la.foodblogging

With a name like Cha Cha Cha, it has to be fun, right? Right. On a recent Saturday night a group of us headed over to the “Contemporary Caribbean” restaurant for some tasty chow (and sangria).

We called ahead to see if we could get reservations, but they weren’t taking any more. We were told that we probably wouldn’t have to wait much longer than 30 minutes and that there was a bar that we could wait in. Sounded good, so we were on our way.

When we got to Cha Cha Cha, it was full and bustling with activity. The host was very friendly and told us that the wait would be about twenty minutes. “See that table over there?”, he asked “they are finishing up and I will shoo them out”.

We ordered a round of sangria from the bar and about thirty minutes later, the seven of us were seated.

The menu is deceptively large. There are about two dozen Tapas to choose from, in addition to the appetizer, pasta, paella and main menus. We did have a debate over what makes a small dish an appetizer versus a tapa. Unfortunately, we have no answer.

With seven hungry stomachs, we were able to order a variety of dishes, and ultimately decided that a second visit would be needed in order to taste the ones we missed. I started with the Spicy Corn Chowder. It was spicy indeed, in a good way.

Corn Chowder

A couple other dishes that came in the first round were the Guacamole and Dirty Chips, Banana Boats, and Ceviche Guadalupe. The guacamole was chunky, the dirty chips spicy, the ceviche had nice sized chunks of marinated fish served in a coconut and the banan boats (plantains stuffed with ground beef and vegetables) got rave reviews from our table.

Guacamole and Dirty Chips

For round two, some of us stuck with the Tapas, while others went for the main dish. I ordered the Mejillones Costa Brava - Steamed Mussels with Tomato, Garlic, Basil and White wine and some yuca fries on the side.

Mejillones Costa Brava

The mussels were huge. This can be good and this can be bad. Sometimes big mussels come out chewy, particularly is they are over cooked. These mussels came out perfect. Meaty and tasty, and the broth was thick and flavorful. The yuca fries and left over bread was great for dipping.

Platano Frito

Everyone was stuffed before the food was gone. We had assumed that the tapas would be smaller plates, but they were pretty hearty. Next time, we will be able to order better.

One downside was the service. The waiter was nice, but obviously very busy. Also, the kitchen was way overloaded and the food was a bit slow to come out. We managed, munching on the bread and appetizers. The table next to us gave up though and ended up confronting the manager. Ultimately, they left before their food came out and didn’t have to pay for their drinks. I’m not sure if it is normally like that, it did seem very crowded that night, even as it got later.

There are two Cha Cha Cha locations, one in West Hollywood (where we went) and another in Silver Lake. There are slightly different menus between the two. The Silver Lake location has more options, including a brunch menu. Both menus are online at their website (with prices!)

ChaChaCha
7953 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90046

By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.