Task first dishes in North Encinitas and Leucadia. Of the many places that have been in that spot, this one is far and away the best. read more

This place is packed for a Saturday night. As another Yelper said, this restaurant was a woeful Bull Taco before, another sorry ramen shop before that and the wonderful Caribbean restaurant Jamrock before that. A funky triangular shaped building, so Chiko uniquely added a back patio area for more dining space- great for beachy summer nights. The inside space is cramped, you walk in, stand in line to place an order, small highly energetic kitchen behind the register. Counter space in front of kitchen and tables to both sides of the register. Once you order, hostess will direct you to a table; if busy you could wait a bit for a table. The front is cramped because the servers and hostess has to squeeze between the people waiting in line to order and the ordering counter/beverage cooler. Orange-ish chicken was crispy moist and the dipping sauce was delicious. Spicy stir fry shrimp was spicy and tender, served with a complex spicy sauce over rice porridge- sooo good. Appetizers of Napa Kim chee, spicy cucumbers, tots, potato salad or steamed clams. Diverse menu, salmon, shrimp and tots, steak skewers and more. Fast service and expedited kitchen and food comes out fast. Will be back to try more of their menu. Sesame pudding with blood orange sorbet is da bomb! read more

The location is kinda far away from our place but we've been there more than once since the food tastes great and it's worth the time. The portion of the food is decent, too. I recommend the cumin bowl - really flavorful and hearty read more

Excellent food, generous portions and friendly staff. I would definitely recommend to anybody in the area.

Best Korean food in north county San Diego. If they have the dumplings on the menu you'll be in luck. Everything is excellent.

Everything we ordered was SOOO good! Will be a regular visitor. Don't skip the dessert

I am a big fan of this place, I love food that has character to it and everything I've had at Chiko has such amazing flavor. Last night ordered the Chinese broccoli which is incredible and tried the bulgogi ribeye which was amazing and goes super well with it. read more

Delicious and consistent. I am so happy to have quality Asian fusion in the hood! The dishes are inventive with hints of the classic dishes they are created after. read more

There are goods and bads with CHIKO but I'll start with the GOOD. The food is exactly as advertised so be prepared for the fusion experience with flavors and scents that will remind you of the street food vendors in Asia. They nailed the sweet soy garlic sauce and you'll find yourself experimenting and dipping anything edible in it just because you can. The BADs are fixable but with small work arounds since it's related to structure and accessibility. The open concept of making the kitchen front facing and visible may be pleasing to some but is suffocating for those sitting inside. The way the restaurant is designed traps the smoke inside and can be unbearable. It would be better if CHIKO knocked down the wall facing the PCH and made the indoor dining completely open. With that, it is understandable the design of the the outdoor seating is based on its surroundings (the restaurant sits squarely between the railroad tracks and the PCH). The patio could be wider and wrap around the back rather than the picnic tables on dirt. All in all, food = great, eating inside = not great. The experience could've been better had it been outside. I'm also showing up with two children in tow so take this review from a family-friendly perspective. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. read more

We just had the Christmas Eve Peking Duck special today. It was flavorful and scrumptious. Chef advised on the complex 3 day process required to dry, roast and season the duck. It is finished right before the meal with another round to brown and crisp up the skin. Pancakes and a Napa cabbage egg stir fry is served in the side along with a house hoisin sauce. Really pleasant meal. read more

This was really good. I ordered the orangeish chicken and my mom ordered the brisket. We also had the Cobb salad, which is actually a noodle salad. It was too spicy for my Mom. read more

Best new spot I have tasted in San Diego in a long time. Super creative, unique combinations of flavors, nice staff, and one of the owners even came by for a chat! Great start, guys!! read more

