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Very Best Restaurants: Cafe Atlantico

Very Best Listing | Very Best by Cuisine | Very Best by Location

Cafe Atlantico **
Washington, $

The city's hot new restaurant of the year, Roberto Alvarez's reborn Cafe Atlantico will do as much to introduce large numbers of Washingtonians to Latin American flavors as his previous venture, Jaleo, did to make tapas popular among young professionals.

Although it is crowded, Cafe Atlantico's setting, service, and cuisine promote an atmosphere of conviviality, a place where one can relax with a pisco sour and a Dominican Republic cigar from the restaurant's well-stocked humidor. Then one is in the mood to appreciate chef Jose Ramon Andres' contemporary interpretation of Latin American cooking.

In the time since his first, tentative experiments in creating his cocina nueva at the old Cafe Atlantico, this talented young Spaniard has developed a culinary style that garners praise from chefs Gerard Pangaud and Bob Kinkead. Too creatively restless to keep even his best dishes on the menu for long, Andres has impressed with a number of dishes that he served during the first five months at his new quarters: a mushroom quesadilla with a poblano sauce; a foam of a cod brandade with yucca and shrimp; a baby chicken glazed with chocolate-accented Oaxacan mole sauce; a risotto-like Puerto Rican asopao with shrimp; and a margarita napoleon so light that it's almost like eating flavored air.

Cafe Atlantico , 405 Eighth St. NW, Washington; 202-393-0812. Open Monday through Friday for lunch, daily for dinner. MapIt!

QUALITY: ****Excellent; *** Superior; **Very Good; * Good
PRICE RANGE: $$$= Very Expensive; $$ Expensive; $=Moderate; ¢=Inexpensive

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