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Jaleo (Las Vegas, Cosmopolitan)

May 25, 2014 by Jennifer Che 8 Comments

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This post is part of a larger series from my trip to Las Vegas in January 2014. Other posts in this series include I’m Going to Vegas and Why I’m Excited, Whirlpool CES 2014 – I Made it to CES!, and CES Post Conference Reflections, and L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon.

Even though I’ve never been to Spain, I love the Spanish concept of tapas, or small plates. It’s super fun sharing a bunch of little bites with a group of friends. You get to try a much larger variety of dishes, and you don’t have to commit to eating the same thing for an entire meal.

Jaleo is a Spanish tapas restaurant by well-known Spanish chef José Andrés. It started in Washington DC.   over twenty years ago and has since grown to many locations around the country. I visited the original DC location for cocktails and snacks a couple years ago, and loved it. Also, I’ve been a huge fan of José Andrés’ other restaurants, such as é by José Andrés (also in Las Vegas), Samm in Los Angeles, and minibar in DC.

So it seemed natural that I would someday want to try having a full meal at Jaleo. A perfect opportunity arrived while we were in Vegas during CES back in January.

That’s right, there’s a new Vegas location conveniently located right on the Strip inside the Cosmopolitan.
JaleoVegas2
Cocktails are a big part of Jaleo.

José Andrés loves gin & tonics and has a classic version he calls Jose’s Favorite which I tried and loved in DC. When I tried to order it here, the server convinced us to try the Cítrico instead, which was made with Oxley gin, Mediterranean tonic, grapefruit, lemon, coriander, and mint. It was different, but also quite nice.
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Here’s Bryan adding the tonic to the gin filled drink. Love that huge ice sphere!

We (as a table) ordered several other cool cocktails. Unfortunately, I regret I did not get the names of these cocktails, so please just enjoy the photos!
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Of course, we weren’t just here for the drinks, but to actually taste the food. The first thing we couldn’t help but notice was the paella.
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Paella is a huge part of Spanish culture and it’s featured front and center at Jaleo. Right in the middle of the restaurant is a GIGANTIC charcoal grill where you can watch chefs making monstrous-sized pans of this Spanish rice based dish.
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It’s luck of the draw which paella will be available when you are ready to order, and they rotate between several of them. Every 20 minutes a new one is available. A party of six or more can custom order an entire paella. Otherwise, you order a la carte depending on what is being made at the time.
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We had wanted the lobster paella, but it was going to take a long time (we had just missed the last rotation). So instead we ordered what was available: Paella De Pollo Y Setas Silvestres, a traditional paella of chicken and chef-selected mushrooms.
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It was fantastic! It also came with tons of garlic aioli, which was awesome. The rice was slight crunchy, slightly chewy, and I loved the flavors from the mushrooms. It turned out to be one of my favorite dishes.
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Pan De Cristal Con Tomate Fresco (literally “crystal bread” with fresh tomatoes) is an extremely light, airy, and crispy bread from Spain. It’s a ton of work to make the bread. In Spain, they have these special machines that stretch the dough like bubble gum over and over again. The constant stretching causes the dough to incorporate tons of air pockets, which really gives it a unique texture.

At Jaleo, they ship the bread directly from Spain because they could not find anyone in the U.S. who could make this incredible bread.

I first tried this bread in DC and loved it. I especially liked how the unique, crispy bread absorbed all the tasty flavors from both the cheese and the fresh tomatoes. The airy, crispy, yet elastic texture is something that’s quite unique and definitely worth trying.
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Jamon Iberico is cured Spanish ham made from a particular breed of black footed pigs called Iberian pigs. The highest end and most expensive type of jamon Iberico is the jamon Iberico de Bellota, which are made from free-range Iberian pigs served only acorns during the last part of their lives. The ham is aged for 36 months and has a deep, rich flavor resulting from the acorn diet as well as the long aging time. 
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Jaleo’s jamon Iberico de Bellota comes from a company called Fermin, and you can order it at the restaurant for $35/oz. It’s very good, though it’s no different than if you had purchased it at a specialty market. Jaleo pretty much serves it straight up, sliced.
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Another decadent dish we got was the Coca Con Erizos De Mar ($26), a wam crusty cristal bread topped with butter, sea urchin, and jamon iberico lardon. 
_DSC5655Setas Al Ajillo Con La Serena included sautéed wild mushrooms with La Serena (a region in Chile) potato purée ($14). It was tasty, but did not blow us away._DSC5648
Similarly, these cute little Endive cups topped with orange slices, goat cheese, and sliced Marcona almonds were refreshing and beautiful, but didn’t necessarily wow us in terms of flavors.
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This next dish, Aceitunas Rellenas Y Aceitunas “Ferrán Adrià” ($14) is a tribute to Ferrán Adrià, one of the fathers of modernist “molecular” cuisine and one of José Andrés’ mentors. This dish was a play on the concept of olives. In the bowl was a pile of real olives stuffed with anchovies and piquillo. In the fancy spoons were spherified balls that looked like olives but were actually a salty, spherified olive-flavored balls that burst open with olive liquid inside.

