd think their right.
Anyway - if you can get past all that and get upstairs the music is usually good on Friday nights. House music mostly, but I'm a fan.
Now on to the bar. One word: OVERPRICED
Again, you'd think celebrities are about to roll up because the cost of their drinks is ridiculous for the area. On top of that if you order a mojito be ready to order another and another and another cuz the liquor content is MINIMAL.
Here's the thing that wrecks me about bars like this one. Not only do they mark up the cost to you over 100% and make a killing...they then don't even put enough in your drink to be worth buying it.
This my friends is why I drink, when I drink out, at gay bars. Gay bars are the only bars I have been to where the cost of a drink is a bargain for the amount of actual drink you get.
So...overall. This place is OK.
My friends have enjoyed their dinner. The one I had I don't remember being bad, expensive but not bad.
The lounge plays good music on Friday nights, but "pre-party" before you get there or be prepared to run a pretty high tab. Or stick to beer. Even though it's about 6 bucks a beer at least you know the alcohol content will be the same drink to drink.
Oh yeah, they usually have some live band playing downstairs...so if you're into that, there you go. And they sell Hookahs both downstairs and up.
When I hear "Guarapo" the only thing I think is "hookah".
So yeah, that's where I started from for THIS review.
Keep in mind I'm not even a hookah girl; I'd never tried one before Guarapo. Â But I didn't even (and still don't) have any idea what sort of ethnicity Guarapo is basing its food on; the hookahs get THAT MUCH lip service around town, yo.
Which is too bad. Â I was there during happy hour, when they have $5 girly drinks served in martini glasses and cheap appetizers. Â And the food was great.
I've never had the food at Guarapos, just the $18 mojitos. Â Yes that's right $18 dolla! Â Were they good? Yes. Was I the one paying? No. Â Maybe that's why they tasted A-OKAY. Â I just can't rationalize paying that much for a mojito. Maybe for a pitcher, but that's just me. Â The live latin band is really awsome. Â
The crowd, not so awesome. Â It's pretty random. Â You usually will have a random group of frat boys and sorority girls that got lost on their way to the Clarendon Ballroom, the greesy latin men, young and old, and the cougar-MILFs stalking their prey. Â It's a hit or miss.
My friends throw parties here sometimes so maybe that's why I enjoy being there more than others. Â The tapas and food are very good for late night snacking and the interior is laid out nicely. Â If you have been to GR a few years back you'll how the layout change I'm talking about. Â There definitely could be more bathrooms in the place because the lines do get hectic at times - mostly late late night when everyone's been drinking.
It's definitely a great spot and if you haven't been there check it out when they are having an event there. Â Music makes everything better :)
I am about a 5 minute walk to Gua Rapo, and I've eaten there a half dozen times, and gone for the pseudo club atmosphere a few times too (ok, in fairness, they call it a lounge which is a more accurate description).
For dinner, you get pan latin american cuisine. Â Like most menus of this nature, you get a nice variety of foods from a larger region, rather than more specific menus (such as Cuban only, or Peruvian only, etc). Â The tradeoff is they don't really specialize in any one cuisine. Â I've never had a bad meal here, and have had some pretty good ones.
Service seems to often be a problem here though. Â It can be hard to get the attention of the waiting staff, often because they appear to be under staffed. Friendliness of the staff is hit or miss, with the pattern slightly skewed towards unfriendly--although in all fairness, the attitude seems better in recent times.
There is nothing on the menu that I've had (and I've sampled more than half of their menu) that can't be had better somewhere else, but some things are quite good. Â The empanadas are normally quite good, and so are the Arepas. Â I am a fan of their Ropa Vieja, although you can do better at a dedicated Cuban restaurant.
I like the upstairs lounge. Â It is done better elsewhere (even by the same owners, such as Chi Cha Lounge), but there is nothing close to this atmosphere without having to take a cab/drive/metro, so I cut it a lot of slack here. Â The music style varies, but is typically some sort of club music, and people will dance, but you won't find dancing like you will in a proper club.
