Chi Chi’s — Restaurant in New Orleans

There’s so little Korean food representation in Nola, and even the traditional restaraunt in Metairie was not up to my standards. I don’t know exactly how traditional this spot is, but I at least had a better experience here than I did there.

I tried 4 items at the bar. The weakest was the cucumber salad. It did not impress me at all and was the only bad thing. They should take some pointers from the guy on TikTok. And make it spicy and remove the crunchy part of the salad.

The radishes were solid and delicious. Nothing else to say. I wish they were free though. I guess we ARE uptown…

The fried chicken sushi sandwich was okay. It was very small for the price.

The actual Korean chicken sandwich was alright. I probably wouldn’t order it again. It had too much slaw. I would also advertise it as a slider as it was tiny. I think they should add some of those radishes to the sandwich to fix it personally.

One thing I realized is that everything seems very transient. The place just opened so I expect it will get better. Everything used temporary plates and the like. The sushi sandwich was wrapped in plastic wrap and everything was disposable. Presentation of things could be waaaay better. Servers were great and helpful. This place was packed and they still were great. The space is cute and they made the most of the limited space they have.

A personal pet peeve of mine are service fees. I think of myself as an alright tipper, better than average people, but whenever I see anything resembling a service fee my desire to tip goes way down. This place has a flat 3.5% service fee which isn’t the worst, but again,...

came here with my partner, we shared a couple of items such as the crispy tuna app, the kfc sandwich, and the chirashi bowl. we also split the strawberry matcha whip shaved ice.

the appetizer came out quickly after ordering. the tuna was good but we did think that the crispy rice was way too hard, overwhelmingly so.

then followed the kfc sandwich and chirashi bowl. admittedly we split everything so use this info how you will, but the sandwich was a bit tiny, but good. wish there was a more fresh/briny aspect like kimchi added to it but that’s not really that big of a deal! it was salted well and had a good balance between sweet and salty.

we did enjoy the chirashi bowl, the raw scallop was delightfully sweet. the rest of the seafood was good too but we did notice that some of the tuna still possessed some of its bloodline which we wish was removed as it did alter the taste of some bites of tuna. we also did think the portion was slightly disproportionate to the price but regardless we did still enjoy it. wasabi to pair was nice and fresh, the roe was vibrant and oceanic. rice had the right ratio of vinegar and a pillow soft texture. main takeaway is that it really put us on to the potential of raw scallop.

the strawberry shaved ice topped with matcha whipped crème might’ve been our favorite, very refreshing after a hot day out and a nice way to end the meal.

all in all the service was lovely, everyone was nice and attentive. putting criticism aside we had a nice experience here and the vibe was sweet. definitely good for a date night if you are seeking for such!

apologies if this comes across...

Man - what a disappointment. My husband and I ordered takeout on a Friday assuming it would be busy. It was, so we were in and out but once we got to the car we realize they’d forgotten an item. He goes back, but they let us know the item we ordered was a special from a few weeks back and they didn’t have it and no one took it off the website. I’m confused why they couldn’t tell us that up front when he got the order? There was no offer to replace the food for the amount of the item, nor could they refund us for the order because a manager wasn’t there or something? They said someone would call the next day (to be fair, they did and left a message saying we’d been refunded for the item) but the whole process took over an hour for us to get our food and even then I had to make extra food when we got home because what we ordered wasn’t enough for two people.

I’ve read other reviews saying the tuna and salmon are from a can which is probably why the crispy rice we got was so fishy. The Korean chicken thigh sushi sandwich was good but after all that time we waited it was cold. The fries were cold. The crispy rice (4 tiny pieces for $12) was cold. The small amount of food we had after our refund was still $40. It was kind of insane. Maybe I’ll go back to try the chicken sandwich or wings, but overall what a bummer. I do appreciate the staff helping out where they could and being overwhelmed on a busy Friday. I just thought after being open almost 5 months it wouldn’t be such a gamble to try...