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| - Hola, Chica! ¿Qué tal?
John Kunkel's 50 Eggs, Inc. has done it again at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas! Last May, when we dined at Yardbird Southern Table & Bar, we fortuitously met up with one of 50 Eggs, Inc. General Managers (Randy) who showed us Chica's space as it was soon to open (late May 2017). The restaurant space looked inviting and warm. I was excited by Randy's description of Chica's Latin culinary focus who would be helmed by celebrated Latin Chef Lorena Garcia.
I recently planned a weeklong birthday celebration for my husband at Las Vegas, NV and chose Chica to be the first restaurant on our culinary slate. We wanted to try their lunch menu first before being joined by good friends to do their dinner. Both times, we made reservations as there were several conventions in town and we knew by Chica's Yelp rating that this restaurant was certainly popular.
Our lunch server, José M, was simply awesome! This guy exuded professionalism, warmth, humor and attentiveness. Being that this was our first dine at Chica, we had several questions about the menu. José's menu descriptions enlightened us about what is Latin cuisine as many people only associate Latin cuisine with Mexican cuisine. Latin America refers to territories and countries in the Americas where Spanish or Portuguese languages prevail such as Mexico, most of Central and South America, and in the Caribbean, Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. His descriptions of the menu items were so mouthwatering that I wished for our friends to hurry and join us for dinner so we could try more items.
FOOD:
-Grilled Peruvian Octopus: grilled octopus served with aji amarillo sauce, blistered Shishito peppers, crispy quinoa, spicy guasacaca pico. As we walked into The Venetian Resort, we noticed a huge poster of this appetizer. How could we resist from ordering such a "Vision of Beauty"? The octopus tentacles were grilled and seasoned to perfection. It's tender bite was nicely complemented with the spicy and pleasing blistered shishito peppers and spicy aji amarillo sauce.
-Empanadas: 3 house made pastry dough half-moons were generously filled with braised ground beef, sweet plantains and black beans. They were finshed with queso fresco and spicy guasacaca pico. The pastry was light and flaky, unlike other empanada pastry which often tends to be mealy or crumbly. These empanadas were good sized at least 3.5"-4". Very tasty and filling.
-Hoppin' José Rice: Our server described this side dish as fried Jasmine rice mixed with black eyed peas or beans and topped with avocado guacamole and cilantro. He had us at fried rice! Of course, we ordered this side to pair with our entrée.
-Meyer Lemon Rotisserie Chicken: slow rotisserie roasted Meyer lemon marinated chicken lightly slathered with chimichurri served with Peruvian purple potato salad. We ordered a 1/2 chicken which was plump and cut into 4 manageable and generous sized pieces. The chicken had nice crisped skin, juicy and flavorful meat. The chimichurri complemented and added a fresh dimension. Also served with this entrée was Peruvian purple potato salad...this cold potato salad was tasty without being overly sauced. It was pretty to look at and by the way, the Peruvian purple potato is not a sweet one like the Okinawan variety.
DESSERT:
-Churro Pops: 3 caramel ice cream (dulce de leche) pops coated in fried cinnamon churro crumbs were served with 3 quenelles of vanilla bean Anglaise. OMG! These pops and quenelles were absolutely delicious, silky and "sinfully" delicious. If I didn't have lactose intolerance, I could've eaten the entire dessert myself BUT I did show restraint!
José and the rest of Chica's staff certainly made our lunch very memorable and we DID return for dinner a few days later.
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