Cha Cha Chicken - Caribbean Culinary Comfort
Saturday, November 18, 2006 21:33
Just over a year ago my wife and I were enjoying our honeymoon, lounging on Caribbean beaches and sampling Caribbean food. Just over a week ago, my wife and I were enjoying a Caribbean dinner in LA, at Cha Cha Chicken.
Cha Cha Chicken is at Pico and Ocean in Santa Monica. It’s a walk up joint, with a broad counter which spans the length of its patio. The menu boasts a number of Caribbean dishes, with the usual jerk sauce options (the jerk store called, they’re running out of YOU!) and some other creative dishes like ropa nueva and vieja (new and old clothes).
Unfortunately, Cha Cha Chicken doesn’t sell beer, other than ginger beer. Not that beer is a necessity, mind you, but come on, spicy food + beer = mandatory. You are allowed to bring your own, but we were empty haded so I opted to drink a Ting. Ting is essentially Fresca from Jamaica. It is pleasantly refreshing with a light grapefruit/citrus flavor. Of course, we made the obvious unfunny jokes, “what’s in this Ting?”, “do you want to taste my Ting?”, like I said, unfunny.
The way it works at Cha Cha is that you order at the counter, then grab a seat on their outdoor patio (no indoor seating available) and wait for your order to come around. I ordered the jerk chicken wings (whole pound) which also comes with plantains and dirty rice. Dirty rice is rice with black beans and onions mixed in.
My wife chose the “ropa vieja” which is beef stewed in a tomato sauce with onions and veggies. Her dish also came with plantains and a few tortillas on the side.
I really liked the wings, they were breaded with a coconut shavings. The jerk sauce had spice, but they weren’t too spicy and the coconut was a nice contrast. A whole pound was a lot of wings, I didn’t finish them all, but I got a little help so that none were wasted. We have become pretty picky about our plantains and I am happy to say that Cha Cha Chicken passed the test. Just barely carmelized on the outside and soft and sweet on the inside.
For dinner this place is cheap. We were stuffed with great tasting food for right around $20. Service is quick and friendly.
1906 Ocean Ave.
Santa Monica Ca. 90405
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.
Pam says:
November 19th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
LOL at the George Costanza “Jerk Store” reference!!!
Isaac and I have always been curious about this place–looks like we’ll have to check it out.
Berna says:
November 19th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
Try the jerk chicken enchiladas next time–they are simply amazing. The jerk chicken is really good too and makes great take home food.
Jonah says:
November 19th, 2006 at 8:18 pm
Pam- honestly, I can never hear the word “jerk” without thinking about the “jerk store”. Cha Cha is a good spot, not the greatest spot, but definitely worth checking out.
Berna- We debated the enchiladas, thanks for the tip, next time for sure.
Berna says:
November 21st, 2006 at 7:34 pm
My husband and I ate there again tonight and I realized I forgot to tell you about the fresh watermelon juice. I love that as much as the jerk sauce and the plantains–it tastes like summer.
I also wanted to say thanks. We are fairly new to LA, and I’ve been reading your blog, and reading through the archives and I’ve found many great restaurants and some other great local food blogs thanks to you guys.
Jonah says:
November 21st, 2006 at 9:02 pm
Yum, watermelon juice! I’ll have to try that next time.
Glad to hear that you are getting some good info from the site, it is always nice to know that there is value in what we write! Be sure to let us know about your own food finds and we look forward to more of your comments.
foodiemama says:
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:06 pm
chacha is amazing…we have been going there for almost 9-10 yrs now. one time we had a lemon cheesecake there that was impossible to recreate!
Jen says:
September 4th, 2007 at 9:07 am
I ate at Cha Cha’s four years ago, on a vacation to LA from Ontario, Canada. I stumbled on this site today looking for jerk chicken recipes because of Cha Cha’s amazing jerk chicken enchiladas!!! It has been over four years since I ate there and I still remember how good those enchiladas were– I can’t wait to come back to LA and eat there!
The atmosphere was fun, the people were so friendly, and the food was great! The place that I would recommend to friends if they were taking a trip there!