Rumberos

I had high hopes for Rumberos because there are few worthwhile restaurants in Columbia Heights — let alone «upscale» restaurants. It’s supposed to be festive joint with live music that serves «popular dishes cultures from folk cultures of Latin America.» Sadly,
There were already a few sour notes from the moment we entered. For an half-​emptied restaurant, there’s very little reason why we waited nearly 20 minutes before ordering and why it took nearly 20 minutes to get our appetizers out. Our waitress apologized that the kitchen was backed up but, looking around, you wonder, «with whose orders?»
Patacon Maduro — 7
Apepa Aguacate — 7
Lomo Huancaina — 13
Monfongo Marisco — 13
I personally would not return but if you prefer taking your chances, I recommend that you make a 1000-​point reservation on OpenTable (a $ 10 value) and find a 10% off dinner coupon from the CityLiving magazine. You won’t saving a lot of money, but you’ll at least limit your losses. [Original Visit: June 10, 2009]
Started on 6÷11÷2009 … Somehow never finished … Now CLOSED? Oh well, brings back memories when I think about the one time that I did visit.

Closed due to lack of business. You Col Hts tools were too busy playing weekend hipster, hanging out at the Ruby Tuesdays. It’s ok, you didn’t deserve Rumberos anyway. Enjoy your Alanis-​irony and your chain burgers.
The ‘burbs beckon…

was in giant last night and saw a rumberos employee, decked out in his rumberos shirt, buying about 20 loaves of giant brand french bread.
are you kidding me?
sorry…that just really turns me off. if i want giant brand bread i will buy it and bring it home… when i go out, i would prefer something a little more unique.

Rumberos is what the Latin community needs to know about.
I went there on Saturday for a friends birthday. We had really good food, and good drinks as well. I ordered Capirihna all night and it did its job, Usually they are very sweet like Mojitos and lack the alcohol you pay for but this time it made me get up and salsa.
Did I mention Saturday nights Verny Varela and his band play from 10:30−2 am? I am Colombian and so proud of Verny because I know of him from my parents. He used to play with Famous Salsa singers and is known from a group called, :Fania All stars: which is super famous. I grew up with their music. (Verny released his album «Amar de Nuevo» which got in the Latin Grammy list of the best tropical albums 2005). I will definetly go up there more often and bring my parents along with me.
It is also a nice place for a date. If you salsa, merengue or like Cumbia and are in for latin food with a romantic vibe this is exactly where you want to be. It gets packed around 11 so if you are there before that and see the restuarant empty, dont leave because the party is on at 11 pm.
Talk about food: In Colombia and Venezuela we have this food called Arepas, they are corn patties stuffed with meat cheese avocado chicken etc. (whatever you like). The waiter did not reccomend the Arepas to me, which i thought was odd because that is what I was planning on ordering and it seemed like their specialty. He was also an american guy so most of the time someone who isnt into arepas wont recomend them to you. I regret not trying at least one arepa.
Anyhow, we ordered the Camarones Caribenos al ron (shrimp with rum) and the Platano Relleno (stuffed plantain), Lomo a la huancaina and It was really good. For my main course I ordered the Churasco a la Cubana and a friend ordered the Paella which I gave a 3 ½ star (but was pretty good) and the Camarones y langosta al ajillo which were delicious but very small in portion for the price of 27.
One reminder, if you are looking for the Churrasco with plantains, rice and beans, do not order the Churasco gaucho because its just the steak with potatoes. Not that it wasnt good, but some people were confused with what they ordered.
anyhow– see you on the dance floor :)

I been wanting to check out the place for a while and was glad I finally went. It’s located right on the busy strip of 14^th St, parking was hard to find so I was parked three blocks away fortunately there is a metro stop right there. I like the décor of the restaurant it’s right next to the Tivoli theatre and the inside of the restaurant had a pillar that was probably part of the theatre which was very beautiful crafted. When you enter the restaurant there were tables and a bar on the left but it goes in pretty far and there’s another whole section of dining area — which is closer to the «stage» where the performers played some beautiful Bossa Novas. I tried the Patacon Rumba –Smashed fried green plantains, filled with grilled flank steak,
cilantro mayonnaise, bell & jalapenos peppers, onion
and tomatoes. It was very delish! I ordered the Mole Chicken which took 30 min to prepare because it’s made to order. The sauce was good but maybe lacking a little salt and more spice kick! The chicken was fork tender and it was served with flavored rice and plaintain. Overall it was very good. The dessert menu was limited — like three items and I went with the coconut flan — it was absolutely delicious. The owner — an Argentinian man was most hospitable and nice he made sure everyone was ok with the food and service.

