Time Out Melbourne never writes starred reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills for reviews so that readers can trust our critique.
If you’re unfamiliar with Chino Latino or 'chifa' cuisine, Casa Chino may seem like just another fusion restaurant. But it’s rooted in history, drawing inspiration from the large Chinese diaspora who live in Peru and around Latin America.
It’s a daring concept for Melbourne, which hasn't historically shown a strong reception to or understanding of Latin cuisine. But it’s also a smart one, using far more familiar Chinese dishes as a Trojan horse of sorts.
Most dishes will look pretty familiar to anyone with a grasp of Cantonese food – siu mai and dumplings, bao, fried rice – but there are Latin American influences sprinkled throughout. And for the most part, the two pair wonderfully. The best way to order, it seems, is from across the entire breadth of the menu.
We start with something from the Barra Crudo (or Raw Bar) section, an obvious choice as ceviche is Peru’s biggest culinary claim to fame. Our tuna rendition is not lightly cured like we expect but instead loaded up with avocado cream and chilli oil and roasted Incan corn, a nod to the classic Peruvian ceviche garnish. Traditional it's not, but it's loaded with flavour and texture that leaves a lasting impression.
The sambal chicken and leek siu mai are equally maximalist, dressed in a garlic soy sauce inspired by pollo a la brasa (Peruvian-style roast chicken) and furikake. Though it comes with a side of standard soy sauce, it's so flavourful that it doesn’t even need it.
Perhaps the most iconic chifa dish on the menu is the similarly named chaufa, or Peruvian-Chinese fried rice. In this case, it’s a melange of chicken, prawn and capsicum, and while it doesn't quite deliver the wok hei (intense smoky flavour from the wok) we’d been hoping for, it otherwise ticks all the boxes – and the small size is plenty large enough to share.
As excited as we are by the menu, there are a few unexpected misfires. The black beans are a little under-curried and too runny to share, more like a soup than a side, and the scotch fillet skewer has been chargrilled a little too enthusiastically, lending the meat a toughness I doubt was the end goal. But it's early days for Casa Chino and there's so much more on the menu we'd love to try next time.
Pisco is the primary liquor across most of the cocktails, which is a strong selling point, as is the inclusion of lesser-known ingredients like lucuma, tiger nut and camu camu. Though you can delve into the world of pisco Negroni, pisco Zombie and pisco Chilcano cocktails, this spirit can easily be overpowered so it tends to stand out better in the summery pisco Sour menu.
Casa Chino's concept is a promising one. With Peruvian-inspired tiled interiors and a sprawling plant-covered courtyard and a menu you’re unlikely to find anywhere else within a 20km radius, the unique nature of the restaurant is reason enough to book a table. And that Barra Crudo, of course.