Cha Cha Cha

656 N Virgil Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90004
(323) 664-7723
www.theoriginalchachacha.com

Parking: $5 Valet and neighborhood residential parking (read the signs, ya'll)
Days: Daily
Time: Sunday - Thursday – 4-10pm; Friday & Saturday – 4-7pm
Drink Deals: $2 Sangria by the glass; $3 Miller Light, Corona, Mojito, Margaritas, House Red & White Wine; $10 Sangria pitcher
Food Deals: Nice selection of bites from $2-5.95

Cha Cha Cha from Outside

As Sam Cooke once sang, “Everybody loves to Cha Cha Cha.” I think that sentiment is still living and breathing in Los Angeles – at least for the rest of the year as Cha Cha Cha restaurant celebrates its 25th anniversary by offering a daily Happy Hour that runs often and a lot and features terrific prices.

Inside Cha Cha Cha

The scene is cool too – a little restaurant at the corner of Virgil and Melrose on the slightly East side. It’s decorated with pink walls, pink-flowered tablecloths, religious iconography, and Christmas lights. Kitschy, retro, rad.

Happy Hour is served in a smaller room that’s just off the main dining room and features an assortment of tasty options. We started off with a $10 pitcher of sangria and I’ll be darned if that didn’t make 3 glasses each for Booze, our college pal, Kate & I.

Booze & Kate & glasses of Sangria ($3/glass or $10 for a pitcher!)

After we finished that and our delicious assortment of vittles (described below), we each tried some of the Happy Hour-priced cocktails – the $3 Corona for Booze, $3 margarita for Kate (prepared with fresh lime, no sour), and $3 mojito for me. For those latter drinks – the alcohol was strong and the drinks were pretty awesome. The sweet mojito was definitely my favorite of all sampled drinks from the evening.

Margarita & Mojito ($3 each)

For eats, we sampled mas from the HH menu :

Chips & Salsa ($2) and Chips & Guacamole ($4.95 – not on HH) -
Yummy chips with Island Seasoning

Plantains ($2) – served with a nice cream sauce & Guava & Goat Cheese Quesadilla ($3) –
as good as it sounds – phenomenal flavor!

Jerk Pork ($3.95) & Sopes de Pollo ($3.95) –
the girls enjoyed these meaty apps!

Jerk Chicken Pizza ($5.95) – I couldn’t resist, had to take the chicken off a piece and try the pizza – LOVED the jerk sauce!

When we arrived, we were the first group seated in the Happy Hour room and saw several other date night peeps come and go by the time we closed the joint down (it closes at 10pm on weeknights = nothing too crazy, sorry to report!). Not that we were kicked out or anything, our servers were all nice and helpful!

I’m not sure what the end of its 25th anniversary year will do the Happy Hour times & deals – hopefully not much. For now, the Happy Hour at Cha³ is downright brilliant. Don’t go changing, Cha Cha Cha.

Happy Tourist

--JB

Rating: 5 Martinis