Tried this place with a bunch of my friends. Super casual, you order at the counter and the food is brought out to you. We each ordered an appetizer and a main, so I'm sure we ordered one of everything and got to taste from each dish. I really enjoyed the cold noodle salad appetizer, the broccoli app was delicious and from the mains, the smashed salmon was superb. The fish was cooked perfectly and came with this mushroom and vegetable side in a umami like sauce. We had planned to go get ice cream after dinner down the street, but then we all shared the black sesame custard desert and we were licking from the bowl. It was the best desert ever, and I am not a custard fan. Try it. You will love it. read more

Trying not to eat here here every day but today's meal will make the temptation that much harder to resist. Brunch (Fri, Sat and Sun) Special today was soft-shell crab with a piquant/sweet slaw on a bun which had me swaying, humming and moaning. I think they'll have it tomorrow but if not, no worries. It's all good; very, very good. (Other favs: cold peanut noodles and salmon smash.) read more

Fried chicken was tasty but the spicy brisket with rice cakes was so yummy. We will definitely be back to try other things on the menu. Great first experience! read more

Street food styled place but at restaurant prices and quality. We got the Orange-ish Chicken, Chicken Spring rolls, Soy Glazed Chopped Brisket, and the Caloe-Fornia Love. All of it was amazing and tasted mouth watering. read more

See all

This is our go to pandemic take out spot. While a bit pricey - the food is high quality. I love the smashed salmon. Super fresh, cooked to tender perfection and the seasonal veg and mushrooms are delish. Takeout orders line the counters, reliable, consistent great quality and service - bring to your car. Love our local spot! read more

Our favorite restaurant. We go all the time and bring anyone that's visiting! Everything we have had is delicious. Our fave is the half a cado salad! But we have really never had anything that we didn't love. Great flavors. Never boring. read more

Very flavorful Chinese/Korean fusion. So excited that they are now open! We enjoyed everything we ordered, but I have to say that the Cumin Lamb was our favorite (spicy!!) and fried rice w smoked Mahi being the least. It wasn't bad or anything, I just did not prefer it. Next time we will order the side dishes too. read more

Food is so good here, too bad they don't serve chicken spring rolls all day long lol. We have tried several dishes here and they were delicious. read more

I've been waiting for this place to open. The whole of coastal north county has an extreme lack of ethnic/Asian/unique food. My wife and I got the pickles, the cucumber salad, the spice bag and chard broccoli. It was all great, but the "spice bag", a bag of fried shrimp and vegetables dusted with spices was out of this world. read more

OMG flavor explosion. Literally everything is so tasty. We had the daikon (insanely delicious - sweet and crunchy), special tempura asparagus (prob my favorite thing), the bag (shrimp were so juicy and delicious). And the custard dessert was insane! Chiko! You had me at hello. read more

A plethora of unique flavors and vegetarian offerings. CHIKO is delicious and healthy. A place to go for innovative flavors!

Everything we had here was incredible. Came twice in a four-day trip. Highly recommended. Does get a little warm inside but if you can snag a seat on the patio for dinner, it will be perfect. read more

Delicious food, friendly service. I ordered pork fried rice which tasted great and was a big portion. I also got chicken egg rolls which were also very good. Will definitely come back! read more

We just celebrated Chinese New Year with friends here at Chi Ko. An amazing lunch of 8 courses. Each was better than the next. We highly recommend coming here any time. read more

Ordered to go. 2 appetizers, 2 entrees and the custard. Total was $68.00. Food was not appetizing. Custard was ok . Will not return Expensive. read more

So Good! The food was really remarkable. Robust flavors. Mix of cuisines with respect. Tight little space but good vibe. Loved the sweet potato noodles and the "rice cake" noodles with steak. We will definitely come back! Welcome to Encinitas from DC!!! read more

Amazing food! Live in Encitnias and cannot believe I haven't been here before today. Had the orange less chicken, pot stickers and spring rolls. All three were phenomenal. Highly recommend. read more

Amazing food! Light, tasty, & filling. Staff very friendly & helpful! Gotta try this place worth every penny