Though the concept was fun, the dishes were a bit too salty with strong anchovy flavors. 
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The Huevo Frito Con Caviar ($18) was a fried organic egg topped with caviar._DSC5659
Finally for dessert, we had Pan Con Chocolate, a chocolate custard with caramelized bread, olive oil and brioche ice cream.
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All in all, our experience at Jaleo was mixed. We thought the cocktails were excellent and the paella was a definite winner. It was my personal favorite dish of the night. I also loved the pan de cristal con tomate fresco (crystal bread with tomatoes), and could eat tons of that.

The rest of the tapas varied. Most were reasonably tasty, but none were truly amazing nor did they blow us away. Everything was OK, but we came away a bit disappointed, perhaps because of overly high expectations. If I were to come back, I would get a nice cocktail, a nice pile of cristal bread (with tomato!), and share a bunch of paellas. I think it’s what they do best.

Jaleo Cosmopolitan
3708 Las Vegas Blvd S
 Las Vegas, NV 89109
Jaleo by José Andrés on Urbanspoon

©2009-2014 Tiny Urban Kitchen
All Rights Reserved

Filed Under: Las Vegas, Restaurant, World Travel Tagged With: molecular gastronomy, Spanish

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Comments

  1. TheNational05 says

    May 25, 2014 at 9:15 am

    That restaurant was featured on http://new-york.hotelscheap.org/ for its cheap prices and high-quality food, especially compared to the prices in New York. A great place and a great choice 🙂

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  2. Megan says

    May 26, 2014 at 6:39 pm

    Everything looks awesome! Definitely going to remember the lunch reservation tip!

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  3. Milton Yang says

    May 27, 2014 at 11:23 am

    This looks like a great meal! How did you find out about the truffle tasting menu? I’d almost make a trip to NYC for that deal!

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  4. Sarah says

    June 4, 2014 at 6:22 pm

    Looks amazing!! New York is on my wish list so I’m adding a lunch at Babbo to my must-visit list! 🙂

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  5. Shelly says

    June 14, 2014 at 8:41 am

    Definitely didn’t know that they did a truffle tasting at Babbo! Must put on my bucket list for NYC in the winter! 🙂

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  6. Marc says

    March 8, 2015 at 2:20 pm

    My experience was quite different than yours. The service at the bar was good. One of the best Mojito’s I’ve ever had. The service at our table was atrocious. Our server was robotic and painfully slow. Only offered the most expensive things. Was hard to find him. He actually forgot to put in our Paella order When I asked him about it, 45 min after I had order it he said that he forgot about it. And stated it would be another hour. What another hour?! He didn’t apologize or offer to do anything. I had to get up and speak with a manager away from my dinner guests. The food over all was marginal and mediocre at best. The bill was about $100 per person for a table of five. What a let down of an experience.

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    • Jennifer Che says

      March 8, 2015 at 10:50 pm

      I am so sorry to hear you had a bad experience. Service makes so much of a difference in the enjoyment in a meal, and I agree – waiting another hour terrible and they should have offered some sort of comp for you. 🙁

      Jen

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  1. Las Vegas Eating Guide - Tiny Urban Kitchen says:
    November 11, 2017 at 11:13 am

    […] Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill é by José Andrés Jaleo (Jose Andres) Scarpetta (Italian) China Poblano The Wicked […]

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Welcome to Tiny Urban Kitchen!

JenChe

Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am a Boston to Hong Kong transplant, born and raised in Ohio with parents from Taiwan. Feel free to head on over to the About page if you want to learn more about me, or just explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!
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