China Chilcano
Website: http://chinachilcano.com/
418 7th Street NW, Washington, DC 20004
After hearing lots of buzz about China Chilcano, a contemporary Peruvian restaurant with blends of Chinese and Japanese flair, I finally had the opportunity to have dinner here last week with my friend Kate. China Chilcano has been opened for a little over a year and is in the beloved family of José Andrés restaurants that we Washingtonians know and love. With its location in the vibrant Penn Quarter a few doors down from Jaleo and across from Oyamel, its welcoming facade is bright and the inside even brighter. In typical José Andrés style, the interior is chic and cool with pops of color and unique looks, including an awesome colorful mural of a woman surrounded in butterflies and flowers.
China Chilcano mural
Since we had an early reservation, we were seated right away in a great table by the floor to ceiling windows overlooking 7th St. Our waitress was prompt and friendly and helped us with some menu items we were unsure of. On immediate glance of the menu, we ordered the Dancing Yucca, unaware of why its called "dancing" yucca. When the plate came, I noticed it was moving but at first thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. It kept moving, and after closer look, we noticed the flakes on top of the yucca were in fact moving, and moving a lot! We called our waitress over and she described that when the thinly sliced bonito flakes (dried, fermented tuna) atop the yucca are placed on hot food, the heat waves cause the bonito flakes to move. How cool is that?! The Dancing Yucca was definitely the highlight of the meal, since it was so different and not like anything I'd had before!
Dancing Yucca video
Since the plates are smaller, we opted to split three dishes as our main course and order more if we were still hungry. We had the Ji Song Sillao (Stir-fry chicken, soy sauce, lettuce cup, crispy sweet potato), Jiaozi de la Chacra (Cilantro dumpling, seasonal vegetables, ají rocoto), and Tam Tam (Hand-cut wheat noodle, spicy pork, peanut, ají panca), with a side of Salsa Criolla. The food came fairly quickly and was presented very well with generous portions, which left us perfectly satisfied yet not too full. The food was all delicious and had interesting unique flavors. Kate and I's favorite dish (other than the Dancing Yucca) was the Tam Tam with spicy pork- it was so good we almost licked the plate! I also had a glass of the Rosé Malbec, which I've never had before and I was very impressed.
Dancing Yucca, Rosé Malbec, Agua de Loco
Tam Tam
Jiaozi de la Chacra
Ji Song Sillao
All in all, China Chilcano provided a very unique and memorable dining experience unlike other restaurants in DC. I highly recommend this restaurant for dinner and hope you enjoy it as much as I did! I myself can't wait to go back. Well done, José, well done!
XOXO
Blonde in the District