Pollo Sabroso Review

On a recent Sunday, Mr. WC and I attempted to stop by Moby Dick for lunch but found that they are closed on Sundays (darn!).  We decided to venture across the street to Pollo Sabroso, which located on Grandview right along parking lot 13.  I've had Pollo Sabroso's food at the Taste of Wheaton before but this was our first time dining there.  We walked in, and there was a mix of patrons - guys sitting at the bar drinking beer and some families seated at the tables.  It wasn't the hole-in-the-wall that I was expecting - the inside was fairly bright and clean.

We were served by a waitress who was also doubling as the bartender, but she stopped by to give us menus shortly after we grabbed a table.  Since "pollo" is in the name of the place, I decided to order a 1/4 chicken with two sides for a whopping $4.99.  I selected fried yucca and plantains for my two sides, but they also had rice & beans, salad, and a few other options to choose from.  I ended up with a thigh, which is what I prefer anyways (they don't let you choose white or dark here).  The meat was juicy and tender, but the flavor was very different from other peruvian chicken places around here.  Actually, I'm thinking it might be more Salvadorean or something because the spices were totally different.  Instead of a strong garlicky-herby flavor, this chicken has a sweet pepper flavor to it that I'm pretty sure came from heavy use of paprika on the skin.  I liked it, but it was a very different flavor from El Pollo Rico, for example.  The fried yucca was pretty good - it could have been a little crispier but at least it wasn't overfried  to the point of being twig-like like some yucca that I've had.  The plantains were great - sweet and almost creamy when you bit into them.

Mr. WC attempted to order some of their fried chicken (he remembered liking it at Taste of Wheaton), but was informed that they weren't serving it that day.  Instead he ordered yucca con chicharron, yucca with fried pork.  Again, the yucca was pretty good and chunks of pork also had a good taste to them.  The pork was either slightly overcooked or maybe it was just a leaner cut of meat, because it was a little chewier and drier than versions of this dish that I've had at other places (Los Chorros review to arrive in the near future!).  It did come with a good cole slaw on top of it, which added a nice fresh flavor to an otherwise deep-fried dish.

Overall, we were happy with our food and even happier with our check.  Including a soda for each of us plus a 20%  tip, the total came out to $20.  Not bad.  My biggest issue was that it took a looooong time for our food to come out.  The restaurant didn't seem that busy and both of our meals basically just had to be thrown in a deep fryer (or hacked off of a pre-roasted chicken) but it took at least 20 minutes for our food to come out.  Still, it was a good value for the money and we were both pretty happy with what we orderd.

1/4 chicken in front, yucca con chicharron in the back