CHICO & CHANG — Restaurant in Macon

I was looking around the immediate vicinity of my hotel for dinner options in Macon (typically best not to stray too far from the beaten path ‘round these parts). Thoroughly unimpressed with the typical list of greasily ubiquitous chains, I stumbled across a highly rated “Chico and Chang” option with a seemingly contradictory description (screenshot of Maps detail below). How could this place be a “Korean Restaurant” but described as a “Simple venue for Chinese and Mexican”? I had to investigate - and I’ve come to a conclusion that surprised even me.

It doesn’t f**king matter. Their food is delicious, not to mention extremely affordable.

I used some of my per diem here to sample four tacos - one chicken, one spicy chicken, one spicy pork, and one beef. All of the meats were delicious except for the beef (which was still palatable). I also ordered a beef lo mein dish and devoured half of it back at the hotel before I could restrain myself. Per the kindly staff’s recommendation, I also tried the house fries - let’s just say the waitress was correct in her evaluation of them as “definitely different” and leave it at that. Only ate a few of those, mostly out of confusion. There was also some tasty unidentified red sauce that came in the bag which went very well with the tacos. Finally, I tacked a bubble tea onto my order and I was not disappointed (kinda hard to be disappointed when sucking tapioca balls down a straw, but that’s besides the point).

Overall, tremendous bang for the buck and high quality food. 4 tacos, beef lo mein bowl, fries, and bubble tea all for just under $25 (pre-tip). The bevy of Google reviews here are trustworthy. Check...

I had high hopes for Tri County Seafood after seeing so many positive posts on Facebook, but unfortunately, my experience was very disappointing. We were planning a birthday party for my dad, and he requested catfish, so I called Tri County Seafood about a month in advance to place an order. The staff explained I’d need to call a week before the event to confirm, and that the catfish fillets would be fresh—this sounded perfect.

I called a week out, explained the details of the event, and placed the order. The lady I spoke to was kind and suggested 15 lbs based on the number of people attending. A few days before the event, we stopped by to confirm the order and decided to try lunch while we were there. The lady at the front counter couldn’t find the order but wrote it down to make sure it would be ready for pickup.

On the day of the event, I sent my brother to pick up the fish. When he got there, the order was nowhere to be found. They had to call the owners, who brought frozen fish from their home—fish they had caught from a lake a while back. To make matters worse, they charged us $185 for frozen fish, which weighs more than fresh. All we got was a generic “I’m sorry” from the staff.

This experience was incredibly frustrating. What was promised to be fresh catfish fillets turned into frozen, overpriced fish with no real accountability. I can’t recommend Tri County Seafood based on...

Prices are awesome! They give you a lot. Much cheaper than regular Korean food and you can really taste the latino-asian fusion. In the bulgogi, for example, the rice is either latino/American style where the grains are more separated. The taste of rice is also different if I were to eat rice at an Asian restaurant or if I made it at home (I'm filipino btw).

Sesame fries are delightful. Crunchy. Hint of sesame taste from sesame oil.

Their Taiwanese chicken nuggets were great with the cornstarch or potato starch breading. The marinating of the chicken I could taste was influenced by a Taiwanese cuisine with some star anise-soy sauce- maybe hoisin sauce marinating. They even had a more watery yumyum sauce to match with the nuggets! This place really represents a fusion style restaurant.

Their nachos: the nacho is not really the same as from a Mexican restaurant- it tastes more like something you'd buy from a grocery store (not saying it's good or bad, it is just a taste preference). They placed A Lot of meat and I appreciate that.

Only negative are their boba drinks. As someone who drinks a lot of boba, we ordered a coconut, mango, and original flavor. It tasted like a flavoring essence was added rather than the real fruit. However, I understand because the drinks aren't as pricey as regular...