Pulpo

Food was good the service quick and atmosphere nice. The small plates makes it easy to taste a few with friends and the octopus is cooked with perfection

Questions:
Why overbook when you can’t maintain customer service and quality of food?
The last time went to Pulpo I was seriously sad. I convinced my friend to bring a big group and we were disappointed.
Sad to say I am happy they are closed.

Shocked they are gone. What is happening in Cleveland Park, people?!? The first time we went, it was a decent tapas dinner, which we finished off with a banana nutella bread pudding that was so decadent, so delicious, I wish I had the willpower to eat it slower so I could savor all that flavor, but I just wanted moooore. And now I will never experience it again.
The hula girl replacement that has popped up in its place — the Pulpo sign is still intact outside, in addition to the Hula Girl sign — seems like an odd and out of place choice. When we came a few months back, they had no food at all, saying they were switching over menus. Was that all a ruse to hide the fact that they were slowly killing themselves? Who knows. I just hope the crowded nature of this strip in Cleveland will never disappear.

I had a horrible encounter with a manager at Pulpo restaurant in Cleveland Park, in regards to my credit card information being stolen.
Approximately one month ago, some friends and I had brunch at Pulpo. Of the 7 or so of us who used credit cards to pay that day, 6 of us had our credit card information stolen and fraudulent purchases made on them shortly thereafter. I have never had credit card information stolen before in my life. After we realized this coincidence, I decided that I would go and speak to a manager at Pulpo, in order to let him/​her know that he/​she may want to investigate this matter further, for the sake of their business image. I do not know for a fact that our information was all stolen from there or from any one place, but again, it seemed like an issue that might warrant some inspection.
I swung by Pulpo on my way home and asked to speak to a manager. A man looking to be in his 40s, with longer gray hair and trying desperately to resemble Richard Branson, came down to speak with me.
Before I had even finished one sentence to him saying «Hey there, just thought I’d drop by to let you know that some friends and I were here and it seems that…,» he cut me off, and begin berating me and essentially screaming at me. He started making wild accusations and assumptions; that I had called him and complained on the phone repeatedly (I have never called), that I was trying to ruin his business on Unilocal (I had never made any Unilocal reviews), and that I was un-​read and ill-​informed because «If you actually read the news, you would know that Target had a breach in security!!» (I never claimed to shop at Target, nor can I speak for my entire brunch group to say we all shopped at Target within the given timeframes of the well-​publicized breach). He started screaming «What do you want me to do about it?!» while giving me disgusted looks, and I could barely get a word in edgewise.
To add to it, for reference I am a fairly petite woman and he is a taller, larger man, and was posturing towards me in a way that made me physically uncomfortable as well, during his verbal tirade. I was dumbfounded that this person, in a management position, treated me in this abhorrent manner, when I truly went there to simply inform him about our particular circumstances. If I were a business owner, I would want to know. He behaved in such an extremely over-​reactive and defensive way that it makes me question what is really going on. His verbal attack truly ruined my night and left me shaken. Just thought you all would want to know.

Going downhill fast…
This place is a great value for an all you can eat/​drink brunch, but the service and food has become terrible. I’ve been to brunch 6 – 7 times here and at my last two visits they were out of several main menu items, closed the kitchen before delivering all the food we ordered, and never came to take drink orders throughout the meal. Anytime you find yourself walking up to the bar to get your drinks you know something is wrong. Additionally, it seems like they basically stopped trying with their food. Dishes were consistently served incomplete, cold, or just plain sloppy (canned tuna on a slice of shitty bread hardly qualifies as a restaurant quality «ahi tuna melt over aged sourdough»).
Oh yeah, and the waiter admitted that they don’t actually offer the beignets that are listed on the menu.
Just drink a lot and maybe it’s worth the $ 25

Disappointed. After brunching at nearby restaurants like Ardeo&Bardeo and Masa 14, I was expecting a grand dining experience. WRONG.
After we started drinking, we were told that 5 of the most popular items on the unlimited brunch menu weren’t available – and they hadn’t been for months.
I ordered certain dishes and not only did they come out cold, but it was missing staple ingredients. The flatbread Benedict, for example. It came out with just a poached egg on rice. No flatbread. I asked the waiter about it and he responded, «oh yeah we’re out of that too.»
The only reason I’m giving two stars is because $ 25 bucks for unlimited drinks alone, is actually a great deal. The food is sub-​par, but you can’t really mess up a ScrewDriver!
I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone looking for a hearty meal. Paying the extra $ 10 at Masa14 is so worth it.

