M-F 9 AM - 10 PM; Sa - Su 9:30 AM - 10 PM
(609) 394-7700 Google Maps
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Updated December 2021 Chencha y Chole (“C y C”) opened in June of 2015 in a distinctive, triangular shaped storefront at the intersection of Cass and S. Broad. It has survived COVID and remains one of our favorites in town, with superb, homemade Mexican specialties.
(Thanks to our friends at Roebling Lofts for sponsoring this video!)
C y C is a Mexican Restaurant, family owned and operated. The owner and his wife do most of the cooking. Their daughter sometimes works in the kitchen, and sometimes waits tables. Most of the time the daughter’s husband acts as front-of-house manager and will take your order. He’s Guatemalan, and speaks fluent English (as does his wife). So if you’re menu-Spanish is limited, you don’t need to worry about paying Chencha y Chole a visit.
What makes C y C stand out? I’d focus on 3 areas: 1) It’s one of the friendliest restaurants in town. 2) It’s generally a cheerful place to eat a meal. Not fancy, mind you, it’s still pretty much a dive, but it’s clean, and the owners have taken care to decorate the tables and walls with some care. And, 3) the food is consistently good.
C y C is a self-described “Authentic Mexican Kitchen”. And it is! Virtually everything is home made, from the wonderful, subtle salsas that your server places on the table, to the hand-pressed tortillas you get with your meal. These are thin, Mexican-style tortillas, not to be confused with thick, Guatemalan-style ones.
I’ve now sampled a pretty broad cross-section of their menu.
Everything I’ve had is good… not necessarily the BEST you can find in town, but very good and attractively plated. All impeccably home-made. An exception is the chicken Mole you see in the photo. This possibly is the best in town.
Many consider Mole the national sauce of Mexico. It’s made from onions, garlic, a blend of spices (which varies from village to village and cook to cook) and, critically, unsweetened chocolate. C y C’s is subtle and delicious. I ended up eating all the chicken and mopping up every last drop of mole sauce from my plate using tortillas.
Recently, I took a successful restauranteur to lunch at Chenche y Chole for a business meeting. This is a man who started and currently owns several successful restaurants which we would categories as $$$ or $$$$ in Hidden Trenton. I recommended the mole (with some trepidation). I shouldn’t have worried: he loved it and ate his entire meal with gusto, avidly soaking up the mole sauce with his rice and tortillas. I subsequently learned he’s returned twice, at least once with his wife.
C y C is open seven days. There are weekend (Sat/Sunday) specials, including this superb seafood soup. This is my wife’s favorite. It’s always been impeccably fresh. Contents vary depending on availability: this version featured crab and mussels. At a recent outing, it featured clams, fish filet, and octopus. Always superb!
It has an extensive breakfast menu which I haven’t yet tried, but am excited about. The restaurant takes credit cards, and offers free WiFi to patrons.
Enjoyed a fantastic breakfast recently, and they have some of the best coffee I’ve had in a restaurant in a very long time. Also decided to take-out one of their desserts and that too was very good. Very nice staff. Thanks Hidden Trenton.
This place is amazing. Very friendly and helpful waitress! I had beef tongue sopes and lamp soup/lamb tacos as an entree. That combined with the chips and delicious salsa was wayyyy to much food. Ate the rest of that delicious food the next day. Prices are more than fair. I can’t recommend this place enough to anyone. Stop reading and go now!
Tasty made tacos
We’re here now! Thanks again hidden Trenton! I’ll give a review later.
Yum!
Make sure to tell them you heard about it on Hidden Trenton!
Already done! Lol no worries. I always make sure to tell everyone!
Mary, how was it?
Everything was fantastic!
Sorry, busy morning. Everything was really very good. Huge portions. Most meals under $10 AND they are not afraid to use spice! Lol …their salsa is tasty but I think el Patrillo’s house salsa is to die for.
Liquor license?
Byob
Is that fried cheese in the picture?
Great minds think alike. Hahahahha
Mmmm……fried queso fresco….Mmmmmm…….it’s sssooooooo good
The food was delicious! The grilled salmon was topped by fresh, tasty guacamole, and came with salad and rice (for which I substituted black beans no problemo). The guacamole appetizer was huge, and a very good value. Service was also good, and the owner stopped by our table to thank us for coming and to see what we thought of the food. We will definitely be back to sample some other things!