The food is outstanding, but it is important to know that we had 2 consecutive poor experiences with the takeout service. We have been going to Chiko since it opened, even though it is quite a distance from our home. Bottom line, we placed 2 takeout orders online, with payment and confirmation number given ahead of pickup. Both times when we arrived, food had not been prepared even though we arrived 20+ minutes after the order pickup time. Last time, we just waited. Today the situation was egregious. the server was pretty dense and tried to tell wife that someone else had picked the food up for us, before saying that she must have given it to someone else, but that would be difficult to do. She said that "yea i gave your food away because i'm busy" and she refused to get a manager because she said the staff was too busy. without any reassurance of when our food would be made, we cancelled. Apparently there was no manager on site. The assistant manager Hunter said definitely he would issue a refund and that our next experience would be outstanding. But it would have been good enough to simply issue the damn refund, which was not done. We are way too busy to chase 71 dollars, but there is the matter of principleand if i remember, i may have to follow up with the manager or whoever is willing to take ownership. Maybe this is a one-off, but i would not recommend ordering takeout based on our experience, especially considering the aftermath. We ate in there last week, and our service was spotty. the first year they opened, the service was stellar and was an A+ experience. read more

Their online order preparation SUCKS!!! Show up after suggested time for pick up, half the order is done sitting and waiting an additional 12 minutes.... LAME read more

Delicious and served in a timely manner. Focus is on the quality and taste! Fun place with yummy food.

Great food and friendly staff. We've been twice and have enjoyed everything we've tried. Over our two visits, we've had pork, lamb, shrimp, and salmon. The last time we went, they had a Cinco de Mayo special of moo shu pork tacos - really tasty! They have some fun beverage choices, too. It's the type of place where you order at the counter and they bring your food to you, so it's very casual. Looking forward to going there again. read more

Don't let the name or description outside fool you, vegetarians. This is the best vegetarian food in North County and they also have a lot of fresh ingredients. They use high quality ingredients, every dish tastes different and there is a substantial amount of vegetarian protein in every dish (egg noodles, etc). Sit at the kitchen counter! read more

Our second time at Chiko was excellent. Chef Eric cooked up a delicious Soy Glazed Brisket bowl, veggie dumplings, kimchi pancakes, and shrimp juk. The pancakes and brisket were my fav :D I was pleasantly surprised by the shrimp juk, since I've never had that style of food with the porridge haha. The staff was very friendly and welcoming. They have a nice little patio for outdoor dining where we sat and enjoyed the afternoon sun. We can't thank you enough Eric. We will be back for more! read more

One of the best restaurants in SD, hands down. I really like their take on Chinese and Korean food. Whenever I have a fried chicken craving, I come here to get my fill of Crispy Chicken Spring Rolls, Double Fried Chicken Wings, and/or the Orange-ish Chicken. The portions are ginormous so I end up taking some home. I really recommend the to-go bundle deal they started during these COVID-19 times (so much bang for your buck!). I've also tried Chopped Brisket (which is another one of my favorites), Smashed Salmon (hit or miss, sometimes a little too salty), and the Korean Spicy Braised Chicken (I wish this was a little spicier). They have messed up on my to go order a couple times though, but never in the dine-in times. Messed up meaning, they forgot to put rice, or some of my food spilled in the bag. However, I come back here all the time because staff is so friendly and the quality is mostly consistent. I would highly recommend coming here! read more

We grabbed to-go so can't really speak to the atmosphere of the place but the food was AMAZING. We got the duck stir fry, the tri tip kebabs, and the crispy chicken spring rolls. All were incredible and came with delicious dipping sauces. Would definitely recommend :) read more

SO good!!! Interesting, tasty food... exceptional service... funky location... nice addition to Leucadia/Encinitas area. Can't wait to try more items. read more

Wow. That was well worth the wait! The food was so tasty. We had a big party so I got to try a lot of things. My favorites were the Korean Fried Chicken Wings, Half-a-cado salad, Orange-ish chicken and Korean sweet potato noodles (and that was me narrowing down my faves list). I'm so impressed how much flavor is in these dishes without it feeling greasy. Can't wait to go back! read more