Mediocre to say the least. Two stars for brunch because for $ 25 you can’t beat unlimited drinks; however, I won’t be returning because the food was just disappointing.
The menu looked great… too bad it was all deceiving. First off… they didn’t even have four of the items listed. Initially our waiter said the menu was changing and then he said they just haven’t received shipment from their supplier. I wanted to order the petite omelette with chorizo, but was told I couldn’t get it with chorizo even though the menu clearly stated I could.
The food itself didn’t taste horrible, but it also wasn’t anything different than what I could make at home. A poached egg on white rice and you call that a flatbread eggs benedict? Canned tuna on a slice of bread and you call that an open face ahi tuna melt?
The drinks were great and I got my money’s worth with that. But honestly… don’t waste your time going here for brunch. There are plenty of other great brunch spots in DC.

The food, ambiance, and drink are all very good here. Unfortunately, it is an unsafe place to use your credit or debit card.
I went here with a friend from out of town, and it was the only check we split between us on their trip. Within a week, both of our cards had been used in different fraudulent transactions.
When I called Pulpo and asked spoke to a manager, the man I spoke with was incredibly rude and said «I think that’s unlikely, the system doesn’t allow us to save credit card numbers and I know my staff very well.»
It’s a shame; I had been looking forward eating here for awhile. A receptive reaction from management could have redeemed it, but their disregard for their customers’ security is shameful.

Finding parking sucked and the server was the opposite of a good salesperson AND they ran out of this apparently astounding banana Nutella French toast. However, the bacon brussel sprouts and veal shortbreads were winners. Roasted octopus, beef brisket, and pork belly are decent. I’m interested in trying the brunch menu out…$ 25 is definitely the low end of the brunch spectrum in this town!

Great food, lovely ambiance, attentive service!
Came here with a Groupon for $ 50. Was spent easily with just one other person. Ordered the brussel sprouts with bacon (delicious), the beef brisket (pretty good but I’m not a die hard beef fan), veal sweetbreads (good but very small portion), the omelette with chorizo sausage (yum) and the tres leches cake for dessert (bigger than I expected). The menu was limited due to the «winter storm» that day so I would like to come back and try more things off their menu.
Would like to come back for their bottomless brunch as well ($ 25 for unlimited tapas and drinks). I think you will definitely get your money’s worth on that.

I was definitely disappointed with my experience at Pulpo. It’s a great space and location. The service was terrific — our server was friendly and came by frequently and made some good suggestions for the menu. But, the menu is definitely small and very pricey. If you’re expecting the expansive list like Jaleo, you won’t find it here. The sliders are quite small for the price. The one bright spot for me was the serrano croquettes — they were crispy and filled with cheese and serrano ham. Very good. The pan con tomate was okay. I expected a bit more flavor from the tomatoes. And the manchego on top was pretty unforgettable.
I think what really stinks is the automatic gratuity. We knew for our party of 6 it would be added, but the menu does not state how much. When we got the final bill, it was 20% post-​tax, which seemed crazy to us. We would gladly have tipped well since our server was really great, but this just seems like a silly and unnecessary policy.

I moved to D. C on Saturday, and on Sunday my friends took me to Pulpo for a mimosa welcome brunch. It’s hard to imagine a better welcome! Here’s what you need to know — it’s pretty simple:
$ 25/​person + 2 hours + unlimited drinks (mimosa, bellini, straight champagne, bloody mary, well drinks) + unlimited tapas = happiness.
Food highlights: the patatas bravas, lentils, baked eggs, and tzatziki dip. It’s hard to complain when tapas just keep showing up at your table. The servers were really good about constantly bringing us more dishes, and you can definitely request more of whatever you really liked. Plus, they took the pitcher of mimosas and just set it on the table. I’ve been to brunch places where toward the end of your unlimited drinks «time limit», the waiter starts giving you dirty looks… but not at Pulpo! Our server actually offered to top off our glasses as we were signing the check.
To summarize: great drunk-​brunch place with excellent service and fairly good food. It won’t win any awards for cuisine, but after a pitcher of mimosas, your table won’t mind. Make a reservation for weekends.

My sister had her birthday brunch at Pulpo, which I’d been wanting to check out for a while now. The brunch menu is $ 25 for two hours of bottomless drinks and all you can eat of select tapas. With a party of seven, we got through the whole menu almost twice. (I know because we checked our orders off the paper menus to keep track.) Some of my favorites were the smoked salmon crostini with lemon goat cheese and onion marmalade, serrano ham eggs benedict, golden quinoa, and shrimp salad roll.
Service was great, with the waitress giving a free espresso martini and birthday card to the birthday girl. She also had no problem splitting the check between all of our credit cards, which can sometimes be a struggle to get.

