Cha-Cha-Cha Salsaria

My wife and I had been going to Cha Cha Cha’s almost every Friday night for many years — dating back to their old location. However, we pretty much stopped going a few years ago — except for maybe once every 6 months — for the following reasons:
— Some very good waiters and waitresses either quit or were fired, and their replacements were terrible. I can’t say that I’ve ever experienced really bad service there, but apathetic and forgetful — yes. Owners should understand that sometimes when the food isn’t quite up to par — maybe the cook is having an off night — it’s the servers that can sometimes rescue the situation. Even if the food is excellent, a terrible server can make everything a bad experience.
— Food and drink prices kept going up, up, up with quality and atmosphere going down, down, down. Food portions seemed to be smaller and smaller.
— It seems their margaritas were somehow changed over the years from being limey to being made with lemonade. When the good waiters/​waitresses were there, they knew us and would make sure that our margaritas didn’t taste like lemonade. We tried to relay this to the new waiters/​waitresses with no success. They gave us extra limes and lime juice to put in, but it seemed like nobody knew how to make a limey margarita. We wound up getting flavored margaritas to drown out the lemon taste. Maybe Caribbean margaritas are made with lemonade, and that’s the way they’re supposed to taste, but this is the first Mexican restaurant I’ve ever been in where they didn’t taste like lime.
— The music was becoming very loud. The entertainment has always been good, but it was becoming impossible to carry on a normal conversation at the table (outside) without hollering. I realize that many people who go to a restaurant prefer to eat with their faces in their cell phones and not actually talk to the people they’re with, but we are not them.
— The patio eating area is an awesome setting, but it was getting run down and dirty and needed TLC, which it clearly wasn’t getting.
— On one occasion, when the entertainment was done playing, a man (one of the owners we were told) stood up and reminded us all that tips were gratefully accepted. This was the last straw for me — an absolute lack of class on that individual’s part. I will tip if/​when I feel it’s appropriate. I don’t need to be reminded by an owner who has perhaps had too many drinks.
Fast forward to last Friday night… We decided to give Cha Cha Cha’s another try since we hadn’t been there for a very long time. Much to our surprise, things were much better. The drink menu even used the word «lime» in it’s margarita descriptions, and they were, in fact, limey. The entertainment was good as always, and we could actually hear each other talking at the table. Waiters and waitresses were great, food was excellent, portions were larger. It seems all the things I bitched about above no longer exist — at least not last Friday. Let’s hope they are permanently fixed. And, there was no jackass telling us to tip at the end of the entertainment. We’ll be back.

Terrible experience here for two recent visits. What a shame as the atmosphere and location are great! They have potential but need to make some major changes. Food was mediocre but service inexcusably poor. Went for 2015 Christmas boat parade evening. They offered a set $ 30 menu of fajitas served on paper plates. Rating as average food quality is being pretty generous. We asked for extra guacamole but told because it was a set menu they could not provide it (even though we were happy to pay extra). Finished the meal off with a very small piece of key lime pie that looked like it was made from a Betty Crocker key lime bar mix. I would love to have a good Mexican restaurant close to home and love being on the water. Hopefully the owners will pay attention to feedback and make improvements.

Food was delicious, and as a man from the south I was pleasantly surprised with the taste of the salsa. I ordered the BBQ CHICKEN burrito and got plenty full. I had to order rice and beans on the side, but probably because they were mixed into the burrito. The beans were a tad bland, but again I’m around the best Tex Mex in the world and really can’t complain as they tasted fresh. To top it off service was quick, and Danny our waiter did a great job explaining the flavor combinations of the food here (specifically the benefit of salsa to a particular meal) I would highly recommend this place. I heard of this place on Unilocal,I am staying with a group not too far from here and they wanted to try Mexican for dinner and gave this place a shot, as everyone in my group was from either OK or TX consensus was this placed helped with our fix.

