Posts
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Review: El Chucho - Columbia Heights, DC
8:17 AM | Posted by
Stephanie |
Edit Post
Edit Post
11th Street NW has
been exploding lately – as has my never-ending list of places to check out, one
of which was El Chucho which opened in late June. They describe themselves as “a small
neighborhood cantina serving modern Mexican food”. The restaurant is managed in part by Jackie
Greenbaum whom some of you may know from Jackie’s restaurant in Silver Spring,
MD. I went to Jackie’s years ago and
remembered it fondly so I was curious to try her new venture.
My trusty taste testers, Jermaine,
Leon and Carburetor, were kind enough to give up a Tuesday night and try the
place out with me. Ummm yeah, those are
most definitely aliases. At any rate,
Jermaine was particularly vocal about the experience right off the bat. “What’s
with this menu? I can’t even read it.” “I thought it was going to be all Mexicans
working here, I’m a little disappointed.”
And the comments continued…. To
explain those comments – the menu was a little confusing aesthetically. The font changed multiple times, it was
divided into hard to distinguish sections, some words were bolded for no
apparent reason, some were surrounded by shaded-in shapes, etc. Definitely a little overwhelming at first
glance. We bombarded our waitress with
questions and she was gracious enough to help us navigate everything and offer
suggestions of her favorites, a few of which we did order. As for the employees – well we had heard that
this was an “authentic” Mexican restaurant, unlike many in DC, and most
employees did not appear to be Mexican.
However, upon further research on the restaurant I’ve learned that the
chef’s family is from Mexico and she herself had training there. That’s good enough for me.
Let’s get down to the business of
the food. First and foremost was the
corn on the cob. I think this picture
says it all – smoky grilled flavor, cheesy salty cilantro-y goodness, not at
all overcooked (which definitely makes or breaks corn) – delicious! Only problem?
The price tag. I know there is an
upcharge on everything when you eat out, but this time of year in the mid-Atlantic
you can easily find local corn at the grocery store for about $0.25/ear – this was
$4 – ouch!
After the corn, we just ordered a
mish-mash of things and shared it all – here’s what we got:
- Chips & Guac – nice flavor, good balance of
chunky/creamy texture, could have used a pinch more salt & garlic, but that
is my personal preference. Complaint? The pit.
Each order I saw go by including ours had the pit in the bowl. I know it is supposed to help with the
browning of the avocado, but honestly from what I have read, it is questionable
that that actually works – what it really does is take up a lot of space in the
bowl. How about a couple squeezes of
lime juice instead and fill up that bowl!
- Chicken & Steak Tacos – the chicken had a
nice smoky flavor at first bite, but with each subsequent bite they tasted a
little bland…more salt! We added some of
the salsa that came with the guac and that definitely helped. The steak was more flavorful and had grilled
onions and avocado, but still was helped with a dash of salsa. Smaller in size than most I’ve had.
 |
| Chicken Tacos |
- Flautas – lightly fried, not too greasy which
can often be the case. Good amount of
chicken in them and topped with some queso fresco – tasty!
- Torta Ahogada – this is basically a Mexican
sloppy joe, and a good one. It’s a nice
soft roll, with pulled marinated pork and avocado. The whole thing is smothered in spicy/slightly
sweet chile de arbol sauce, and when I say smothered I mean it. They serve it with a pair of plastic gloves,
as evidenced in the action shot below.
This was definitely the most flavorful dish we got and one I would order
again. Complaint? No fork!
You can’t serve something like this and assume that everyone will be ok
with the glove method – some of us are classy ladies and like utensils!
 |
| LEON! Why does it look like you could possibly be shirtless here?? |
Takeaways:
Upon arrival there was a 30 minute
wait. They took my name and cell number
and said feel free to wander, they’d call me when the table was ready. Considering they are placed along a 2-3 block
stretch of bars and restaurants and their own bar is quite small, I thought this
was a nice touch. We ended up getting
seated within a couple minutes of their estimate.
The Juan Rose cocktail is
delicious. Fruity, tart, strong. Don’t be afraid by the “apple shrub” listed
in the ingredients – there are no plants in your drink.
Plates. With each dish that came out we indicated
that we were sharing everything, yet we never got any plates. Granted we didn’t specifically ask, but as a
former waitress, I don’t think we should have to…
My tasters provided ratings based
on a 0-100% scale, 100% being excellent:
Jermaine – 72%
Carburetor – 61%
Leon – 68-69% (if I remember
correctly)
Trust these at your own risk;
however I can attest to the fact that they all really like food, including mine,
meaning they deserve at least 90% credibility.
J
Note - it doesn't appear that they have a website yet, but you can find El Chucho on Facebook.
Labels:
