Chirp — Restaurant in New York

A pleasant surprise on a quiet Thursday, pre-holiday weekend. I was in the mood for something that wasn't a giant fast food chain (which is 90% of this area), and I'd noticed this little guy an avenue block away or so from my office. It's just far enough away from the chaos of MSG/Penn Station where it's not overloaded with tourists staring slack-jawed at the taxis and skyscrapers, and honestly probably a little too edgy for them anyway. Big selling point for me.

I wandered in here around 1pm yesterday. Since it was the day before the 4th of July, it was pretty quiet - I'm sure most of their demo is the almighty office worker, many of whom were already presumably chilling out at the shore with their PBRs. A few people made comments within earshot that it was much less chaotic than usual, and given that there's a written disclaimer by the counter that customers should expect a 20-minute wait for the rice bowls during rush hour, I'm 100% planning to order ahead the next time I'm hankering for some Peruvian food. But on this particularly day I got lucky. There's probably about five or six tables in there, only one or two of which was occupied. Cute spot; looks pretty spiffy and given that they don't have a ton of space to play around with, it doesn't feel claustrophobic. Again, it WAS an abnormally quiet work day in the city. Maybe it feels exactly like Penn Station on a normal weekday.

There were honestly a lot of options that looked intriguing. I'm not a huge rotisserie chicken person (I find bones distracting unless it's something more straight-forward like a turkey leg or ribs where you're eating off the bone versus around it, if that makes sense), which seems to be their big seller. I went with the chicken rice bowl, and opted for the accompanying Peruvian fried rice, featuring eggs and scallions. Really tasty, filling stuff - something more for the end of the week than the beginning. The inclusion of the eggs reminded me of a Thai dish, and there was definitely some spice to the proceedings, which I tend to measure in nose blows (two in this case). The chicken was flavorful and tender, and I'm assuming one of the big attributes of the rotisserie section as well. Solid portion; the only issue I had was a personal palate one - I'm not crazy about crunchy onions/scallions on a texture basis, though they're upfront about its inclusion.

The women behind the counter were decently busy - they seemed to have a lot of to-go orders as well as the in-person customers like myself - but were personable and accommodating. I was expecting to have to wait a while just by virtue of the time of day, but I had my rice bowl within about three or four minutes, which was awesome. Wasn't feeling quite frisky enough to venture into the fried sides territory but I wouldn't be opposed to trying the tostadas or empanadas on a future visit.

Absolutely adding this place to the midday rotation. Hopefully its more subtle location (I mean, as subtle as you're going to get on 34th and 9th) keeps the hordes at bay and limits the wait times...

After visiting the Edge, we were broke so we wanted something cheap 😜😜... More seriously, we didn't feel like spending too much money that day, plus we did not want to lose too much time because we wanted to walk the High Line before sunset, so we looked for a quick bite and ended up, by chance, at Chirp. It looks like a fast food restaurant, but it's not actually. You do order your food at the counter but then you need to wait at your table for your food to be prepared. And it's worth the wait: I had at Chirp one of the best meals in weeks: the sandwiches were excellent, juicy and original, the chicken (even the breast) was soft and juicy and the sides were very good. Only the soup was not hot enough. Plus a meal (no dessert) only costs about $12 per person. A pity there's no service as it simply would be perfect. I won't hesitate to recommend this place to anybody who visits NYC.

Quality & taste: 10/10 Quantities: 8/10 Atmosphere: 7/10 Originality: 9/10 Ratio price / quality: 10/10 Service: n/a How I felt afterwards: 9/10

More on IG...

Had to stop by at B and H to do some shopping, running late I didn’t has chance to get food. I looked across the strand saw Chirp, a Peruvian fast comfort restaurant. Simple menu choices, combos are the way to go and the rice bowls I went with an item I’m not familiar with? The Peruvian fried rice with beef, chicken soup . 5 minutes I’m served a large salad bowl size fried rice, it was packed with seasoned fried rice and standard fried rice veggies, and at least 8 ounces of tender beef. More beef to rice ratio was unexpected, appreciated. The small soup was a solid bowl of hearty winter weight chicken soup goodness. I added the remaining soup to my rice bowl to make a ghetto version of soupy rice that I miss since all my Latino restaurants left my neighborhood. Gentrification pushed all the long time greasy spoon of Latino cuisine goodness. Chirp was randomly chosen lunch stop, glad it there for my enjoyment. I hope they are around the next time I...