The latest outlet of Señor Chicken opened about two months ago in a sterile, high-ceiling space in Columbia Heights, an environment far removed from the smoky little dens of Northern Virginia. Best I could tell, this Peruvian chicken parlor was run by a lone señor, who fetched my order of pollo a la brasa from a holding unit that (I swear!) [...]
3 Y&H thought he would engage in a little warm-up battle before taking on the ultimate pollo a la brasa challenge later this winter. (Scroll to the comments section of that link to get an eye-ful.) So here are today's challengers: El Pollo Rico in Wheaton vs. Super Chicken in Falls Church. I'll tell you one thing that I [...]
Earlier this week, a friend and I were sitting in the bright, clean dining area at El Pollo Rico, putting a hurt on the rotisserie bird that a young woman with a meat cleaver had just hacked into four neat pieces. The table to my right was filled with three loud diners speaking in that unique strain of [...]
El Pollo Rico's bird, not to be confused with Pollo Wow!'s The strip mall on New Hampshire Avenue, just south of University Boulevard, feels stuck in some parody of '70s-era urban/suburban life. If you walk the full length of the strip, you won't find a single Starbucks or T-Mobile or any other corporate storefront. Instead, [...]
One by one, we’re running through the 50 restaurants that made the cut on this year’s Young & Hungry Dining Guide. If you have visited the day’s featured restaurant, let us know what you think. If you’re planning to visit for the first time, tell us about your meal when you return. Last year, the husband-and-wife [...]
The owners of the small Crisp & Juicy chain are living the dream. They've taken a once foreign dish—seriously, who knew about Peruvian chicken 20 years ago?—and introduced it to Washingtonians in the most American of ways: via shopping malls like Westfield Wheaton and strip centers like the Blair Shops in Silver Spring. But if [...]
The new El Pollo Rico in Wheaton looks as if it were actually designed for its intended purpose—selling those browned beauties pulled from the charcoal rotisserie. Unlike its previous location just a block or two away, this Pollo Rico spot is both stylish and functional. The stylish elements—the upscale advertising posters, the French bistro paintings—don't [...]
