Bar Rique

While my wife and I only had a few items, our review was: «ok» — it wasn’t terrible, just wasn’t great. We enjoyed the Fig and Brie Crostini and Bacon Wrapped Dates. But neither were amazing and portion size wasn’t huge.
The service was really nice and casual. We tried a couple of wines before buying a bottle and our waiter had no issues running back and forth.

I know that others have written glowing reviews of this place but my experience was the polar opposite. Given the prices and the quality of the ambiance, I expected delicious tapas and good ingredients. We received the opposite.
We ordered the beef empanadas, the truffle fries, the fish tacos, the grilled octopus, and a pitcher of red sangria.
Empanadas: dry, bland, and tasted like made with frozen shells. One of them was burnt on the bottom.
Truffle fries: arguably the most edible thing on the menu, but by no means the quality expected from the price. Tasted like they bought fries from Five Guys and sprinkled the teensiest bit of truffle oil on them.
Fish tacos: overcooked, dry, underdressed. Fish was rubbery and dried out on the skin like it had been sitting under a heat lamp for a while. Inedible.
Grilled octopus: disgusting. Overcooked, so it had the texture and flavor of a Tempur-​pedic mattress. It came so smothered in the «red chimichurri» (which tasted like a combo of chili powder, paprika, and garlic powder) that it was really inedible.
Red sangria: good, but only on the second try; we had to send the first pitcher back because it was so watered-​down.
We considered sending the food back for redo but since each dish came out grosser than the last we figured it was a lost cause. Left without finishing the food.
Service was decent and the ambiance was nice but I can’t get over how gross the tapas were. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND.

Bar Rique is more than a restaurant, it is a home. Its intimate, relaxed ambience is conducive to great conversations while indulging your palate. one of the Co-​owners, Guillermo, is a Gem. He will try and try to make sure your needs are fully met as well as be hands on with every detail that makes this place run as smooth as it does. The food sure is great, but I have also enjoyed the hospitality and care.
Additionally, the wine list is phenomenal and so is their house champagne Cava! The food at Bar Rique is delicious and the the Spanish flavors have remarkable depth. Despite having limited space and sometimes more customers than can fit inside at a time, all the staff members are friendly and will remember you on your second visit. MY favorite dishes are yucca con chorizo, bottom of the sea and Colby burgers.
Lastly, I have organized a number of events there (b-​day parties, engagement dinners, group meet up) and it was all done as requested and guests had a fantastic experience.
Bar Rique is for certain the place to be!

Love the food here. The service varies, but it’s usually worth it. Love the yucca and chorizo. So delicious and perfect compliments. The paella is great! We always get the fried calamari and the fried artichokes are a favorite, too!
The pork wings with pineapple are bomb! We honestly always have a hard time deciding what to get, because everything is so good! The grilled octopus dish is also a favorite.
The sangria is good, but not great. Usually best to go with a decently priced bottle of wine.
This is a weekend go-​to spot.

excellent tapas great ambiance service & host.
the shrimp, lamb & hummus are exceptional.
I will be back many times!

Came here due to its proximity to the Beacon Theatre. Their happy hour cocktails aren’t great (taste just liked regular mixed drinks).
Their tapas selection for happy hour is really good, at $ 7 a plate. We had the truffle fries, fig and brie crostini and the chorizo with yucca. The truffle fries weren’t too truffly, but they were crispy. The fig and brie crostini was probably the best thing we had. The chorizo with yucca just tasted like they added the two ingredients together and put a side of spicy mayo (or something) on the side.
We also tried to order two individual Kobe sliders ($ 7 each), but happy hour was over and they didn’t tell us. They ended up bringing out two orders of the slider entrée (two sliders apiece at $ 13). Not cool.
Bartender was super nice though.

The food was good, but the service was very slow.
On my visit, the restaurant only have 2 tables of customers, and a couple sitting at the bar, and my server was struggling to manage all of it. My group started our meal by ordering 4 tapas — the lamb meatballs (yum!), the empanadas (I’ve had better), the quesadilla (not too flavorful) and the chorizo con yucca (good), and we kept a menu so we could keep ordering while we ate. When all of the dishes came out, we ate them, then took a minute to look at the menu. We decided what we wanted to order next — the braised short ribs (highly recommend!) and the bacon wrapped dates (yes!), but the waiter was too busy to take our order. While we waited, the busy boy cleared our table even though we indicated to him that we intended to keep ordering. After he reset out table, the owner finally came by and asked what we wanted. After taking our order, he returned to our table about 5 minutes later and told us that one of the dishes we ordered was no longer available. We were disappointed, but took his recommendation for an alternative dish. He also told us that he would bring us some bread while we waited. The bread never came, and when we got the second round of tapas, the owner mentioned again that he would bring us some bread because it complimented one of the dishes. When we were just about done with the second round of tapas, he realized, again, that the bread never came (we didn’t really mind at this point), and he finally brought it out himself. The bread ended up being very crunchy french bread, and nothing special. After that we quickly asked for our check, which took quite some time to get, and hurried out of there. Overall, I would recommend look for other tapas restaurants before trying Bar Rique.

