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2014-08-31
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I've had Peruvian food maybe only once or twice in my life, so I was excited about the new experience at Chicha. The reviews are glowing, and I'll have to agree that it's good. We got reservations for four, which allows one to take the "Inca Trail"-- a set menu with lots of options.The IT comes with all three ceviches on the menu: tuna, sea bass, and a "mixto" of shrimp, scallops, and octopus. It's tough to go horribly wrong with ceviche, but I wasn't particularly blown away by these. They were
The IT comes with all three ceviches on the menu: tuna, sea bass, and a "mixto" of shrimp, scallops, and octopus. It's tough to go horribly wrong with ceviche, but I wasn't particularly blown away by these. They were soupy, and you were eating them on plates, so that didn't work very well. The tuna was a little tough, I thought, and the scallops in the ceviche were really lackluster, when they're usually my favorite. If I came back alone, I'd order off the non-ceviche parts of the menu. Acceptable, C-
One section on the menu is "Causa" described as "whipped potatoes with toppings." This is my favorite thing that we had, by far. Forget the toppings and the sauces, the potatoes are fantastic. You say: really, Michael, the potatoes? Yes. Yes, I do. There's a tanginess in the potatoes that comes from key lime (traditionally, though I don't know if that's what's used here). They're a perfect texture, and I could literally eat a whole plate of just potatoes. Excellent, A.
The IT comes with four scallops (you don't get to choose from the hot ceviche). I certainly thought they were fine, but if you ask me the scallops at any respectable Cantonese seafood place are gonna be better, so they struck me as a bit disappointing. They come in a soupy, bland sauce and they're not particularly tender. They're fine though. Fine, C+
You get a choice of four skewers and we picked the "Oh My Cod" that everyone raves about below, the beef hearts, the prawns, and the pork belly. I thought the pork belly and beef hearts were forgettable-- so forgettable, indeed, that I forgot I was eating heart, just ate it, and moved on, only to now realize that yes, I ate heart. The seafood is much better-- the OMC deserves its rave reviews, that is some tender and delicious cod. The prawns were also great: firm but not overcooked and well-seasoned. Between C for the pork belly and A for the cod.
A chicharone is a fried thing, and a pan con chicharone is a fried mini-burger. I got the fish one, and I was mighty pleased. Fried fish sandwich is easy to make delicious-- I'll even eat the thing they serve at McDonald's, and I can't say that for most of Mickey D's menu. But this was rather nice. The fish was crisp but still melt in your mouth tender, and the sauces (salsa criolla and creamy aji amarillo, according to the menu), while over-applied, were not nearly so offensive as the pile of mayo you get at McDonald's/ Little Bao/ etc. I'm going to go with A-
We got two "big share" plates. One was the rib eye a la parilla, which I appear to have forgotten to have photographed. Anyway, it was underwhelming to everyone, in that it was just basically a steak. A good steak, mind you, but plain in comparison to everything else we got. I'll give it a B-(On a side note, why does everyone in HK think steak should be cooked well-done? Our server here, when we ordered, asked "How would you like it.. medium? well-done?" I once asked for a recommendation at a place and got "well-done." Why are you even eating steak if you're just going to cook all the flavor out of it? Suffice to say that we ordered "rare.")
The other big share we got was the suckling pig pork belly. Can I just register how much I don't like pork belly? It's so much fat and skin and no one ever seasons it, and most people don't even bother to make sure it's cooked decently, because oh look ! pigfat ! OK, you can stop throwing things at me. I was mostly full by this point of the meal, so I focused on the potatoes that came with the pork belly, which were (a) filled with beef, because of course and (b) phenomenal. My personal view would be that if you're picking a big plate here, go for the seafood. But I don't have the clout with my dining companions to convince them of that.
The meal ends with a deep fried donut in syrup. It's really not for me, but I'll admit that if you like this sort of thing it's a good version.Some further notes:
Service charge is not included from groups of 1-7, although tips are requested. Groups of 8 or more are charged 10%. Why not just charge everyone 10%. I hate tips, I hate tipping culture, I hate calculating tips, I hate figuring out what's appropriate in a largely no-tipping city... please just charge me a service charge.
The "Inca Trail" sounds very ominous to me as an American, where trails + native peoples usually equals something bad. Anyway, the price is $545 per person, and my back of the envelope calculation suggests we'd have paid $620 per person if we ordered what we ordered individually, so about a 12% discount (obviously it would have been more, if we had just chosen whatever was most expensive every time we had a choice).
The service is great.
I ordered a pisco drink-- the El Capitan-- and it was quite strong, and I liked it. They've got some Peruvian beers too, but I didn't get a chance to try them.
Normally if asked whether I would go back to a restaurant, I would say no, because I'd rather try new things. But given that Chicha is purveying such a unique experience in HK, I may indeed return. I certainly thought the food deserved it. Overall: Great, B+
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