Ate there tonight after much anticipation and I don’t know if it was a full moon but nothing went right.
Sat down by the water to live music so I was super stoked. I’m all about ambiance, so I was thinking «can’t get any better than this, right?»… I was so wrong. After we sat, we waited an obnoxiously long time to get our order taken. The waitress was a sweetie (at first) so I tried my hardest to be patient and I decided to just order everything drinks, food etc. Everything went downhill from there.
Before we got refreshments brought over, we waited so so long. Chips arrived at some point, no napkins which was annoying, then our drinks came wayyy later. Then something really odd happened as well, the musician’s music turned from mellow and sweet to straight up American idol reject. I have low to no expectations and would never critique someone’s singing to be mean, but he flipped the switch and started belting out sharp flat notes. I kid you not he was wailing and singing so sharp I could not even think it hold a convo with my fam. There were a few tables near me and their babies even started crying. I almost wanted to pull out my camera phone and video just how bizarre it all was because I thought no one will believe it, but I had no napkins and I had been eating chips and salsa.
Besides everything being delayed, things were wrong. I had ordered a patron on the rocks with club soda, but I received just a warm shot of patron instead, that’s it. I asked for water 10x and did not ever receive it. The waitress seemed distracted or something. She walked over with a water pitcher and I started getting excited that after an hour I would finally get the water I asked kindly for more than enough times, but she didn’t bring the cup so she walked away and never came back.
The way the night was going I knew complaining would do me no good. I could hear ALL the tables around me pitching a fit and I’m just too tired for that so I walked up and asked for the check and got out of there. The waitress did seem a little defeated and she apologized things took long, but I’m not really sure I will ever come back. Cold fish, warm patron, no water… No thanks.

If I could give a negative star I would. Worst service I have had in a really long time. Got there at 5:45pm for dinner Monday, got some menus for our party of 6 and seated ourselves. We sat there with staff walking back and forth past us for 20 mins before we flagged down one guy who looked a little confused to see if he could get us a waiter or someone who could get us water and take our order. Finally got some water and one small basket of chips to share for 6 people. Pretty lame. Sat there for at least 10 more mins until a waitress finally came by to take our order. After our order was taken we waited for our food FOREVER! Understand that we have 4 children with us who were ver hungry at this point and Taco Bell was sounding better and better each min. My husband got up to find our waitress to see how much longer the food was going to take. She kept reassuring it was coming up next. We finally got out food at 7:18pm. And to make it even better my husband’s burrito was wrong, my plate was missing items and my daughter’s taquitos were burnt to a crisp. Needless to say, Taco Bell would have been a thousand times better and a LOT faster. The only saving grace was our bill was comped for the horrible service and food. Would not recommend or ever go back again.

This review is a little biased because I only ever order one thing at Cha Cha Cha.
Their taco salad is the best one I’ve ever had. You can get it in the deep fried tortilla bowl or just in a regular bowl. I opt for the regular bowl cause I’m defeating my healthy salad eating ways if I get the deep fried shell. I always get it with steak (which costs $ 1extra) and although it just comes with salsa and sour cream I ask for a side of their famous salad dressing… Creamy Garlic Lime. OMG this is the best salad dressing ever!!! Get it!

Much better this time. We went last Friday night; slow food delivery because they were packed, but the servers had warned us the food would be slow so we were prepared.
Salsa was back on the good taste again. Food and beans were good again. I had the two meat enchiladas with carnitas and picodillo beef (beef was good but not great; carnitas was great). Beans were good. My wife had the chile relleno casserole which was really good!
What we’ve learned here is there’s a lack of consistency to food quality. So far we’re 2 of 3 with good food and just once with mediocre food, Kinda surprising that on this really busy night the food was great and on a dead afternoon the food was uninspired.
Note for management: Keep up the good food consistency and ensure your servers notify customers of delays (he did) and we’ll keep coming back.

