Charqui Grill

Found the food to be okay, but not great. I preferred it when it was Nandos. The waitress requested a credit card, which I can’t stand. We’re professionals, it’s not like we’re going to run out on our bill

Just had a dinner here, walked in without reading any reviews after a day at the swimming pool — we were in the mood for wings, and very hungry.
We ordered two beers, apple juice, 3 lbs of chicken wings, plate of raw veggies for my little one (namely — celery, carrots, and cucumbers), and pita with hummus.
We waited for drinks for 10 min, then for appies for 20 minutes, and they arrived at the same time with food. Serving speed was real slow although the restaurant was empty — we were the only customers! Location seems to be nice and timing was just right, 7pm on Sunday night. No live music was on the menu, so maybe this is why it was so empty.
When food arrived we were disappointed — chicken wings were a size of my pinky, 10 pc per the plate. tasted average, but side sauce was good. Veggies were not raw as ordered but sauteed with onion and garlic (waitress did not understood the order) — my little one would not eat that. Also, they sent us ceasar salad that we did not order. Looking at the size of the wings, I figured that I can have the salad, too, — I was hungry. But what was real funny our bill that had 2 (!) ceasar salads on it, and the cost was $ 18 ($ 9 each). I gotta tell you, Milestones serve a bucket of ceasar salad for this price, but what we were served could have fit in one 3″ baby bowl. Conclusion: food is very overpriced, portions are smaller than the average pub food size portion, taste is very average, too. Topped with slow service, little attention to details, and unordered food on the table and in our bill overall experience was below expectations. Will not visit again.

If I could, I would give this place zero stars. Not even one. They don’t even deserve one star. Went here with three others, we ordered nachos for $ 14 and payed $ 2 for guacamole– because you figure, «why not! We love guacamole!» We got about one tablespoon of guacamole for the $ 2 and the nachos were terrible and disturbingly small. We found 4 olive pits in the nachos. My friend almost chipped her tooth. My girlfriend and I split the burger, which was basically a slider served on a big bun — two bites of beef, 5 bites of bun. Fries were mediocre at best. I mean how do you screw those up? Definitely frozen and dumped into a deep fryer. Tiny beer for $ 6. Overpriced dark and stormies. Awful. Truly terrible. Don’t go here!!! We spent $ 80 and left sober and hungry. We went for sushi right after because we were so hungry.

The food here is horrendously overpriced. The nachos were something I’d imagine giving to a kid and we got maybe ten yam fries in the whole basket. They are getting two stars because it was good service though.

They’ve got a bit of an identity crisis: The décor and music suggest Mexican/​Tex-​Mex, but they actually serve a random collection.
The service was good. Nothing bad to say there.
The food and drinks were OK, but not great and a bit pricy for what you get. I ordered a Blue Hawaiian, which was about 90% ice, so about 50mL of actual drink. It was tasty, but gone in 3 sips. The Mediterranean salad was a bit on the small side, and was about 90% iceberg lettuce – I could’ve fit the feta in a thimble.
The worst thing was the volume of the music. I’m not talking just loud – I’m pretty sure it actually did damage: Everything was muted and ringing until the next morning.

Terrible, terrible customer service. Dinner never arrived, an hour later the waitress asked if we were still interested in getting our food… Hmmm, well we only came to eat so what do you think? Male employee (owner?) spent most of the evening getting drunk behind the bar and soon became belligerent when approached with complaints from various tables. Sad state for a restaurant. I will never return and I’m not even sad about it!

This had to be one of the hottest little music spots in Kitsilano.
My friends and I walked into this place and were greeted right away by a nice man. He sat us on the patio, which was quiet and comfortable. He left us with menu and told us the server would be along shortly (our words, not his). A young lady arrived at our table from what we presume was straight from Vancouver Airport. With very little understanding of the English language we did a lot of pointing on the menu to describe what we wanted.
This worked well in our favour as we all got what we wanted.
The food was okay but nothing worth raving about. We had a spicy chicken wrap, steak and a burger, and the sauce was hot!
After eating dinner, we stayed for a few drinks. We were greeted by a neighbouring table that informed us that there would be live music. We continued chatting with our new friends and moved inside to watch the band play. AH-​MAZING!!! The music was so good we stayed and listened for hours. Before we knew it the place was jam-​packed and people were dancing in their seats.
This place gets loud, really loud! The music was good and we had a great time because of the band. The server, well she kind of faded away and we had to start ordering drinks from the bar. Who knows where this little lady went, but it didn’t matter, we got what we wanted from the lovely bartender.
So, if you’re looking for good live music, average service and mediocre food, than this place may just be what you want.

Worst service in world. 45 minutes after ordering food still had not come, not even apps. Brought it to owners attention who could care less as he was too busy socializing with a friend. Would never go back nor do I recommend anyone go there.

