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The downtown restaurant feels like a hot spot with design elements meant to conjure and nod to a street stall. In the front room, along one side, hand-scrawled signs are strung up on colorful squares of paper above the glassed-in kitchen; in the back room, the red walls are decorated with artist Kozem's graffiti lettering of the restaurant's name, as well as a streetware-clad alpaca wielding a spray paint can. There's a lot of concrete — the columns, the floors — and it's all very industrial and very, very loud. On the right night, with the right dishes, Mo-Chica is serving up loud, raucous, colorful food in a loud, colorful, raucous room that celebrates Peru, Los Angeles and the exceedingly fun intermingling of the two.
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Ricardo Zarate has taken his whiz-kid Peruvian place Mo-Chica from a stall in Mercado la Paloma and moved it downtown, opening a restaurant that tries to channel that street-food vibe in a swanker setting. There's stylized graffiti on the walls,... More »
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Mo-Chica is easily my favorite restaurant in DTLA.
We ordered:
Albacore Ceviche: I expected this to be more traditionally prepared. Instead, this had nice slices of fresh albacore slightly wading in a sauce.
Chicharron de Pollo: Again, I expected some deep fried chicken skin yum! This had more meat than expected and was more of a chicken nugget. It was still tasty though.
Lomo Saltado: This was definitely a fusion version of the traditional dish. It had different spices that definitely kicked it up a notch. Even the rice was bursting with flavor.
Choritos: LOVED. I ordered more bread to soak up the last of the sauce.
Roasted Black Cod: Not bad but not a must try.
Paella: This was good but I have to say I tasted better.
Sol y Sombre & Chocolate Ganache Cookie: So good.
I'm Grapey and I Know it Cocktail: Because of the name wiggle wiggle
I highly recommend checking it out!
Mo-Chica, a hip, vibrant restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, which serves some of L.A.'s best Peruvian cuisine, began life as a small counter in Mercado la Paloma, a warehouse-turned-marketplace near USC. The menu -- traditional dishes with modern touches and quality ingredients -- garnered critical acclaim for chef Ricardo Zarate, a Lima native. Zarate went on to open Picca in West L.A., which focuses on Japanese-inspired Peruvian cuisine (think tiny tapas and raw fish). Now,... More »
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