Cha Cha's In Bocca Al Lupo

02/11/12

ADDIO CHA CHA'S!

by vovkadav at Citysearch

On February 10, drifting the City with the out-of-towners and a foreign guest, we arrived at my traditional stopping-place in Little Italy: Cha Cha's In Bocca Al Lupo. That night they had a stand-up comedy show. On this occasion we were served with an enormous portion of jokes mentioning "f...ing blacks" and "f...ing jews". We demanded the manager and the waiters to stop that unspeakable idiocy, but they just tried to calm us down promising that it all will end up in a few minutes. So we had to act immediately, and stopped the show of one pig-faced farceur vocally. After two decades of my loyal patronage of Cha Cha's I will never set my foot in that establishment. I feel sad and rather disgusted.

06/04/09

Skip this one.

by frednwilma at Citysearch

My servers was RUDE and unhelpful. Many restaurants in this area are more than happy to please their guests and next time I will find myself at one of them. Pasta was consistently overcooked and entire place looked filthy.

• Pros: None
• Cons: Dirty, rude service, underwhelming food

11/17/08

NEW AND IMPROVED CHA CHA'S

by Princess50 at Citysearch

The holiday season is the most fun in NYC, especially on Mulberry St, Little Italy. The sights, shopping are great, but the food is better.

The one thing you will first notice at Cha Cha's is there is no one out in front begging you to come in & eat, like all the other restaurants. The second is Cha Cha, who is usually sitting out in front talking with some guys who look like they are right out of The Soprano's, one of many shows this owner has been in. He greets you warmly & you are on your way to a simple, but good dining experience.

I had not been there for a year & thought I would give it one more chance The restaurant has a new menu & a new attitude toward the customers. The house salad was more than the usual iceberg lettuce, good dark greens & fresh tomatoes, ask for olive & vinegar on the side. The meatballs were heaven! Cha Cha said they were is mother's receipe. We had a second order to go. Mini pizzas say they are for 1 or 2, but to me sharing is not caring. Try the "Alla Cha Cha". The sausage & peppers are to die for either as a paltter or hero. The desserts are too wonderful, but they are know for the Cannoli & holy moley, the Tiramisu is killer.

Cha Cha's has a full bar, but now they are making & importing their own wine. Cha Cha's grandfather's receipe. 14% alcohol contend! It was quite a surprise, I was expecting dull, sour tasting table wine. What I got was something all together different, a wine much like I had gotten in little farmhouse restaurants in Italy. Not what I would expect from a simple little joint like this! Trust me try a bottle, or two.

The restaurant is what I would call reasonably priced & oh yes, there is a pretty, sweet patio with heaters in the back where you can dine & wait for it, SMOKE! Take that mayor Bloomberg.

Yes, the waitstaff could be a little quicker, but all in all a great experience & quite a change from a year ago.

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• Pros: Simple good food, amazing desserts, homemade wine, heated patio for dining & smoking.
• Cons: Service a tad slow

08/10/07

What a jewel of a place on Mulberry Street

by wendywinn at Citysearch

Yesterday we took a trip to NYC to do a little shopping and stopped at this quant little place on Mulberry Street near Canal. This interior had that "old world charm" (which definitely added to the experience) and the meal was a pleasure. Apparently Cha Cha has his own line of sausage and it was the best I have had in a long time. Don't skip dessert, the cannoli was out of this world! We ate in the outdoor garden and even with the heat, the temperature was confortable. We're planning on coming down for the San Gennaro Feast, and I now where our home base will be!

03/19/07

Don't go there

by edbx at Citysearch

We went there for lunch. There was a big difference between what we ordered and what we actually got. We ordered full lunch dishes, yet we got some snacks. The quantity of food was so small that even a child might still have been hungry afterwards. Quality - bad. Nothing like Italian food. The only kind of spaghetti they had was Marinara, which was extremely over baked(felt like it was 1-2 days old) and the sauce was beyond average.

Water served in plastic glasses.

• Cons: Food, quality and quantity