3 of us came here on a Saturday night for the live music, as we knew the band that was set to perform.
When we arrived, the restaurant only had 1 table of people for dinner. For 7:30pm on a Saturday night, it was weird!
We were seated right away and served complimentary chips. However, the tiny bowl contained only about 6 chips. 2 for each of us. They were stale, and came with a dip I didn’t bother trying, although my table mates disliked it.
We ordered poutine and pizza to share.
The poutine was a medium sized portion, perhaps overpriced for what it was. There was not very much gravy, and it wasn’t traditional tasting. It had melted cheese on top with some carrot shavings. It tasted good though.
The pizza, was not so good. It had a very thin crust, which was kind of black on the bottom. The top of the crust was kind of soggy. Actually, the whole pizza was soggy and the bottom was burnt.
On the flip side, the service was good and the staff were nice. My only complaint is that I tried to pay in cash but they didn’t have have change for my 20 (no fives, tens, or coins apparently). .
As for the live music, they set up in a corner and it was good! Quite loud though. By this time the restaurant was maybe two thirds full, and like us, they were only there because they knew the band.

Staff friendly, however chicken burger was small piece & over done, not really very good. Would not go back

Went there on a Saturday night just to give the neighbourhood some business. I think it was US who was given the business…
The place is not suited for live music, unless it’s a person or two with soft acoustic guitars for atmosphere — but there was an entire band there! They were unlit and crammed into a corner and it was just way too loud.
The food.
We started out with and stuck with starters. The first 2 plates: Wings and Yam fries. It was good, nothing grand, kind of bland… meh. Portions were what we expected. After a few drinks (I will get back to that in a minute) we ordered 2 more plates. This time we went for a few things not as straight forward: Charqipán — Grilled Argentinian chorizo canapés and the Pan con Tomate — Tomato Garlic Bread.
What we envisioned with the chorizo canapés was slices of chorizo on top of bread squares, or crackers, or even a slice of cucumber with maybe an olive or something. What we got was a sausage sliced up in about 8 or 9 pieces and 3 dipping sauces. The sausage didn’t taste like any chorizo I’ve encountered. The Tomato Garlic Bread, well, you would expect something like a bruschetta maybe, with some visible garlic and tomato pieces, yeah? This was pretty much sweet tomato paste on grilled french bread. It was only 3 bucks, so we figured it wouldn’t be much, but this was such a weird item (like something I might eat at home and not tell anyone about it) it made me wonder why it was even on the menu.
Now, when I took a piece of sausage and put it on the tomato bread — I guess I made my own canapé…
The drinks.
About the drinks. They were strong. Strong and… weird. I have never had a Mai Tai that was clear. Crystal clear and unceremoniously presented in a glass with nothing but a lime wedge stuck on the rim. The server told me they were out of maraschino cherries — which is a pretty universal part of most Mai Tai recipes — but even then, the Mai Tai is an event of a drink! Stick a piece of pineapple in it or something. If the drink is supposed to be part dark rum and part light rum — as per the drink menu — I expect there to be some colour in that glass or I’m going to think what I ordered isn’t what I got. The Caipirinha tasted like it had tequila in it — I have no idea what we were drinking.
Service was slow and kind of chaotic although friendly. It was hard to tell with the music so loud. We did a lot of menu pointing and hand signals.
We were very excited about this new place, but I don’t think we will be going back any time soon, if ever. We walked out of there kind of stunned.

Ok, I admit I chose this place at random with little checking of Unilocal,and if I had I might not have come and part of me regrets not doing that.
The good to start with: The veggie charqui bowl was very good. Lots of intense flavors and very yummy. The sauce that lines the bowl is very nice and much better than some Trini food I’ve had other places. It is well worth having. Maybe a bit pricy for what it is.
But that is about it for the good. We also had the lamb charqui bowl and the rice was about 90% cooked, a bit more «tooth some» than the other bowl and I probably would have sent it back if the other issues of the night hadn’t already happened. Also, the lamb was basically tasteless.
Why didn’t I send back my bowl? Well, this was already the second time our food came out. The first time it wasn’t what we ordered. It wasn’t even the wrong table, the kitchen just made the wrong things. So at that point I was just glad to have something to eat and we had an appointment so waiting another 20 minutes for a «fix» was not in the cards.
There were other service issues, like one waitress wanting to take our order the first 20 seconds we were then and then telling us someone else will deal with us after we sat there 15 minutes waiting for drinks and to place our order. Basically there were three people working the front of the house, and only one of them knew what they were doing and she was running around trying to do damage control. I felt sorry for her. One person was two busy chatting with a favorite table/​friends to deal with anything else, the third was just clueless and need some training. This place is also so loud that half their service/​communication problems could be fixed if it wasn’t so loud. Or if the drunk guy sitting at the bar didn’t keep turning up the music every 5 minutes. There were more crazy service issues that will just seem like wining at this point, in addition to these ones! I think this place could be really good if these issues were taken care of as well as actually seasonaing the lamb and giving it soem flavor rather than just being texture cubes. Why not one star after all this? Especially with the rice issue? The veggie bowl was so good I have to give them credit for that.

