China Chilcano — Restaurant in Washington

Whatever Josè Andres is selling, I am buying. I am so thankful for his giving spirit with World Kitchen, and am happy to support him and his restaurants whenever I can. With that in mind, a while we were in DC, I figured why not try another one restaurants’ tasting menus?! we ended up going to China Chilcano and it was no surprise that everything was amazing again. In the order of these photos, I will start with dessert - Suspiro Limeña which is apparently an iconic dessert of Peru. It’s sweetened condensed milk custard topped with soft and crunchy meringue and passionfruit. Such a perfect blend of textures and sweet/creamy. Next was probably the most unexpected dish and that was the Causa Limeña. This is chicken salad that is surrounded by that yellow potato causa which didn’t itself have a distinct flavor, but the chicken salad within was so flavorful and dressed beautifully. This final picture was of the When Pigs Fly, which is a BBQ pork steam bun with tamarind hoisin sauce. The bun was pillowy and the pork was tender, but the other dishes certainly outshined. Thank God, I was joined at this meal by my cousin and her husband, so we could strategize what dishes we were getting from the tasting menu and try as many of them as possible. I mean… Look at this next course! This is Young Coconut Ceviche– think of it as vegetarian sashimi. It’s young coconut that has been marinated in coconut leche de tigre with cilantro, fresno peppers, sesame chili oil, and cancha. Now… I can’t even explain what all is going on in this dish, but the texture, flavor, and complexity all work so well together to create this stunning and unique dish. Next is an overhead view of a couple additional dishes that were ordered. In the top right is a dish that if I was going to just order one item as a lunch entrée, it might be this Tallarín de Verundas- chow mein noodles, tomato, scallions, bean, sprouts, and pepper. It was as if stirfry had a much more sophisticated sibling. I loved the flavors and the balance. It filled you up, but had enough veggies, and the fresh noodles feel overly heavy. In the bottom, right was Ají de Gallina, “Peru’s Most Precious Dish!“ and with a name like that, you knew we had to try it. This is a Ají amarillo chicken stew with fresh cheese, pecans, botija olive, egg, and rice. It kind of tasted like a rich curry. Very tasty. The last photo showcases the Tacu Tacu a la Pobre. Again… Think of it like a very elevated fried rice. This is Canary beans and rice cake with sweet plantains, salsa criolla, aji limo, and a fried egg. I’m telling you… Do yourself a favor and check out any Jose Andres restaurant you can. Obviously I would recommend the tasting menu. This brunch included three courses for $34. Money well spent in my opinion. I’m not sure you will meet a more tentative and welcoming...

No-Go. We got seated immediately for a party of 3 on Saturday evening at 8pm. That ought to give you a hint the place wasn't not favoring return customers. Great location downtown only a few blocks from the museums but too bad, the food: Asian fusion / Salty. We ordered the aeropuerto ($17) per servers reccomendation with chicken added (+5$), and we ordered the Traditional Su mai dumplings ($14) and the yuca fries with bonito flakes ($11). Aeropuerto was basically fried rice with lots of bean sprouts and chopped up vegetables stored fried together in a high fired wok topped to fancy appearance with crispy sweet potato noodles. It was wayyyyyy overly salty. Also there were no listing of the ingredients and one person in my party did not like mushrooms. When we mentioned to the server he said "oh it's salty ? That's strange ... and mushrooms yes it had over 20 types of vegetables so ofcourse it had mushrooms..." no offer to exchange to something else or anything. Yuca fries had a different batter than traditional el pollo places yuca fries- this was was dipped in a pancake batter-like coating and then smooth texture was the result. Generous portion and great flavor- brought me back to Japan octopus balls flavors with the sweet black soy sauce and mayo drizzled on as well as terrific large size bonito flakes. This one I reccomend if you must go then try it. Su mai dumplings- I think bc of the overprice it must have not been selling well bc ours seems it has been sitting in the steam for quite sometime. The dumplings were no longer juicy but on the dry side. They were also smaller portions and smaller sized over all. I did like the crushed peanuts sprinkled on top- great flair to the menu. But not worth ordering again. Overall, atmosphere was ok, tables were crowed together and it felt a bit cramp in there for me. We got the nice window seat so that helped. Busybody was great and kept our water glasses full - we definitely drank all of our waters bc of the saltiness of the food. We left before ordering anything else because we ended up at another location for the rest of the dinner. That's how disappointing it was. Thank you for reading my honest- never paid to do reviews. Cheers, have enjoy meals. Eat...

I chose this restaurant for my dad’s birthday. My parents had never had Peruvian food, so I thought it was a good choice to dine. I recommend making a reservation in the event that the restaurant is too crowded. I arrived about ten mins prior to my allocated time, and I was welcomed and sat promptly. Our server was lovely and very accommodating.

This was definitely a “restaurant” experience, perhaps one of the best I’ve had in a while. I can see how the other reviewers identified this place as a tourist trap. Yet, it is a beautiful restaurant, great staff, and gorgeous location.

The food was really good. However, I was expecting a more “homey” Peruvian dining experience but this was closer to fine dining. The menu is expensive: from dim sum to chaufa. I thought the flavors were really delicious.

I ordered the char siu plate, but I wish the menu described it was a “build your own bun” kind of plate. It was delicious but I thought it was funny how it was a make your own bun. The pork meat was succulent!

My only complaint was the chaufa. It wasn’t really “chaufa” but the menu didn’t describe it as such either. It was more of a clay pot rice. Flavors were outstanding; lots of rice, lots of sauce, lots of lap chong. But it was a bit wet— either they didn’t use day old rice or they didn’t bake the pot for long. Regardless, it was still delicious.

Servings are a bit small, so beware. The restaurant is not cheap, so there’s that.

The dessert menu is very unique! I enjoyed the torta de chocolate. It was paired with banana ice cream. The layers of chocolate was filled with some kind of maracuya sauce (?). It was so unexpected and yummy. I think the cake and ice cream had a drizzle of olive oil— very nice touch.

Their drink menu is large too! I had both Peruvian beers on their menu (Cusqueña and Callao). Excellent choices.

More importantly, service was excellent! From the host, to server, to busers, everyone...