A day in the Washington D.C. area (part 2)

So, we got on to the Beltway, and after facing the typical rush-hour traffic, we get to Tysons Corner at about 5:30. We enter the mall at Bloomingdale's. I get some stuff at the L.L. Bean store (one of only a handful of retail stores... as far as I know, there are none in Pennsylvania), and my wife shops at Macy's. I noticed the kind of mall I was in when I took into account that Macy's was the least expensive of all of the department stores. If you want a Sears or JCPenney, look elsewhere. Apparently, Tysons Galleria up the street (which the locals refer to as Tysons 2) has even snootier stores. 

After a quick stop at the Apple Store to buy headphones, we decided to eat at the newly opened Mexican Restaurant, La Sandia. Apparently, the only other La Sandia in the country is in Denver, and this place is supposed to be pretty good. They told us we would wait about 45 minutes to get seated and we were seated in 20 minutes. So far, so good. 

Our seats were out in the mall in a fenced-in area, and there was a live mariachi band playing behind us for almost our entire meal. There was nothing wrong with the band, but I wish they would have moved around the restaurant, rather than staying behind our table the whole time, because they gave me a bit of a headache.

They served nachos with fresh pico de gallo, but the tortilla chips tasted an awful lot like the "Gold" Tostitos.

I ordered a margarita, which was decent, but not outstanding. For an appetizer, we ordered queso fundido (basically a pan full of melted Chihuahua cheese that you put on tortillas) with chorizo sausage. The queso comes out, but without the chorizo. Back it goes. 10 minutes later, the correct appetizer comes out. Again it's decent but not outstanding. It doesn't hold a candle to the queso fundido at my favorite Mexican restaurant, El Sarape in Blue Bell, PA. We then ordered the entrees. I ordered chicken mole, and my wife, who was too tired at this point to be hungry, ordered an appetizer of chicken tamales for dinner.

We had to wait quite a while for dinner, at least 30 minutes after we ordered. I can forgive a long wait for the food, because the restaurant is brand new and I am sure they are still trying to get into a rhythm in the kitchen. What I can't forgive is the quality of the food. My entree was two sauteed chicken breasts with no seasoning, covered by a mediocre mole sauce. I can make a better mole sauce in my own kitchen, and the chicken itself could not have been more bland. My wife's chicken tamales were just plain lousy. The flavor and seasoning (or lack thereof) was completely wrong. Luckily, a week later, I took my mother to El Sarape for Mother's Day, and was reminded what real Mexican food is supposed to taste like. With all of the other restaurant options in the Tysons Corner area, I strongly suggest you avoid this place. 

Because it took so long for our food to get served, it was almost 9:30 when we left dinner, and had to rush out of the mall. I wish we had more time to spend there. The mall is very large, and there were many unique stores I had never seen before. Luckily, my wife didn't have time to go nuts in the Nine West store, and I was really bummed when we passed a Lego store on the way out of the mall. Still, I am about an hour away from King of Prussia, which is the largest mall in the U.S. in terms of retail space, and is even larger than the Mall of America.

So that was the end of a great and tiring trip. If you are in Washington, the Newseum and Tysons Corner are both worth the trip. However, the food at La Sandia needs to get a lot better before I can recommend it.