Everytime I go here for Monday happy hour, I like it more and more. Honestly, the food is really quite good. I’m not quick to say that about DC restaurants. It’s a little overpriced, but on Monday’s the tapas are half-​off. You really only need two or three tapas to be satisfied. My date and I got out of there Monday night having split four tapas (and she had a glass of wine) for $ 29. That’s fantastic.
High marks.

Yes, I AM a fan! I love the ambience of the place, the menu, the drinks… I have not tried brunch here yet but have been here many times in the evening…
I love sitting at the bar and this place has a big bar with ample space so you can always find a spot there. The drinks are yummy — mojito, caipirinha… — and the long list of tapas is wonderful. The spinach patties need some flavor but everything else — mmmmh arepas! — is great! Go check it out!

I’m a BIG fan of Rumba Café in Adam’s Morgan (same owners) and Latin food so I was delighted when Rumberos opened two blocks from my house. Its much bigger than Rumba so it isn’t as cosy but the art/​décor is lovely.
I’ve had dinner here about 15 – 20 times and it was great at first but the food quality has, very sadly, declined. It tastes and looks as if the chef is preparing the dishes well in advance and reheating them. Additionally, the servers are pretty inattentive.
That said, the Platano Relleno and the Arepa de Aguacate have (almost always) been excellent. Try the Pisco Sour instead of a Mojito!
I won’t give up on Rumberos just yet as it is just about the only proper restaurant very close to my house.

I went to Rumberos for my friend’s birthday because she wanted good mojitos and a latin restaurant in a moderate price range and in our neighborhood (Adams Morgan– Columbia Heights), so having read the Unilocal reviews of it, I made a happy hour reservation for a dozen people and all our dreams came true.
GO TO HAPPY HOUR. Delicious appetizer dishes and good mojitos. Order the steak from the happy hour menu, that was by far the most delicious. They reserved the corner of the bar for us, very accommodating. The band performing that night even played «happy birthday» for my friend when they brought out the dessert. From the bar we moved to their lounge-​type table seating on the opposite side of the room — lovely décor and I recommend sitting there (front tables across the bar directly behind the host stand).

We agreed to meet friends here because it was warm and welcoming and not far from the Columbia Heights metro, and had a far nicer dinner than we expected. The menu is pretty big, and you should use some care in picking from it (the arepa was tasty but the portion was disappointingly small; the rum shrimp were very good, as was the mojito). You can order either a large entrée or a few small plates.
Two people’s large-​ish dinner with one drink each cost about $ 70. If it had been about half as much I would give it four stars.

So, I was going to write a review about how the ambiance at Rumberos is wonderful (great art, great music, great lighting), but the food and service are lacking. Then I saw that other people have already written that. Just to be specific, though, a group of about 15 of us dined here this past weekend for a friend’s birthday. We had to order three different bottles of wine until the waiter came back and said they actually had one we had ordered. That said, he did give us a free bottle for the hassle.
I can’t speak for everyone else’s food, but mine was more or less wrong all the way around. I had the ceviche, which was practically inedible. It seems pretty difficult to screw up ceviche, but they did, namely by making it so spicy that it was nearly impossible to swallow. I love spicy food, but this had no nuance or flavor, just hot for hot’s sake, and it was terrible.
Next I had the Ensalata Rica, which was okay. That is about all there is to say about it. Not too flavorful (especially for this type of cuisine), but not awful.
Finally, the Pollo al Mole. The interesting thing about this dish was the way they prepared the chicken. It looked like it had been boiled, bone-​in. I have only ever seen chicken prepared this way by my grandmother when she makes chicken and dumplings, and I always pass over it and go straight for the dumplings. The mole sauce was decent, and the rice was good. All in all, though, I’ve had much better.
Incidentally, the only food that was really good was the flan, and I usually don’t care for flan.
Bottom Line: Rumberos would be a knockout if the food were as bangin’ as everything else. Unfortunately, the food is the one thing that really matters, and it just doesn’t make the cut.