First, I have to say that I am only reviewing Pulpo for their brunch. I have not been there for dinner because it always seemed a bit too expensive considering that you would have to order at least 2 — 3 tapas per person plus drinks. But then, on a search for a place to go out to brunch with my mother and my boyfriend, we stumbled on their $ 25 unlimited brunch. Yep, that’s right: $ 25 for unlimited food and unlimited drinks (mimosa, belini, bloody mary, rail liquor). We couldn’t pass that up, so we went in.
The space is pretty neat, with a modern and trendy look to it that, as my mother said, you might likely see in NYC. When we asked for a table, they had to clear one for us because the place was pretty packed, and the hostess – though friendly – was pretty lacking in urgency. When she disappeared and the table looked relatively prepared, we just sat ourselves down.
Our waitress did come by a little bit later and got us menus. The service overall was kind of slow, but it didn’t seem to be the fault of our waitress. In fact, she was extremely friendly, helpful, and had a great memory for our abundant orders of food and drinks. The pace issue seemed more like a kitchen and bar problem, because even our drinks wouldn’t all come out at the same time. But, I honestly can’t complain that much about it considering that they were serving bottomless drinks and food to a completely packed house. If nothing else, I feel for them.
On the whole, the food and drink was notably good. For drinks, my boyfriend stuck to the mimosas and belinis, both of which had good balance where you could still taste the bubbly wine. My mother had a bloody mary, which was the only drink that wasn’t good, with too much salt and spice to the point of overwhelming the drink. I had a tequila sunrise and several margaritas, both of which were delicious and very well-​made. For food, between the three of us we tried almost half of the menu, so here’s a rundown:
The Great: Spinach Frittata, Breakfast Potato Hash, Blueberry Muffins, Meat Ball Sliders, Chicken Salad, Smoked Salmon Crostini, and the winner: Golden Quinoa (great balance of flavors between sweetness and savory)
The Mediocre: Patatas Bravas (needed more seasoning, not enough aioli), Pearl Cous Cous (good flavor, but too much vinegar), Tomato Eggs Benedict (everything was really tasty except the pilaf, which had no seasoning and tasted like packaged pilaf), Steak Fries (good flavor, not enough seasoning)
The biggest criticism that we had of any of the dishes that didn’t wow us was that they lacked seasoning, particularly salt. But overall, the food was pretty tasty, and definitely worth the price of unlimited brunch. I still don’t think we would come back at full price for dinner, but for brunch, we will definitely see you again!

My friend and I were enjoying a lovely meal at Pulpo when the manager came over and asked us in the most polite way ever if we could please move tables because the band was going to start setting up. He then offered a free bottle of champagne «for our trouble.» To be honest, it was no problem for us to move tables, but we sure did appreciate the free bottle of Cava! This is just one example of the level of service at Pulpo. Our waitress also could not have been nicer and was very helpful — she clearly had sampled just about everything on the menu and was able to responded to all of our questions.
We ordered the bacon Brussels sprouts (which our waitress highly recommended), ropa vieja, tortilla espanola and the bread with tomato and manchego cheese. The Brussels sprouts were amazing — crispy and very flavorful, and the ropa viega was the perfect combination of salty meat, sweet plantains and tangy black beans. To be honest, the tortilla didn’t really stand out. It was fine, but not something I would be in a hurry to order again, and the bread with tomatoes and manchego was also not very memorable. My friend had gotten the recent Groupon ($ 25 for $ 50 worth of food), so it was a good deal. Our total, with my friend’s glass of Sangria, was just over $ 50.
One tip: if the band (two very good flamenco guitarists) is playing, I’d suggest sitting toward the back of the restaurant. My friend and I were upfront, and once they started their set, it was too loud for us to talk to each other.

Sunday Brunch Review
This is what the $ 25 dollar brunch gets you —
(hit brunch). It’s really a no brainer. The quality of the food items and drinks makes this one of the best values for brunch in the city.
My experience there was a little off… but only because they had a reviewer come in and the owner was frazzled. I didn’t want to sit by the window, instead closer to the open kitchen to see the chefs at work. But their ‘best table’ that he would have otherwise given me was reserved for the critic. He was so apologetic and checked on us throughout the meal. It was all so endearing and really conveyed how passionate he was about his restaurant.
Their brunch menu is pretty expansive and extremely filling. Not one disappointment and our server was non-​judgmental when 4 rounds in we were still ordering food. I will definitely be back!

Came here for a friends birthday last weekend and was excited to try this place that she raved about!
Our server was nice, but he was really bad at his job, like really bad. It took us FOREVER to get our drinks and we had to flag him down for a second round. He didn’t put in an order for the scallops and we’d written it down for him.
The food was good, not excellent. While I feel like we ordered everything on the menu the only thing that stood out for me was the braised ribs, carnitas tacos and the brussell sprouts. Everything else was just okay.
The drinks were incredible. I think the drinks and my braised ribs are the only reason they have the 3 stars. I don’t think I’ll be back for dinner, but I’m curious about their brunch so if my friend wants to go I’d be open to dining there again.