My friends and I decided to have an early dinner. The restaurants we wanted to go originally were not open yet so we ended up going here.
This place does not look family friendly when you first walk in because you have to go through the bar to get to the dining area. But the inside is actually very nice with an ocean view.
The menu has good selection of vegetarian food, healthy options and kids menu too. I had tofu enchilada and it was quite tasty.
The waiter was friendly but she rushed us out maybe because of the kids? (they were quiet) or because we were not ordering drinks? Not sure.

Fantastic views, an AMAZING happy hour and almost FREE MARGARITAS!!!* (*see below). Warm tortilla chips and nice salsa.
Now that I’ve been away from Hawaii and Hawaii Kai for close to three years, and revisited Cha Cha Cha, I can reflect on the great places that really made my life special in Hawaii.
Cha Cha Cha was one of them.
Gosh… I see some of those photos that other customers have posted and seeing them reminds me of just how good things were there.
Looking back, I realize that in this kind of location… there should only be a choice between 4 stars and 5 stars. The same goes for Dukes, Top of Waikiki, The Shorebird, and other special places like this.
For those of you who gave 3 stars or less to THIS restaurant, with THESE margaritas, these chips, in THIS LOCATION… ARE YOU LOCO ???

If you weren’t happy on one visit, contact the owner immediately and she’ll make a special effort to make your food experience better.
If you are capable of giving 1 or 2 or even 3 stars to a location like this… with GOOD food, and such an incredible view… it’s just sad.
I used to live only 3 blocks away from Cha-​Cha-​Cha Salsaria.
I used to go there at LEAST once a week, sometimes 2 or 3 times.
Could this be one of the best happy hours anywhere?
I’ll tell you why… the margaritas are ridiculously cheap considering the location and size of the drinks.
There’s an unpublished formula for places with amazing views and/​or incredible atmosphere… you’ve GOT to give a value to the view or mood.
Here, in my opinion… the mood and views is worth about $ 2 to $ 3 per drink.
My thinking is, it’s sort of like a cover charge… just to sit down, looking over the water and the views of Koko Head, has a value.
Translation… at Duke’s Waikiki, the drinks are FREE. About the same at Top of Waikiki. Just sitting down is worth the $ 4 or $ 5 or $ 6 you pay for a drink.
At Cha Cha Cha… happy hour margs are less than $ 5… so… virtually free.
Even when some food items aren’t spectacular… I’ve never left dissatisfied.
Go and enjoy.
Watch the kids sailing lessons some afternoons. Watch boats and paddlers passing by while you’re enjoying drinks and chips and your dish of choice.
They have some nice live music many late afternoons and early evenings too.
If you’re sooo picky that you can’t enjoy these views… might as well eat at McDonald’s.

I wanted to like it. I went there because I hoped that I’d like it. I don’t think that I’ll be back.
Service — 3 stars. The servers did what I asked them to do. No more, no less.
Food — 2 stars. We ordered two Chimichangas, because a deep fried burrito isn’t a work of culinary art, but it’s tough to screw it up. I had shreaded beef, she had carne assada (not normally served in the Chimi. The shreaded beef was ample, but was made Hawaiian BBQ style. Not great from a Mexican cuisine style, but the place caters primarily to locals from what I saw. The carne assada wasn’t seasoned or marinated. Stuffed into a Chimi, it was tolerable — a 2, nothing better.
The location is very nice, right on the harbor. We sat outside. That was a good part of the meal. If you just want to show up for drinks on the patio, it might not be a bad choice if you’re hanging in that part of West Honolulu — but we went for the food.
The place is run down, food is marginal and there are nicer places to get a cocktail in the area. I won’t be back.

Well. Let me just say it is very hard to find decent Mexican food in Hawaii. So with that in mind I’ll go ahead and give this place 4stars.
My server was friendly, but never filled my water and took long periods of time before she came back to my table. Service wasn’t 4stars but it’s cool.
I loved the colorful chips. The red salsa is BOMB. The verde is not good. Which was a let down for me. I love verde salsa.
I really wanted to try their caso in hopes that it would be good like back home. Nope :/​sorry. It wasn’t the worst but I wouldn’t order it again.
Street tacos are my favorite, and I had high hopes for these as well. They were actually good despite having cheese on them. That’s not how they do it in Mexico. I chose Asada and the meat was tasty.
I had fried ice cream for desert and it was very yummy!
My daughter loved the scenery and the ducks. The patio outside was breezy and fun. I enjoyed our lunch and will be back.

