text: If your server's name is Mario, run for the hills.\n\nI consider myself to be somewhat of a Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s fangirl so I was naturally looking forward to dining at Jaleo.  Needless to say, my expectations were not met.  The food itself was decent.  Not quite as inventive as The Bazaar's offerings but with the lower price point, that's to be somewhat expected.  Service, however, was horrifically below a restaurant of Jaleo's caliber.\n\nWhen my party was seated, the waiter proceeded to give us the \"key dishes you should try\" shtick including the many varieties of paella that the establishment is famous for.  Okay sold.  We try to order the paella only to be told that we can't do so because we have a party of four and the menu states that you must have a party of six or more.  Uh, okay.  Then why did you just spend all that time raving about your paella?  We then ask if it would be at all possible to check if there were any other tables ordering any of the paellas that we could combine ordering forces with because we really wanted to try the paella.  Our waiter flat out rejects us without even bothering to check.  Now I understand that there's a certain protocol to be followed and I wasn't necessarily expecting an exception but would it have been so hard to double-check (pretending to check would have been more than sufficient)?  Oh and here's the delightfully irking kicker: OUR SERVER WAS WRONG.  While dining at \u00e9 by jos\u00e9 andr\u00e9s this past weekend, the infinitely more gracious and knowledgeable waitstaff notified me that every night, Jaleo makes a paella of the day for the entire restaurant to order individual portions from; the six or more limit only applies to parties who want to order a paella of their choice.  A waiter who's clueless about the menu at an upscale(ish) restaurant?  For shame.\n\nFollowing the paella debacle, I excused myself from the table so I could surreptitiously notify our waiter that one of the girls in my party was celebrating a birthday and that I'd like to surprise her with a dessert.  I couldn't find the waiter so I told the busboy who had been helping our table who in turn said he would pass along the message to our waiter.  While giving us our dessert menus, our waiter proceeds to ruin the surprise by saying, \"and are we celebrating a birthday today?\"  I wouldn't expect this kind of a misstep from a T.G.I. Fridays let alone Jaleo.\n\nHad service been passable, I would have rated Jaleo at a solid 3.5 stars.  Were it not been for my wonderful experience at \u00e9 by jos\u00e9 andr\u00e9s this past weekend, I would not have even considered returning.