Let me begin by stating the only reason I did not hand out five stars is simple and very fixable. I came here for the unlimited 2 hour brunch and when our 2 hours ended our service ended. I was so thirsty from all the drinking and no one so much as came near me to refill my water. Maybe, this was my fault as I didn’t ask any one for water, but it felt like no one came by.
With that said everything else service and food wise was superb.
I was greeted immediately, I sat down, I was served water quickly, and our server was a beautiful and bubbly woman named Chloe. Chloe came back often to refill our drinks, she was attentive, and when one person in our party mentioned that they had a gluten allergy she had the head chef come out and explain the plates that could be a problem and what was okay for her to eat.
That is pretty awesome service. The food came out quickly and was honestly really good. This place is a tapas restaurant and we must of ordered over 15 dishes and they all came out very quickly and with good presentation. The other servers that came by were equally vocal about the dishes being brought out.
The choices of alcohol are plentiful as they have mimosas, champagne, bellini’s, vodka, and tequila. I stuck to the bellini’s which is probably why I had a wicked hangover later in the day.
The brunch has a lot of value to it. For roughly 30 dollars you get unlimited tapas for 2 hours and unlimited drinks. There may be cheaper buffet places in the city, but not at this high of quality. This place is well worth it.

Congratulations Pulpo! You’ve succeeded in serving me the worst meal of 2013!
I must have gone to a completely different restaurant than my fellow Unilocalers because my experience was absolutely nothing like theirs. Just about everything at this restaurant was horrible. The food, the service (sub par, but not *quite* horrible), the décor, the prices — I could go on and on but for the sake of my sanity I won’t.
My friend and I shared the following dishes: crispy brussel sprouts (we subbed brava sauce for the bacon vinaigrette), mushroom crostini, macaroni & cheese, and the brownie cheesecake. In addition, my friend ordered the poached lobster. Even though the portions were small, the two of us could not finish any one dish entirely.
Crispy Brussel Sprouts — not crisp at all and quite bland in flavor. The highly touted brava sauce was inedible — it had absolutely ZERO tang to it as a traditional brava sauce should.
Mushroom Crostini — on paper it sounded delicious — pickled jalapenos, balsamic marinated mushrooms, smoked ricotta on a crostini. The execution of this was a disaster. The mushrooms had been marinated in a terrible balsamic (frankly, it tasted rancid), the ricotta was barely present, and the pickled jalapenos seemed like they came from a jar at Safeway.
Macaroni & Cheese — we ordered it without the Serrano ham which the waiter assured us would still be phenomenal. Well, it wasn’t. I’m pretty sure the only manchego in this dish was the slice the perched atop the cooked macaroni before throwing it into the salamander for broiling. The rest of the sauce was bland and did not have the nutty, sweet characteristics of a manchego. (I suspect they used cheap stuff for the actual sauce and only garnished it with the manchego) Within minutes of receiving it the sauce started to separate and the fact that they used rigatoni vs. a penne (or some other noodle with ridges to hold the sauce), made it worse. The pearl onions and peas were fine, but overall this dish sucked as well.
What about the poached lobster you say? Well I only have one word: overcooked. My friend tried to cut it with a knife and it practically bounced like a rubber ball. DI-​SAS-​TER.
Pulpo earned their final strike with their Brownie Cheesecake — neither of us had high hopes for it, and we were correct to set our expectations low. The brownie was stale and the cheesecake was dense and completely flavorless.
Service was painfully slow, and as soon as we mentioned we were using a groupon, our waiter stopped trying altogether. Even before the groupon name drop he only checked on us once. Did I mention this place was a disaster?
A final note — please don’t be fooled by the wine list, it’s beyond overpriced. The $ 10 glass of Syrah/​Garnacha (Terra Alta ’11) retails for $ 10 per bottle. Sure, I know wine is always ridiculously marked up in restaurants, but this place seems to take it to a new level. $ 60 for a bottle of merlot? Really?
Unless you want a horrendous meal, please, never come here.

Can’t speak on Pulpo’s food options as I only came through after dinner but I can speak on a few of their drink options.
The bar area is sleek looking, very modern with a nice vibe. Service was good, bartender was nice but wasn’t overly engaging or interesting.
On Friday and Saturday nights they have a ½ off all drinks from 10pm to close. This in itself is almost worth a visit. I only tried two drinks so I can’t speak on them all. I had my first brown mojito, as I have never seen a brown mojito I was a little shocked. While the color was different the basic mojito taste was the same as usual. They make a decent mojito here but nothing was special in my eyes. Also had this highly lemon bitter flavored drink. Wasn’t a huge fan of this one either.
This place is a bit out of my usual comfort zone, so I can’t imagine I’ll make regular visits but I will say the late hour happy hour is worth a visit.