We saw this place on one of the food shows.
I read some of the negative reviews, maybe it’s a miss and go place.
We went to lunch on a Friday. Place was pretty empty but food was good, okay on time and staff was ok/​nice.
I had pork verde burrito, others had cheese enchiladas and super cha cha.
All was good, on enchiladas ask for easy sauce or on da side.
Only thing I would saw, tables and chairs need a deep clean ;)

We were looking forward to dining at Cha Cha Chas after watching it on food network or one of those cooking shows. When we walked in we there was about 5 other folks seated. It’s open seating so we found a round table towards the back.
The waiter took our drink order and brought us some chips. I decided to be safe and order the cheese enchiladas with rice n beans. You can’t mess this up or can you? All I could taste was cheese and the thick spicy red sauce. I’m not sure that it was wrapped in a tortilla because I couldn’t taste or see it. I ate it with my chips. I wouldn’t recommend this dish.
Husband ordered the pork verde which he said wasn’t bad. Aaron had a chicken enchilada and taco. Said it was OK too.
The chairs, menu and table was sticky icky.

100 Unilocal Review Challenge 2015: ¹¹²⁄₁₀₀
I love Mexican food and I know, I know, «Hawaii doesn’t have real Mexican food» but hey, I take what I can get. This place has finally been checked off my To-​Try-​Mexican-​Restaurant list!
Occasion: Dinner on a Thursday night
Wait time: None
Reservation: None
Parking: A+ for ample parking in the shopping center complex.
Atmosphere: D for the amount of flying insects suiciding in my drink & food that came from the
patio door left open!
Service: A+ for super friendly, informative and prompt server.
Food: C+ for warm-​not hot dishes, soggy tortilla chips & dry black beans. Vast menu options.
Price: B for average prices for Mexican food in Hawaii. They have gift cards, $ 100 for $ 79 at Costco FYI.
Summary: Great service but not so great food. And the insects. Oh the insects were driving me crazy, killing one between each bite!

Never Again.
30 minute wait with tables wide open — under-​staffed. Waitress rushed us and was not polite when it came to ordering. They advertised shrimp street tacos in quantities of 2 or 4, so I asked our waitress for clarification on portions and she didn’t seem to know and was completely clueless. I just took a wild guess and ordered two with a side of the table guacamole. Guacamole was definitely NOT fresh and NOT to order. I’ve never seen such watery guac before in my life. It tasted decent so I just decided to stomach it and not complain.
Please see photo of the shrimp tacos for reference. They are so pathetic I actually laughed when they came out. 2 pieces of shrimp with some white onions, cilantro and tiny bit of melted cheese. At first I thought I could order some veggies to dress it up with, but then I thought there’s just no way to save these tacos, and I really shouldn’t have to pay $ 12 for these.
I politely told the waitress, «I’m sorry these weren’t what I was expecting, I’d like to change them in for the shrimp quesadilla, and no sour cream.» I wasn’t rude at all, and this is not an uncommon thing to happen at a restaurant, as a server you should be used to it (especially at this crappy place) Instead of apologizing, or just taking care of it, she decided she needed to make some kind of statement to me, so she said. «Just so you know for future reference, when you order street tacos, this is what they’re going to look like.» and walked off. Incredibly unnecessary.
The quesadilla ended up being drizzled in sour cream (which I had asked for none of) but it was actually okay — not the best. We asked if she could split the bill, and she said she could, but then brought it to us un-​split. When she went to split it she got the checks wrong. I really think at this point she was either high, or just messing with us.
In the middle of the meal it began to rain heavily out of nowhere. Our food got soaking wet and I don’t blame them for the rain, but not once did any waiter offer any table to help replace some of the now inedible food items or even napkins etc. I noticed not only us, but every table around us had to fend for themselves and also ask all their wait staff for replacement items. How are you not already proactive about fixing that? I’m boggled.
In conclusion, I don’t expect 5 star treatment at a 1 star establishment, but this place made me want to talk to a manager (I didn’t) but that’s why I’m here writing this review.
DON’T GO.

