Chi-Cha Lounge, U Street Corridor - Modern Andean Cuisine and Late-Night Lounge

[crackers]

Chi-Cha is presently serving warm mulled wine. It's excellent.

Chi-Cha's web site

[yes, gag, the web site has the word "concepts" in it, and the music gets annoying fast, but it's a nice weeknight hangout.]

The music: how "annoying" is annoying? And the food: what (if any ) menu highlights?

[yet another sadly flash-driven website]

[DCMark]

The music: how "annoying" is annoying?

And the food: what (if any ) menu highlights?

[yet another sadly flash-driven website]

Annoying if you are into musak or WQMZ I guess, but Chi Cha has some sweet bossa nova (live bands) and many other live acts from South America.

The drink you are probably referring to is a ChiCha, which is more room temperature than warm.

The food is nice, South American tapas.

Menu

[JLK]

That is sometimes true, but not always.

In the past, I had enjoyed Chi Cha's food and would put it in the "better than it has to be" category, however my last meal there made an impression that lingers. As I was eating an arepa (I forget which preparation), I discovered a hair in my food. In my mouth.

Now, I have long hair so I tend to give restaurants the benefit of the dout. However in this case, the long hair was wrapped around a piece of meat very tightly. It was definitely not mine. Our server happened to be walking by as I made my discovery and she discreetly removed the item from our bill. It was well handled, and stuff like this happens I realize, but I can't seem to dissociate the hair from Chi Cha since that night.

The drink you are probably referring to is a ChiCha, which is more room temperature than warm.

[The Hersch]

What's with the odd-ball pricing on their menu? 7.27, 8.18, 12.73, etc.?

[ustreetguy]

What's with the odd-ball pricing on their menu? 7.27, 8.18, 12.73, etc.?

If you add DC's 10% dining tax, you end up with a round number.

[The Hersch]

If you add DC's 10% dining tax, you end up with a round number.

Duh! Now that you explain it, it's so obvious.

[lackadaisi]

I think that Chi Cha has the best empanada in the city! Jlock and I were also quite impressed with the chorizo plate. The chorizo was good, but the lightly dressed salad and plantains complimented it perfectly and turned it into quite a notable dish for 11:00 on a Saturday night.

If only I didn't drink so much every time I went there....

[DonRocks]

I think that Chi Cha has the best empanada in the city! Jlock and I were also quite impressed with the chorizo plate. The chorizo was good, but the lightly dressed salad and plantains complimented it perfectly and turned it into quite a notable dish for 11:00 on a Saturday night.

If only I didn't drink so much every time I went there....

I stopped into an empty Chi-Cha Lounge at 5:15 PM on a Sunday night, and sipped on a draft Paulaner ($4.54) which was in fine shape, while I waited for my Empanada Trio ($8.00). Although I have little doubt that I cherry picked one of the best items on the menu, these empanadas were very good, bordering on excellent. The flaky pastry crust itself was reminiscent of what you'd find at The Pure Pasty Co., and was as good as an empanada crust could possibly be. The fillings themselves (one cheese, one chicken, one beef) were merely good, and was what kept these from falling into the excellent category. Nevertheless, as lackadaisi says, if anyone knows of a better empanada in DC, I'd like to know what it is - as a point of reference, I had an empanada the next night at La Sandia in Tysons Corner which was palatable, but absolutely paled in comparison with Chi-Cha's.

Cheers,

Rocks