Chego Opens in Chinatown: Delivery to Downtown and Echo Park Planned

It's located inside Far East Plaza on Broadway (feelin' artsy with the color tools)

If you've walked or biked around Chinatown lately, you know that except for a few art galleries, almost everything looks about the same as it did when your parents first took you for dim sum in the '70s, '80s or '90s. It's nostalgic, but it could also use a little freshening up. Fortunately, Kogi BBQ truck mogul Roy Choi, who clustered his other restaurants around Palms in West L.A., has moved his most casual spot Chego to Chinatown's Far East Plaza. Although I mourn the tiny Mandarin Deli branch in that same plaza (it was the only one in the mini-chain to offer fish dumplings), Chego is a worthy replacement -- and one that stays open until 11 pm at night and offers curbside pickup with even DELIVERY coming soon.

Chego occupies a bright little corner spot, and there's also picnic tables outside

For the uninitiated, Chego's food is sort of like Asian fusion food that went to the beach, donned some flip flops, and then got shitfaced and fell in a bowl of sriracha. It's freakin' delicious, even if the saucing tends to the extreme side. And unlike the belly bomb kimchi quesadillas of the Kogi truck, Chego offers a seasonal veggie plate, a "$12 salad" for $8 and loads plenty of greens onto the various bowls.
Chego's signature dish, and the one that most befitting of an inebriated state, is Ooey Gooey Fries: a $6 boat packed with beer-battered potato wedges and topped with sour cream sambal, monterey jack and cheddar cheese, cotija, chilies, cilantro and pickled garlic.

Sour cream hen house: chicken, rice and then some

More modest eaters will be plenty satisfied with one of the "Big Kid Meals" -- $8-$9 rice bowls that include a vegetarian Kung Pau Noodle Bowl, Kimchi Spam Bowl, The Leafy T: Fried chili garlic tofu rice with fried egg and Chinese broccoli, Chubby pork belly, The Beefy T: diced prime rib rice and pictured above, Sour Cream Hen House, a devilish mixture of grilled chicken, fried egg, Chinese broccoli topped with sour cream sambal, Thai basil, sesame and red jalapeno. If you're not feeling rice-y, there's also a prime rib sandwich and half pound Chego burger.
Needless to say, you'll want to take young guys with you if possible, so you can justify ordering the Ooey Gooey Fries as a side.
Chego
727 N. Broadway #117 (in the Far East Plaza)
Chinatown
2 hours free parking in the lot next door
Open 11-11 Tuesday through Sunday
323-380-8680