CHIKO sits on 8th Street SE in the middle of Barracks Row, Capitol Hill's restaurant strip, and reads first as a modern Chinese and Korean kitchen rather than a bar. It is the first room from the Fried Rice Collective, the group built around chefs Danny Lee and Scott Drewno, and the compact bar runs as the drinks side of a food-led room.
Who would love it: a drinker who wants soju, a Korean lager or a short, focused cocktail list to drink alongside cumin-lamb stir-fry and orange-glazed chicken. Who would not: anyone expecting a standalone cocktail den, since the bar here is a counter and a few seats inside a restaurant, not the main event.
The space is small and counter-forward, a narrow room where the open kitchen carries the energy and the bar tucks in along one side. CHIKO began as a fine-casual room and grew into a full-service Barracks Row fixture, picking up national attention for the food first. The drinks program is deliberately tight rather than sprawling, and the larger Korean drinking tradition the group is known for, the teapots of soju and the somaek beer cocktails, lives mostly at its Dupont sibling Anju, which Washingtonian credits with the big communal program. CHIKO keeps things leaner.
The list leans to pairing. Expect soju by the bottle and the glass, Korean and regional beers, a short wine selection picked to drink with bold, spicy plates, and a handful of cocktails rather than a long menu. The smart order is a chilled soju or a Korean lager next to the cumin-lamb stir-fry, then a cocktail if the table lingers. This is a bar to drink at while eating, not a destination for a long session, and the pricing sits in casual-restaurant range rather than craft-cocktail-bar range.
The crowd is a Capitol Hill dining set, neighbourhood regulars and Barracks Row walk-ins early, a busier dinner room on weekends. Service is restaurant-style and quick, the bar seats turn over with the kitchen, and the counter is the spot for a solo diner who wants a drink and a plate. Weekend dinner is the peak, and the room can fill, so an early seat or a reservation helps.
What regulars flag, per Google Maps and Yelp reviews, is consistent: the food is the reason to come and the drinks round it out, with the soju and beer pairings drawing the most repeat mentions. The honest read is to treat CHIKO as a restaurant with a useful bar rather than a bar with a kitchen, best for a Barracks Row dinner where the drinks match the heat on the plate.
Best time to go: an early weekday seat at the counter for a calm drink-and-dinner, or a weekend evening if the full room is the point. CHIKO works as the food-and-soju stop on a Capitol Hill night. See where it sits among the best cocktail bars in Washington DC and read our wider guide to cocktail bars by city, then plan the rest of the night through the Washington DC bar guide.
Getting there is easy: CHIKO sits on Barracks Row a short walk from the Eastern Market Metro station, ringed by Capitol Hill's bars and restaurants. That position makes it a natural dinner stop on a Hill crawl rather than a destination on its own, since 8th Street's bars sit within a block. Cards work, the kitchen runs through service, and the room keeps restaurant hours into the evening.
Pair this bar with
For a Barracks Row neighbour with a bar program, compare Rose's Luxury in Washington DC. For a serious cocktail den nearby, try The Passenger in Washington DC. And for a design-led drinks room, Jane Jane in Washington DC makes the natural next round.
Sources
CHIKO official site · Capitol Hill BID: CHIKO · Washingtonian: the CHIKO team · Google Maps reviews (accessed 2026-06)
Reviewed by Marcus Webb, barsforKings. Published Oct 20, 2025