My gentleman and I went before sunset for a refreshing Margarita, to listen to some pleasant music and enjoy some Mexican food.
We were seated at a small table immediately in front of the stage and as we didn’t want to compete with the band to talk to each other, we requested another small table… I attempted (as did my date) to snag the attention of what seemed like 7 or 8 wait staff to no avail. I stood and found the man who must have been the manager as he commented that he had reassigned the tables and would remind the waitress. After another 4 – 6 minute wait, our waitress arrived… bordering surly. My date said she seemed to be ‘on’ something. She improved as the evening progressed and was pleasant and efficient at the end.
The Margaritas were refreshing, but no discernible tequila… he commented that he should have ordered a shot for it. I ordered the shredded beef burrito smothered in roja sauce. It comes with rice and beans in it… I requested them on the side. The rice and beans were uninspired. The burrito, mostly flour tortilla was made with barbecue sauce! A horrid surprise when the expectation is Mexican, if any, seasoning. The roja sauce was minimal and the cheese was almost non-​existent. He ordered a jerk chicken burrito, he says because of the waitress… funny guy… he says it was not inedible, but also not memorable and not a reason to return.
I must add the musicians, NOT Danny Carvalho promised in the on-​line schedule, to be pleasant and professional entertainment.
The ambiance was great, though he commented that it needed some care.

They have a decent happy hour, and there is a beautiful outside seating area. Service was on par, but I think this is more of an appetizer and drinks place for me. The food was ok, but nothing to write home about. Hubs enjoyed the queso, and I had the mini quesadilla appetizer for my meal. Hubs had the carne asada, which was so-​so. But there is something about sitting on the patio with live music watching the ducks swim by that makes this a place that we’ll come back to for pupus and happy hour.

I came here on Cinco De Mayo and it was to be expected to be completely packed. I give kudos to the restaurant to accomdate everyone who wanted to be served by adding tables & chairs with tents outside on the lawn. This included a rope around the additional parameter of the place and everyone shared the tables. Which made for new friends and great conversations.
The service was better this time but the food is still the same. And for that it is A-​Ok in my books.

WHAT?! How does this place only have 3 stars?!
This spot is literally on top of the water on their back deck. The food was really good (coming from someone that loves Mexican food), great happy hour deals, server was great. and did I mention you are on the water with open and unobstructed views? We were the only table on their patio at one point — better views than Longboard factory, love that place too but gotta throw that in there.
If you are craving some Mexican food (which is hard to come by in Hawaii) or a margarita, or maybe just a nice lunch or dinner with a view… highly recommend!

Excellent service, nice ambience, great happy hour! Marissa was our server and it’s a rare that I find service to be more than mediocre, so when it is, I like to recognize it. She was very good to my kids, paying as much attention to them as she did us. I enjoyed eating outside by the water with the live music playing. We were able to get small pitchers of dos Equis Amber for $ 5!
Chips and salsa came free, which anything in Hawaii that’s free is also rare! Yes, we felt the need to ask if refills on chips were free, and yeah! They are! Take advantage of it before the secret gets out and they change it! They have some of the best fish tacos I’ve had and I don’t really like fish tacos. They have a light panko crusting and the fish is mild. They are drizzled with some kind of flavored sour cream that compliments the fish well along with a non dairy based cole slaw. The refried beans and rice are comparable to Taco Bell quality. The shell on the chicken chimichanga is soft on the inside and crispy on the outside, but the flavors are lacking on the ingredients inside. Overall, this is a decent place to grab Mexican if you’re out in Hawaii Kai.