Wonderful hospitality…
Jadai the bartender is amazing. Warm, friendly and down to earth.
This place has happy hour everyday except on Saturdays.
Jadai makes a most delicious red sangria. I am also having the blackberry caipirinha! Yum!!! They use real and fresh ingredients and you can definitely taste the difference.
Thy have an amazing happy hour tapas and cocktail menu.
They have been open for 8 months now and will start a brunch menu in the future!
I can’t wait

I honestly don’t know why this place has such high reviews. We ordered a lot of food — the most popular on the menu and everything was average or not good. Fries tasted like Burger King, the lamb meatballs were nothing special, the artichokes were crunchy on the outside and soggy inside. Also, most of the dishes we ordered were served with this same creamy orange sauce that masked The flavor of anything. I had really been looking forward to trying this place but was let down.

Came here for a girls’ dinner one night and had a tasty meal! Service was a bit slower since we were sitting in the back patio area, but we weren’t in a rush so didn’t mind as much. Definitely order the pitcher of the sangria instead of individual glasses, it was enough for the 3 of us to have close to 2 glasses each!
We ordered 7 tapas among us and it was definitely enough to make us quite full! We had the fig and brie crostini, pulled pork sliders (extremely tiny and arrived a bit cold, so not a big fan), empanadas, truffle fries (arrived piping hot and so tasty with a strong truffle-​y flavor!), Gambas a La Plancha (shrimp with pieces of crostini), scallops, and peruvian spring rolls.
Wouldn’t mind a return visit if I was in the area!

Needs to have more variety to be considered a wine bar but selection was decent. Food was ok, nothing outstanding nor terrible.

I know that some reviewers have had service issues here but from my view I had a near perfect dinner experience with my party of three.
The place has four distinct areas; the front porch (dining street-​side), the bar, the central dining area and the back patio. We sat in the back patio which was outside but air-​conditioned and very comfortable. Not only was our waiter incredibly attentive but so was the guy that appeared to be helping him as a runner. Both of them were there at the right times, asking if we needed anything and how the meal was going, without being annoying about it (I hate telling people every 2 minutes that I’m happy, but I also hate waiting to be asked if I need something when I do.)
We had a bunch of different stuff:
Lamb Chops, Lamb Meatballs, Tuna Tartare, Kobe Sliders, Chicken Matambre, and a Flan to finish it off. All of it was cooked perfectly and timed great (things kept hitting our table as we finished the previous thing).
I also had a Berry Caipirinha which was fine but I believe the berries were frozen rather than fresh as the menu stated. Even so, everything else was so spot on that this place gets 5 stars.
I’ll be back. I’ll keep a critical eye and adjust accordingly but at least for the moment there is nothing that I could have expected more out this very excellent tapas bar.

It’s a tiny place but they do offer outdoor seating in front and more tables out back. It’s a combo lounge/​restaurant. Daytime bartender is French and he’s decent. My suggestion is to sit at the bar. Yes, sit at the bar during happy hour. They’ve got a good selection of small plates to choose from and you can pair it with a nice imported draught beer (also on happy hour).
My fiancée and I stumbled upon this place and it was a pleasant surprise. Their menu isn’t huge and they seem to know what they’re doing. Seating is intimate the décor is old-​world modern.
If that makes any sense…

I really wanted to like this place. It has a great vibe, very comfortable and cozy interior and seemed like a great neighborhood place. There was a good selection of interesting food and drinks and the portion sizes were what you expect from a Tapas restaurant.
The food itself was pretty good — nothing incredible but the bacon wrapped dates and fried artichokes were very delicious and I would have gone back for those if the service did not make me want to rate this place lower than a 2.
We had made reservations for a Friday evening. When we entered, it took quite awhile for someone to greet us and they seemed incredibly confused when we told them we had a reservation. They asked our name and told us to stand and wait in the corner until they sorted it out, which was fine but seemed a tad strange since there were tables open. Eventually someone came over and told us it would be a few minute wait and asked our names again for the reservation. We stood by the empty tables for another 5 minutes until they seated us and asked again for our name. Once seated, we were then asked a fourth time for our name and the waiter asked us if we were ready to order. We had just sat down and hadn’t even seen the menu yet. When he came back, he seemed annoyed that we had sent him away in the first place.
We ordered 5 things and they all came out at the same time which proved problematic since the tables are small and they didn’t have room to place two of the plates. Instead of pacing the mean, they took away our waters to try and fit everything.
Not a great experience and in the end, Opentable emailed us to tell us we had missed our reservation. After asking our names 4 times, they still hadn’t managed to check us in in their system.