We came here a few months ago, alas for delayed reviews! The chicken wings are quite flavorful and juicy, as are the kebabs. Portions are decent and prices are affordable.
Service was friendly, and there was live music after 9:00 or so. (sometimes 6 pm)
I should note (in reference to previous reviews) that during our visit, there were a couple of waitstaff in addition to the manager and kitchen staff. They did not appear to be related.

Came to place on a quiet Thursday night. The food was very good and the price was very reasonable. Quite a few iIMPRESSIVE self made sauces to choose from for your grilled chicken. The server was not a native English speaker so we had trouble communicating with her when she left out one of our orders.

This place replaced Nandos in Kits, and to be honest I’m not sad about it. I’m kind of getting sick of Nando’s, so it’s nice for a change. But let me tell yah, this place is darn good!!!
The chicken was perfectly tender and the special charoqui sauce is DYNAMITE! It has a bit of a kick, so beware if you’re sensitive to spice.
Also the fries are delicious.
Personally, I thought the service was great. I mean give the owner a break, it’s a new company and owning a business during the winter in kits is tough — business is slow, so naturally he isn’t going to hire a whole bunch of staff.
And I’m a sucker for nice people and the owner is awesome!
I give this spot 5 stars for tender chicken, delicious sauce, and great service :)

I have some mixed feelings about this place. The food was great but the service was quite slow (it was a Tuesday night and hardly anyone there) and they brought out the wrong order. My dining companion decided to eat the wrong dish because he didn’t want it to go to waste. I’m a bit of a spice wuss and had to stick to my salad. I’ll go back to give this place another chance. I think it has potential.

We came in looking for Nandos but were surprised to find Charqui in its place. The owner explained that Nandos was a great product but he felt this place had more potential so they decided to bring in some Trinidad flavors instead.
Always up for expanding our food horizons, we ordered 2 ½ chicken plates — one Charqui, one Trinidad curry. They usually put the sauces on the side, but we asked them to baste it instead to maximize the flavor.
The ½ chicken, unlike Nandos, were already cut up into 4 pieces. I’ve read some of the reviews saying that the portions were skimpy, but I’d have to disagree. I found the portions really large, and I only finished half of my dish. The Charqui is like a smoky rub with a slight kick to it. The Trinidadian curry tasted like what it sounds like. I liked the fries, as well as the cole slaw (traditional). I don’t think I’d make a trek out there for Charqui specifically, but I’d come back again if I were in the neighborhood.

Bf and I mistakenly stepped in here thinking that it was still Nando’s… :’(one of the worst mistakes we could ever make. The owner greets us and starts telling us how his establishment is quote ‘We are like Nando’s but a lot better, you will enjoy the food here and we have a better price point’.
Uh let me start off with, THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO FULLY COOK CHICKEN! We were served a RAW ¼ of chicken with pictures to prove.
Seriously if you don’t even know how to fully cook your chicken then please don’t open a restaurant specializing in grilled chicken, because all you’re really doing is serving salmonella on a plate and charging people for it.
**Please please please check my pictures!
**bf also had a very intimate time with the toilet through out the night and the for the next two days, if you know what I mean.
You are not better than Nando’s, this is the worst grilled chicken I’ve ever eaten in my life. And if you think that imitating a totally failed version of their marinade and slapping some cold sour curry masala sauce on your chicken is going to make you successful you are so wrong. There’s a reason why Nando’s has multiple franchises all over the lower mainland, it’s because their food is good, they have restaurant standards, they have a fool proof recipe, and to top it off they know how to fully cook their chicken!
Service was agonizingly slow. There was one old lady working in the kitchen, another very elderly man wrapping up cutlery in napkins, then there was the owner running around working as a host, bus boy, and waiter. The owner of this restaurant is so evil and cheap! He’s probably working his parents like slaves because he doesn’t want to hire extra employees. He then tells us that he used to run a Nando’s and that he didn’t want to pay the renewal license because he could use that money to pay his employees… uh what employees? There’s only you and your two old parents working there.
Oh and to top it off, we still got charged for the raw chicken, no apologies or anything.
Never again.

For this area, we still need a chicken place ;) Owner says the signature difference is its spicy seasoning from Trinidad, and have to admit it’s something unique, got some great kick. ordered the chicken skewer, generous portion of rice and fresh greek salad.
Has a liquor license as an added bonus, still same set up as previous nando’s.
Plenty of corner windows and eye candy.
but parking usually a challenge.

so why is this not my fave.
1 — the menu is very very confusing. veg options are not outlined and pricing for side dishes is confusing as well.
2 — the portions for the price are pretty small and we all remained half way hungry after our lunch. the charqui bowl is pretty boring — just rice with veggies in it.
3 — the service is pretty slow, sometimes it seemed that there was only one guy doing all the job.
hmmm and we also didn’t really get what was so special about the special charqui sauce that was supposed to make every dish unique from other places…
but there is a nice patio on the side that we quite enjoyed.
well not my fave for the prices. but since it’s a new place I’ll still give it another chance when I’m around.