At Ometeo, a Texan Top Chef Winner Turns Out Fancy Fajitas and Giant Margaritas

It’s a Tuesday night and Ometeo is packed. Margaritas, their goblets filled to the brim, are sloshing everywhere. You have to shout to be heard. This is notable because (a) this place is enormous—315 seats across 11,000 square feet; (b) it’s a shivery-­cold school night; and (c) the restaurant is stashed in the middle of Capital One Center, the credit-card company’s work-hard/play-hard headquarters in Tysons. At 7:30, there’s not a whole lot of foot traffic.

Ometeo comes courtesy of Long Shot Hospitality, the restaurant group that pays tribute to New England (via three locations of the Salt Line) and New Orleans (at Dauphine’s in downtown DC). This latest homage, three years in the making, is Tex-Mex. It’s a joint effort between the company and Gabe Erales, the Mexican American winner of the 2021 Top Chef. After the show filmed but before it aired, Erales was fired from his Austin restaurant for alleged ethics violations, including sexual misconduct. Along with Ometeo, he’s now involved in a Yucatán-focused restaurant and a taqueria in the Texas capital; he plans to travel to Tysons monthly.

Here, Erales’s kitchen takes an admirably handmade approach to a cuisine that’s often maligned with shortcuts. Ometeo devotes proper time to crafting salsas (a delicious green version is made from pulverized avocado, cilantro, and chilies), tortillas, and marinades.

Let’s start with the basics, which for the most part are done right. The margaritas, courtesy of Long Shot Hospitality beverage director Donato Alvarez, are terrific—especially the frozen and guava/hibiscus/mezcal renditions. You can also count on the guajillo-­chili-laced queso dip, massive pork or chicken quesadillas, and bright guac with tasty housemade chips seasoned with chipotle meco chilies and salt. (Although a round of chips with a trio of fresh salsas will run you $9.)

The kitchen makes excellent corn and flour tortillas—you get both with an order of fajitas, which are warmed over an open flame at the table, and one of the best reasons to visit. Go for juicy skirt steak marinated in pasilla and guajillo chilies, black garlic, and soy, or, even better, duck carnitas, available as an add-on to the chicken fajitas (watch out for the strips of breast meat—they can dry out if they sizzle for too long). Half the skillet is taken up with gooey queso asadero, which gets more deliciously crusty the longer it sits, and under the meat hides a big tangle of caramelized onions and peppers. The feast comes with beans and rice, but it’s worth ordering a side of esquites, charred corn in a tangy lime crema.

When the kitchen falters, it’s mostly with seafood. Order the lobster tostada and all you’ll taste is the nutty, oily salsa macha that drenches it—so what’s the point of using the luxury ingredient? A “stuffie tamal” (an apparent nod to the Salt Line’s stuffed clams) tastes like masa more than anything else, and it’s hard to discern any trace of the shellfish. Fish tacos, with their big hunks of fried hake, look the part but make for a bland bite. There’s also a short list of raw preparations—the vibrant, ceviche-like aguachile made with Texas red drum, a mild, sweet fish, is far better than the bite-size slabs of raw cobia that sit in a listless green-chili broth.

Stick around for dessert. Despite the fact that it required two servers—and an awkwardly long time—to set our s’mores dessert on fire, I loved the riff, which includes fried-marshmallow ice cream and cinnamon meringue. There’s a classic, orange-scented flan and a pretty tres leches cake adorned with fondant flowers.

One other piece of advice: Take home an extra order of those corn and flour tortillas. They make a killer breakfast taco.

Neighborhood: Capital One Center.

Dress: A mix of very casual and business casual.

Best dishes: Red-drum-and-pineapple aguachile; queso; guacamole; steak and duck-carnitas fajitas; campfire s’mores; frozen margarita.

Price range: Starters $12 to $28, entrées $27 to $42.

Bottom line: Nab a reservation (you’ll need one), and you’ll be most rewarded if you focus on Tex-Mex classics like chips and guac, margaritas, and fajitas.

This article appears in the March 2024 issue of Washingtonian.

Ann Limpert

Executive Food Editor/Critic

Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.