I love this place. The Mojitos can be hit or miss, depending on who’s bartending, but when they hit, they’re right on.
The food is delicious too. On Saturday nights they have a live band, which is so fun to watch and listen to while having a little late-​night drink and eat (kitchen closes at midnight). I also LOVE the décor. The red walls are really dramatic, and they feature local artwork that changes pretty regularly.
The staff is very attentive and personable as well. It’s definitely a neighborhood gem.

I used to live right down the street, and came here once for a friend’s birthday. It was a really great space — pretty open floor plan (given the size of the space) with a long bar lining one wall. We plunked ourselves down at the bar, and the bartender was really nice. We got some wine, which was moderately priced (I’m not a big mojito fan — sorry!). After being there for a little while, the place got pretty crowded with people getting dinner and also just getting drinks.
We did get some appetizers — my friend ordered the calamari and I tried some. It was very good, not too greasy or overly done. And the food presentation is very nice as well!

I absolutely loved the décor. Amazing artwork, awesome eclectic furniture, great atmosphere.
Too bad I didn’t love anything else. The service was friendly enough but incredibly slow. I had to wait 20+ minutes to get my drink, and overall the waitress seemed rather disoriented. She forgot one of our drink orders (a virgin mojito) and when we reminded her, she brought a regular mojito — disregarding the fact that the person who’d ordered it was five months pregnant and very much showing.
The food itself was meh. I had the patacon maduro con pernil, which was borderline inedible. It’s described as «smashed yellow plantain, stuffed with sauteed pork loin and mojo sauce» — it’s two flattened slices of cooked plaintain, with a giant thick piece of grilled pork in the middle, floating in a watery sauce that turned the plantain to wet mush. For my entrée I had the Pollo Mole. It was not impressive — the sauce was just plain weird tasting, the chicken was tendony (gross), and the accompanying rice was lumpy and tasteless.
For dessert I had the panqueque con dulce du leche and it was literally a thin pancake filled with dulce du leche and drizzled wih raspberry sauce. Yuck.
A few of my friends ordered the snapper and another one had the ropa vieja (beef stew) and they all felt the food was underseasoned and unimpressive. The mojitos were decent but overall the place just isn’t worth those prices. $ 11 for a glass of cheap wine? I don’t think so.
Verdict: beautiful place, but the potential is wasted… if you’re just going for a round of mojitos or Pisco sours before or after your real dinner, you’ll enjoy. But overall I do not recommend and wouldn’t go back.

Ok food, very bad service. I went with two friends on Monday, and the service was a disaster.
We waited and waited many times, were never checked up on, and had empty drinks and water. One waiter (we had two coming at various times) said «your guess is as good as mine» when asked how one of the dishes was, they forgot one of the two tapas my friend ordered (the only things he ordered), and also forgot a dessert. They also didn’t clear the table after the appetizers.
My pork with mojo sauce was very sour. During the appetizers, my friend wanted salt (and all of us wanted drinks) but when my friend tried to get the waiter’s attention, he brought out the check. It was a comedy of errors.
I hate to badmouth the place, but it was bad. We were there 2.5 hours total. The manager was very apologetic and one of the waiters was clearly trying, but the other guy was just terrible. We were all furious. The place wasn’t busy at all, either. And the table next to us wasn’t happy with their service either.

