My friends and I spent the better half of Saturday up and down San Francisco's Haight Street, eating, shopping, and drinking. Some takeaways: The Ice Cream Bar, Club Deluxe, Murio's, Magnolia Pub & Brewery, and Hobson's Choice.
We ended the night at Cha Cha Cha, a Caribbean and Cuban tapas restaurant that has locations in both the Haight and the Mission.
We ordered the jerk chicken, the Cajun shrimp, vegetable paella, madras potatoes, calamari, BBQ chicken quesadillas, and sangria.
Everything was tasty, though if asked to pick my favorites, I'd pick the shrimp (the sauce is fantastic, and a good accompaniment to the complimentary bread), the potatoes, and the quesadillas. The jerk was good, though didn't have a distinct enough flavor when compared to some of the more authentic jerk chicken I've eaten. The calamari, too, while good, wasn't anything special. I would have liked there to be more flavor infused in the paella; I appreciated that it wasn't saffron-heavy, given that I dislike that particular spice, but this dish seemed devoid of the rich flavor I expect of paella. The sangria was a hit with others, though I found it too sweet--then again, my palette is biased when it comes to that sort of thing.
Check out (some of) our delicious spread and be jealous:
The only downside to this restaurant is the long wait; I was in good company, which made the almost two hour wait easier to bear. If you've got the time to wait out a table (or can eke out seats at the bar, where their entire menu is served), this restaurant is absolutely worth a visit.