The drinks are what make me give it three stars instead of four. Â They are overpriced and mediocre. Â I should state that much of this criticism is due to the poor quality of their caipiroskas. Â It is not a hugely popular drink, but it is on their drink menu, and they are a latin themed restaurant, so they should get it right! Â There was a time years ago, when depending on the bar tender, I'd get a proper caipiroska, but it has been ages since I've gotten one. Â They put sprite or some other bubbly soda in them, which is NOT good. Â They taste very watered down, and are expensive. Â If you want a quality caipiroska, go to Piola 2-3 blocks down the hill.
I live like 3 minutes from this place. Finally went in one day; Friday evening around 6. This is very much ........"that" place in Arlington, if you know what I mean. Very pretencious, very Arlington girl. The drink prices were outrageous, even for the town. I think I paid $13 for an apple mojito and I'd be surprised if there was liquor in it. My boyfriend stuck to water because he was already mad I drug him there to overpay.
It was terribly dark in there though. So dark they could have served me something with a hair in it and I would have never known. As I was sitting down, my hair barette fell out and it was so dark that I had to get down on the floor to even SEE it. The food was good enough. I ordered the paella, but I couldn't really see what I was eating, so I guess it was, indeed, paella. After that, we couldn't really afford dessert or another drink, so we went to CVS and bought a box of animal cookies for dessert.
As much fun as it was to point out the stupid Arlington gold diggers with their uggo boyfriends, we probably won't come here again.
UPDATE (9/5/08):
Just came here with a friend to try the hookah outside and i must say.....very impressed. They have a 4-7 happy hour with plentiful sized apps and drinks and their hookah shiz was GOOD. Try the double apple :)
NIce and mellow on a Sunday night. Â Sangria is dangerously good. Â Tuna ceviche is very delicious and tangy. Â Empanadas are also a good bet. Â Attracts an older crowd, at least on a Sunday. Â No one was having a Hookah while I was there. Â
There is a downstairs and an upstairs. Â If the door is closed downstairs, it looks like it's closed because the door is solid with no markings on it. Â Just open it and walk in.
I have just returned from Gua-Rapo with a buddy of mine on this Saturday evening, and I liked where I was. Â The environment was a perfect balance of chic and a bit "dirty" from the spilled drinks by the bar, smoke, and dim lighting (and I like things dirty). Â The crowd was fairly Asian, Latin, or brown (I associate with a lot of Indians, though I'm Caucasian) in their early to mid twenties, which worked for me, and the women were beautiful. Â The male attire was casual-dressy - no frat boys in tight, pink polos and baseball caps here.
This might be a great place to meet someone, if that ever worked for me, but it hasn't yet. Â That's why I think this place would be a great place to take an otherwise prearranged date. Â The atmosphere is that of something happening, which would keep your date from thinking that you are boring.
When I arrived, there was a Latin band playing the ground floor and a DJ playing modern deep house and a bit of slightly progressive house upstairs. Â After the band finished, downtempo middle eastern music with some vocals was played, which I liked.
For you DJs, I noticed the DJ booth featured a set of Pioneer CDJ 1000s on raised, angled platforms and a powered JBL monitor sitting between the two. Â The mixer must have been at the base of the monitor at around waist height.
If you can get a table, you can get a hookah. Â My buddy and I were not fortunate enough to get a table, but we still enjoyed standing around the bar drinking our Mojitos, people watching, and shooting the breeze. Â Next time, I hope to get a hookah.
For me, the place gets four stars because I haven't gotten the hookah service yet to determine if Gua-Rapo is worthy of the elusive Fifth Star. Â For me, it's also an easy trip, as I'm only three stops down on the Orange line. Â I definitely intend to come back, either to chill on my own, or perhaps with a date. Â Who knows.
In case you are interested, Mojitos are $9, and they're good. Â That's all I drank.
Gua-rapo gets major points for having hookahs, seriously. This is one of the only interesting places I've been to in Arlington. Since I live in D.C., I usually don't go out of my way to hang out in Arlington, but I would go back to this place. I enjoyed that we were able to get a seat, even though it was Friday night.
They have some cozy couches upstairs and I didn't have to wait long at the bar for drinks. I like the dark atmosphere of this place. Though I know it's also a restaurant, I've only been here to drink. This seems like a great place to go with a big group of friends.
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