Philadelphia features regularly in my travel schedule because my eldest son has made it his home for the next five years while studying for his Bachelor's degree. It is enough of a drive that any trip will involve an overnight stay and consequently eating out. The challenge is trying to find a place to eat where the food is likely to appeal to our very different palates. One untried recommendation from a previous visit was Chifa, one of Jose Garces' many restaurants in Philadelphia. The name of the restaurant reflects that the food is listed as Chinese/Peruvian. The menu mixes dishes such as pork buns, noodles, ribs and wings that feature on any Chinese restaurant menu with ceviche, chaufa and other menu items that sound much more interesting.

The dining room is divided into two sections. Close to the front door, trios of tables set for two people are separated by curtain dividers. The room then opens into a larger dining area with booths down each side. Chifa’s menu is small plate based and the wait staff were conscientious about making sure we were aware that plates would turn up randomly unless we went for one of two tasting menus on offer. Our choice was to go for four shared plates and then see if we wanted to order more.

After food was ordered, cheese buns were brought to the table with an accompaniment of jalapeno jam. The bread itself was really tasty with or without the jam. 

First of the ordered items to arrive at the table was our choice of ceviche. Chifa offers three different themes of ceviche. Ecuadorian is tomato based, Peruvian the more expected base of leche de tigre and the third option has a soy-lemongrass base to give more of a Japanese type flavour. Each ceviche is prepared with your choice of fish depending on availability each evening. Our choice was the Peruvian ceviche with hiramasa, a variety of yellowtail. Decent-sized chunks of fish were cured in the lime juice marinade and topped with shaved sweet potato and sliced pickled onion. It was served with a side of crispy buttered corn nuts that were pleasant but not really needed. The marinaded fish itself had a wonderful flavour but none of the trimmings added much, particularly the sweet potato. The mote (cooked grain) in the dish contributed some different texture and the thinly sliced pickled onion rings added a gentle acetic acid contrast to the lime juice. The dish was good but that was down to the fish and leche de tigre rather than anything else.

Next item up was Vietnamese spring rolls. The main ingredient was smoked shrimp and the scent of the rolls as they came to the table was wonderful, building anticipation. Unfortunately the overall taste was bland, although the peanut hoisin sauce helped make it a bit more interesting.  

The first meat dish was a generous hunk of barbecue ribs with a char siu glaze. This split into 4 rib portions so there was plenty for two people. Crumbled peanut was sprinkled on top of the meat and a sliver of crisp daikon was the accompaniment. This was one of the safe bets on the menu and turned out to be one of the highlights of the meal. The pork predictably moist, soft and easy to pull away from the bones and was a nice satisfying course.

The last of our first batch of orders, arriving with the ribs, were chicken wings. These had been breaded, deep-fried and were served with a spicy ginger-garlic sauce and a spring onion and sesame seed garnish. The wings were served in a small, deep bowl so they were close to vertical. This resulted in the sauce running off the wings and gathering in the base of the dish which was really not well thought through. The wings were nicely cooked and the sauce was good although they were only mildly hot. Anise was the standout spice flavour. If these wings were good but if they had been presented in a better dish allowing the wings to rest in the sauce it would have been more satisfying.

Reasonably encouraged by the first four dishes, we opted to go for four more. Chaufa with scallop showed more of the Peruvian influence. Rice was stir-fried with small dices of chorizo, mango and edamame. This was topped with two tender scallops that were nicely caramelised. The mango helped give the rice a wonderful light refreshing edge and this was a dish that we could happily have eaten again although more scallops would have been a better balance for the amount of rice.

Salt and pepper shrimp came out to accompany the chaufa. Whole shrimp were battered and served with aritacha mayonnaise and scallion purée. These were very disappointing. Although the shrimp was succulent, the batter was leaden and just too doughy in consistency. 

The poor streak continued with the chaufa with oxtail. Both this and the shrimp had been identified as the definite that we had to order. The fried rice came with Chinese bacon, edamame and pineapple. Unfortunately the massaman curry oxtail, although tasty, was stirred through the rice rather than topping it like the scallop dish. The problems for us included the bacon being too intensely salty for the rest of the dish. The pineapple didn’t add the lightness we’d seen from the mango. In the end, we picked out the beef and left most of the dish.

The final dish was duck taco that helped end the meal on a relative high. Flour tortilla discs were topped with duck confit that was further garnished with julienned radish, house kimchi and slivers of crackling. The light touch of the radish was welcome and the kimchi had a very pleasant tangy burn to it. 

At this point we’d eaten plenty so did not consider dessert

Overall verdict.
I was really looking forward to Chifa and I’m not sure that the overall experience lived up to my expectation. Three of the eight dishes fell badly short and while none would be on my worst dishes of the year list, none of the better dishes are likely to trouble the best of the year list either.

Would I revisit Chifa?
Possibly. However, the more I eat at places with no defined courses, the more I dislike the food turning up randomly or as multiple items at once. This does not encourage relaxing over a meal and I came away from this meal feeling rushed.


Overall Rating - 2.5/5