CHIKO — Restaurant in Encinitas

INSANELY DELICIOUS LUNCH ! On Friday my wife and I had a lunch date with our 2 young grand daughters. ZOOM ZOOM ! That meant leaving home in San Clemente at 11am, picking our girls up at Oceanside around midday and then on to Encinitas to have a fabulous lunch right here. We parked our wheels at the side of the restaurant around 1.15pm. The moment we walked inside Hunter the GM / Chef greeted us with a big welcoming smile. IT'S BEEN A WHILE ! In fact it had been almost 3 years since our last visit not long after Hunter took over from Eric Brannon as GM & Chef. And Hunter remembered us. FIRST UP ! Some drinks for our girls....Eric suggested grape juice in a can and the girls agreed. At the service counter Hunter took our lunch order for 2 x serves of ( 3 ) Crispy Chicken Spring Rolls, 1 x Orange Chicken ( Candied Mandarins, Crispy Garlic, CHIKO Salt Blend & Side of Rice ), 1 x Filet Mignon & Rice Cakes ( Bulgogi, Baby Carrots, Shiitakes ) and 1 x Kimchi to kick things off. We all headed outside to sit at a table on the outdoor patio. My wife and I grabbed cups of iced water from the chilled water dispenser on the patio. AND THEN ! Our lunch order started coming out courtesy of the hard working Hunter who was cooking and food running everything for us. OMG ! The Crispy Chicken Spring Rolls looked even bigger & better than we remembered from 3 years ago....one of our fav items on the menu. NORMALLY ! We have always have had trouble getting the girls to eat their lunch before an ice cream treat. NOT TODAY ! They could not keep their hands off the delicious Crispy Chicken Spring Rolls and creamy dipping sauce. WHOO HOO ! The huge serve of Orange Chicken ( used to be called Orange-Ish Chicken ) hit the table and we couldn't take our eyes off it. Everybody wanted some of this delicious tender chicken ! And then my Filet Mignon & Rice Cakes came out followed by a serve of Kimchi. TASTEBUD HEAVEN ! This has generally been my fav item on the menu...full of sensational flavor. There was also a bowl of delectable corn & tomato fresh made house salsa plus a couple of roasted corn cobs. THE MEAL OF A LIFETIME ! Our young girls totally enjoyed their super yummy lunch and were ready for an ice cream treat at Cali Cream Homemade Ice Cream down the road. BACK STORY ! My wife and I have been coming here since DAY ONE ( Nov, 2018 ) almost 7 years ago. In fact I dropped by during the fitting out process and met Eric Brannon the GM / Head Chef days before they opened for business. Eric explained their Chinese / Korean food concept was already firmly established in Washington DC...in fact there are 3 restaurants there now. One of the owners had a strong connection with Encinitas hence this new location. It sounded great to me and I brought my wife here for dinner a few days after they opened. I even added this great new business to Yelp on Nov 15th, 2018 before it was open. SO EVERYTHING WAS GREAT....totally delicious food and amazing service thanks to Hunter the...

LET YOUR TASTEBUDS DO THE TALKING ! We been here many times for dinner and it's always been outstanding ! Every dish is prepared with top quality fresh ingredients expertly cooked with mouthwatering dashes of flavor by highly trained kitchen staff lead by Executive Chef Eric Brannon right in front of you. WE LOVE IT ! My wife and I headed over here on Friday evening to enjoy a dine-in dinner. We arrived about 5.30pm and snaffled a handy park spot in front of the restaurant. Lovely Olivia the cashier behind the service counter welcomed us immediately we walked in. Normally it is a walk up to order, get a table number and they bring your food to your table. Even though no one is required to wear masks here anymore these guys are still playing it cool with socially distanced tables inside...there is also a nice outdoor patio which is fully functional. At present you can scan the QR Code with your phone and place your order from your phone...no problem ! Eric the head chef spotted us and gave us a big hello. We grabbed a table towards the rear of the restaurant but in full view of the open kitchen. My wife ordered everything from her iPhone...1 x Modern Times "Orderville" Hazy IPA, 1 x Chicken Spring Rolls Appetizer, 1 x Orange-Ish Chicken ( comes with serve of white rice ) & 1 x Spicy Ribeye & Rice Cakes. An ice cold can of hazy IPA and a chilled glass arrived on our table within 60 seconds courtesy of Martini...server & food runner extraordinaire. My ice cold hazy IPA tasted very good. Next minute our Chicken Spring Rolls hit the table and we got stuck in straight away. One bite and my wife's Orange-Ish Chicken & Rice came out...a sight to behold. Even though some might say the prices here are a little elevated ...the quality ingredients, large serve sizes and the incredible flavors do the talking ! The Chicken Spring Rolls tasted crispy and yummy all at once. The Orange-Ish Chicken ( we have enjoyed it many times ) almost defies description....very tender juicy chicken tempura coated with interesting spices like nothing else anywhere. And then my Spicy Ribeye & Rice Cakes was placed in front of me courtesy of Martini again. This has to be the most flavorsome amazing dish I have ever enjoyed ( I said the same thing last visit )...perfect texture juicy ribeye strips with an avalanche of flavor...mind numbingly satisfying ! WOW....we totally enjoyed everything in front of us. Thanks to head chef Eric and his dedicated talented kitchen crew, lovely cashier Olivia for her big welcoming smile and our amazing hard working server/ food runner Martini. THIS PLACE IS...

Not impressed. This place encapsulates everything wrong with American tipping culture, and don’t get me started on the food. Apart from someone plopping your food in a metal tray on your table, everything is self service here- you seat yourself, order and pay first through a QR code on your phone and you have to get out of your seat to dispense and refill your own water. There’s another restaurant that does this- it’s called McDonald’s, and they don’t expect a tip.

While I have no problem either serving myself, or with tipping as a reward after good service has been rendered, I find it fatuous and very rich to be presented with a suggested tip starting at 18% when ordering through my phone before any service has been given. Much less when I have to refill my own water cup. Furthermore, as we were eating our meal, I saw a notice that our bill automatically included a 5% gratuity to cover “cost of labor”. So I guess the proprietors aren’t really paying their employee’s wages- you are. Again, not as much a of a problem if someone’s taking your order, providing you with menu suggestions and refilling your water, etc.

Now, on to the food. Suffice it to say, this place caters to western tastes- not that there’s anything inherently wrong with that. My wife and I chose this place as is was the only Chinese/Asian restaurant in the area that seem to feature authentic flavors, compared to the usual orange chicken and broccoli beef at typical American-Chinese restaurants.

However, the dishes definitely were modified to cater to an American palate; very sweet with liberal amours of oil and salt- basically everything that makes makes Americans fat and unhealthy and which authentic Asian cuisines use more sparingly.

I ordered the cumin lamb noodles. Cumin lamb is a classic sichuanese dish, but what I got was completely different. Very little cumin flavor and it was excessively sweet, like a cup of sugar was poured in and then drenched in oil.

Maybe we ordered the wrong things, but don’t think we’ll be giving this place another try. I guess still nothing beats driving 40 minutes down to the...