Cha Cha's

L and I used to live on the Gold Coast a few years ago, and we probably ate out at Cha Chas Japanese at Broadbeach once a week. We hadn’t been there in a long time, so when the opportunity arose to eat there with my workmates I was excited. 

We had a large group of about 20 people with a 6pm booking and were told that they needed our table at 8pm. Fortunately, the food came out quickly and we didn’t feel rushed to eat at all. 

Cha Chas had expanded in size since we last ate there, and now accommodates tables in the old cake shop next door as well as an alleyway down beside the two shop areas. 

The place was absolutely packed out for the entire time we were there, if you go you definitely need to book a table, and they do like to turn the tables over, so it is not a good idea to go if you want a leisurely long dinner. It is also extremely loud and the tables are crowded together, and there is a constant stream of people on the footpath outside waiting for a table. 

The menu was still the same as the last time we had gone, so fortunately we were able to order our usuals. The prices however had gone up a couple of dollars, expected to happen over a couple of years of course!

We ordered edamame beans ($4) to munch on first between a few of us. Nothing much to say about these, they are a pretty standard offering at all Japanese establishments. 

We ordered salmon sashimi ($11.90) and gyoza ($6.90) as our entrees.

We were disappointed in these, as the salmon used to be beautifully presented and the gyoza were pan fried, but are now deep fried and overdone. This is probably the result of larger turnover and more tables and trying to do things faster in the kitchen. The salmon was still extremely fresh and it comes with two sauces, a mayonnaise and soy. The mayonnaise goes really well with the salmon. 

Cha Chas is known for its steak dishes, so we usually order one of these each. I ordered miso steak don ($18.90) and L ordered spicy steak don (same price).

This is a bowl of rice with a 200g sliced piece of steak on top cooked to your liking with your sauce of choice and a small assortment of tempura vegetables. Other sauce choices include teriyaki, butter and garlic and teppan. You can also order a slightly larger steak of 250g that comes out plated with a separate small serving of rice, these steaks have a wider range of sauces to choose from. 

The steak dons were fortunately exactly the same as we remembered and were delicious, cooked rare as we ordered them and the tempura vegies were great on the side. The miso steak offering had an overwhelming ginger flavour and was quite sweet.

Our general feeling is that Cha Chas is still a great and cheap place to eat, but unfortunately due to its increasing popularity, some of the dishes are probably not as good as they used to be and they seem to be cutting corners to cope with the amount of food they now are serving up. It was great to visit it again however, and I am sure we will be back to eat there again in future. 

Love,
C