While dinning you can appreciate art work from Latin America, looks very nice. This rating is based on two visits to this restaurant.
First time I went with a group of 25. We had reservations, and still they were not ready to accommodate us. The service was awfully slow. We had two waiters that were working in many other tables as well. I waited 20 minutes for a glass of wine… good wine though. At this time we were accommodated into a corner where half of the group had to move if somebody needed to use the facilities or go outside. The food was OK, comparing to other Latin American restaurants.
We decide to go for a second time due to it’s good location. This time a group of 20, and we were seated in same corner (not a good start).
The waiter (yes, only one) was nice, but slow… the poor guy was working at least 3 other tables. Food again was average, they repeated many orders and 3 people had to wait 15 additional mins for their food. This time I order a second wine that never made it.
When the bill comes I asked the waiter to swipe three credit cards first. He was a little troubled and asked another waitress for assistance. The waitress comes up and tells me she needs all the cash and credit cards and that SHE WILL GIVE ME the change. I explained to her that last time we swiped three credit cards first and then added the cash, without any incidents.
After she returns the slips for the credit cards, one of the guys put on his slip the tip ($ 8) on a separate line, instead of charging the total with tax and tip in one amount.
On our way out, the waitress tells us we were $ 7 short and when I explained to her that the tip ($ 8) was on the slip/​separate line, she said that didn’t count because that was an EXTRA TIP HE WANTED TO GIVE HER! and that we were still $ 7 short… she said she couldn’t change the system and that it was not her fault (by her tone she meant…“is not my problem”) I think she could have voided the transaction and swipe the credit card one more time with a different amount… not too much trouble after a $ 85 tip.
I have never experienced such a horrible service… in my life. Not only she was disrespectful, she was charging the group extra money for a common mistake (according to her). Both times we went there, we brought in a large group (=money) to this restaurant, so I thought they would appreciate our business a little bit more.
Due to her «so deserved» $ 7 extra tip I will never be back to Rumberos, not to mention nobody from this group will be either.

I’ve only been here for drinks but I was left with the impression that people who would purchase rather expensive strollers should come here. Good drinks, nice furniture and art, talk-​able noise level, good service, but still just a tiny bit overpriced to make it worth regular trips here.
Bottom Line: if you want to escape screaming chicken heads, this is a good place to have a nice relaxing evening.

I’ll start by saying that I’m writing this review with my New Year’s Eve hangover…
My friends and I wanted to have a nice dinner for New Year’s Eve and they chose Rumberos. We got there at 8pm and the dinner crowd was still thin. They had the place decorated for New Years. There were balloons on all the chairs. The place has low lighting, which sets a nice mood and works well with the décor. There is quite a few cubism paintings on the walls. There was one, on the wall by us, that was of a woman that had either a bullet hole or a nipple where her cleavage would normally be. quite interesting.
As mentioned in another review. the service was nice. I went with the Bife de corizo, which is a 14 oz Ribeye steak grilled, Argentinean style. I also added rice. We went with a bottle of Pinot noir. After dinner we ordered espressos. The food and wine were excellent. A very good last meal for 2007.
I recommend checking out Rumberos for an intimate dinner with good food, service, and décor.
Happy New Year!

Rumberos recently opened in the new Tivoli Square complex on 14^th St NW, in Columbia Heights (Green Line). For those of you frequenting The Heights Restaurant for weekend brunch, I invite you to walk one more block north, to this inspiring Latin American haven of artsy love.
Instead of following the trend of other restaurants, this space is not a characiture of Latin American countires or it’s people, but a beautifully thought out, exquisetly executed, artistic homage to these countries. Warm yellow, deep blue and green walls, beautiful photography, and rustic tables contribute a perfect pitch snapshot of these places and peoples. Special note to the painted protraits of the Mexican female artist Frida Kahlo and her fellow artist and husband Diego Rivera, and the photographs of modern day Cuba.
The food is your basic brunch selection, but with a Latin hue. Choose from a selection of omlettes containing zucchini, red peppers, mushrooms, jalapenos, eggplant or yellow plantanes, or fried egg (scrambled, poached etc) with breakfast meat (pork or lamb sausage, ham) combinations, or truly take the plunge into the varied and delicious latin american sandwhices. We are also talking about blueberry pankcakes :) Coffee situation is top notch, this place is not cutting corners on any level. Did I mention all these dishes are under $ 10? Aaaand I’ll be back.

Having been to (and enjoyed) Rumba Café, I was really excited that the same folks opened this place. So, a friend and I went to check it out.
The menu includes dishes from Central America as well as South America. So, there’s stuff like an Argentinian grilled meat platter and seafood paella. We went with lobster in white wine, garlic and lemon and a chicken mole dish.
The drinks here are great here– we ordered Mojitos and a few caipirinhas and the bartender hand crushed the mint into the glasses. Mmm. Minty goodness.
The food was where the meal faltered a little bit. I like my chicken lean and mean — the bird here was very fatty. The lobster was dry, so we were thankful for the sauce it was served in.