Underwhelmed. I don’t get all the good reviews this place has on Unilocal.
I stopped in with friends for a pre-​concert bite. We each ordered two items… I had the overly spicy gazpacho and the tiny quesadilla. My friend ordered the small paella (which was actually a decent portion), the fish did not smell fresh to me and it was clear that frozen vegetables were used in the paella. When I’m paying for someone to prepare food for me, Birdseye’s steamers are not ok. Fried Artichokes, Sliders, and fig crostinis that my friends ordered received no complaints. Overall food was merely ok.
Service was atrocious. We didn’t have our water glasses refilled on an extremely hot evening. My friend ordered an iced tea which never came. And we were never asked if we would like to order more plates at a tapas restaurant! I totally would have ordered something else as I was still hungry after my two choices. The waitress was either stoned or really dumb, I’m not sure which.
I would not recommend this place.

Stopped in here for a drink during happy hour — will definitely be back! Very pleasant bartender who knew some of her customers by name. Delicious cocktails and a good wine selection for just $ 7 during happy hour.
Had we not been headed to dinner we would have ordered some of the tapas, as everything looked and smelled delicious. I can’t wait to go back for dinner!

Tallulah has a competitor! Tiny and cozy, with a couple of outdoor tables that it was too rainy for us to enjoy. We sat at the bar and our bartender was sweet and charming, and pointed us with a surprise to the riesling as the driest of the white wines. She offered a taste and we agreed.
Truffle fries: good! Jeff M. prefers the McDonald’s-thin Tallulah style slightly.
Steak tartare: fine!
Ceasar salad: good.
I wouldn’t come here seeking a large, filling, extraordinary meal. But it’s a great setting with friendly service and the perfect spot to share some snacks and vino.

My friend and I found ourselves in the Upper West Side on Easter night. We were quite desperate for some good dinner after a particularly long movie showing– so of course we looked up what the options were on Unilocal.Bar Rique was a pleasant surprise. It was a rather light crowd. The service was attentive and the food came out quickly. We gratefully took advantage of their everyday happy hour special and ordered:
Truffle fries: My friend raved over these. They were shoestring-​type fries, not overly salty or with that overpowering truffle oil aftertaste. Quite addictive!
Pulled pork sliders: Another of my friend’s orders. Being from Texas, we know our BBQ; these slides hit the spot, and even come with extra BBQ sauce on the side. The sliders were still very meaty despite including some vegetable garnish.
Fried artichokes: Our server said this was his favorite. I figured that, despite its delicious fried batter, it would still count as a serving of vegetables. I never grew up eating artichokes, and I do regret not eating them earlier if I had to miss out on dishes like this one. The perfect amount of crispiness with a great, fresh flavor.
Yucca and chorizo: The chorizo was my only protein in this meal and was definitely welcomed; it was the right texture and had bold, spicy flavor. The yucca was fried just right; sometimes you can go to Peruvian joints, for example, and get nearly raw chunks of yucca. Not so here.
I also had a glass of rose sangria. While sadly not included as a happy hour special, the glass was huge and suitably strong.
In DC tapas restaurants can be a bit overwrought, and invariably crowded. Bar Rique was definitely a breath of fresh air, especially for being tucked away in the Upper West Side. Thank you, Unilocal algorithms! This was a great dinner choice.

What a find. From the open and welcoming greeting when I entered to the attentive service and exceptional food I was incredibly happy with my time there.
I live tapas and am always looking for places for pre-​Lincoln Center meals. I’ll be heading back.
Being a weeknight. At 5:30, I arrived during happy hour! A collection of cocktail and wines for $ 7. I chose an Italian Pinot Gris, fig and Brie toast, amazing fried artichokes and succulent short ribs with mushrooms. Each bite was better than the one before.
I will be back!”

Came here for dinner & drinks with my friends. The room is fairly narrow but it has a really cute ambiance and atmosphere to it that it’s almost a perfect place for either a casual-​ish date night or just a light happy hour with a very small group of friends. And, make reservations just incase because the place is pretty small and I see it becoming a to-​go spots in the next few months!
Here’s all the tapas/​dishes we ordered that was shared among the 4 of us:
Paella Entrée (3.5): It was a solid dish although I would’ve preferred a bit more flavors into the dish.
Fried artichokes (4): So tasty, chewy, and crunchy! I’m becoming and more of a artichoke fan!
Truffle Fries (5): Yes, I’m giving fries a 5. what can go wrong with truffle fries?
Fish Tacos (4): It comes with 2 tacos and the waitress made it sound like it would be a huge taco that could easily be shared with two. the taco was fairly small but the flavors were simple and quite pleasing.
Crispy Calamari (3.5): I’d say the calamari wasn’t as fresh as I would want it to be, but they did do a really good job at frying the calamari at just the right temperature.
Gambas a la Plancha (5): not alot of shrimp, but an incredibly tasteful shrimp though! Whatever flavors are added into this dish… i’m a fan!!!
Lamb Chops (4): as someone who is not a huge fan of lamb chops, I was actually surprisingly a fan of Bar Rique’s!