El Pollo Rico

I am giving this place five stars based on the food alone! The atmosphere is not that pleasant, but you will get over it once you taste and smell the chicken. The smell is pretty much hypnotizing. I was driving by and could smell the chicken and I think my car steered itself there. The chicken is always perfectly seasoned and juicy as can be. They have steak fries, rice and coleslaw as sides, but I highly recommend the fries and rice.
Pro tip: get the green and yellow sauce and mix them together. This will result in the best tasting Peruvian chicken you have ever had!

Delicious tasting chickens! I like this place because it has that local South American feeling to it. It’s extremely casual and the food is cheap but don’t let that fool you because their food is delicious. Service was excellent. I went there to order a take out, I got my food pretty fast and enjoyed it home while it was still nice and warm. Anyone living in the neighborhood, this is a must try unless you are a vegetarian :)

El Pollo Rico is super dank. Not many options. Tastes authentic. Pretty cheap.

I love places like this.
It’s the sort of hole in the wall, overlooked, delicious haven that gets discovered by locals and made to be just THE place to get your Peruvian chicken fix.
Here is where boys in suits rub shoulders with men in construction vests, where people go alone and also with their families of 6, everyone just diggin into that chicken with their bare hands.
It’s perfect. It’s delicious, it’s juicy, it’s no frills good food.
Eat it in, or take it out, get at least half a chicken with everything, and always grab the sauces.
The golden rule here is simple. Small menu, huge flavour.

Theres no place like Pollo Rico! Chicken, rice, french fries, coleslaw, curry sauce, and jalapeño sauce!!! Enough said.
You eat with your hands. You get messy. You leave full. The chicken is delicious! The fries are awesome. The jalapeño sauce is even better.
Lines can get long, but its worth the wait. Try the desserts too! Just follow the smell from about two blocks away!

My family loves this place! Cheap, huge portion, savory chicken and hot fries! What else can you ask for?
We visited in the evening before heading back to nyc. The place was big with many seats. We ordered two sets of half chicken and fries. The roast chicken was surprisingly tender and juicy. Fries were very fresh, crispy outside and hot inside. Many Unilocalers mentioned the yellow sauce. I think it was good but not that special, tasted like a mix of mayo and mustard. The chicken was savory enough so no extra sauce needed for me.
We were regret not going to this place earlier. Hope to revisit in the future.

Tuesday, 11:30 AM.
Limited parking.
Quickie:
+ Food quality
* Friendly staff
— Hygiene
— Slow turnaround
— Limited sides
And then???
If you’re craving charcoal broiled chicken, work El Pollo Rico into your rotation.
**********
Stuffed my face in:
1. ½ chicken
+ Savory, tender chicken
Constructive comments:
*Source ingredients?
*Compost?
*Eco-​friendly cutlery?

This is the best chicken in the DMV hands down!
If you disagree, I highly recommend you get off the pipe.

Amazingly delicious Peruvian chicken! Having been to Peru and eaten authentic Peruvian chicken in the past, I can say this was pretty damn close to the real thing. The spices were a perfect blend and salty and tangy. The chicken was super soft and juicy. I also had the the rice and fries. Considering this is a chicken place, I won’t judge them on their sides. They are extremely average. I mean, the white rice is basically like an uncle ben’s quick 10 minute rice cup. But, I digress. The fries are just regular steak fries. They are tasty, yes, but exactly the same as you’d get anywhere else that serves excellent steak fries. They were crispy and not soggy.
Bottom line: Go for the chicken, not for the sides. It was great!

My sweetheart would give this place 5 stars, but I can’t quite do that. This is a fantastic pollo place, second only to Super Chicken in Tyson’s Corner and it’s identical sister restaurant, Super Pollo in Arlington.
El Pollo Rico is super casual and relaxed, but clean and quick as well. The restaurant is neatly tucked behind a car dealership or something similar and there is ample parking. They serve traditional Peruvian charbroiled chicken with yellow and green sauces. The green sauce is some sort of pickled pepper and garlic sauce and the yellow sauce is undoubtedly hard boiled egg yolks blended with mayonnaise and spices. The sauces are served to you in tiny plastic containers as sides, which is common at pollo places.
You walk through a sort of buffet line and order your meal. You can choose a quarter, half, or whole chicken and you can ask for all white or dark meat. The sides here are why I don’t rate this place 5 stars, they are pretty limited to white rice, salad, and french fries.

It’s been years since I’ve been able to devour this succulent chicken; and boy, did it taste good! It also only lasted about 10 minutes before it was all shoved down my throat.
El Pollo Rico may seem a little off-​putting when based on looks, but the food more than makes up for it! When you walk in, you’re blasted with the smell of crispy, roasting chicken. The menu is fairly short, but that helps keep the line moving quickly. I always opt for a ¼ chicken, dark meat, with fries and extra mild (yellow) sauce. I’m one of those freaks that could eat the mild sauce by itself and quite frequently use my fries as a spoon to eat it. The chicken itself is always juicy, never dry. I’d claim that the skin on the chicken is better than bacon, it’s seasoned and crisped to perfection. Don’t skimp out on the alfajores! They’re delicious, and my favorite dulce de leche treat to indulge on.
TIP OF THE DAY: Have someone ride there with you. That way one of you can hop out of the car and order while the other person tries to find a parking spot. The parking here is very limited!

Solid Rotisserie chicken coming out of Pollo Rico in Arlington. Their rub is very flavorful and they cook their chicken to an OK temperature. Still, they clearly overcook their white meat as just about every rotisserie chicken I’ve eaten from a restaurant. I’d much prefer breast meat cooked to ~150, which reduces dryness and that chalky/​stick to the bite of the chicken. Squeeze the breast meat between your teeth. If it sticks for a split second, I consider that over cooked. These guys do the Peruvian chicken quite well. It’s one of the better I’ve ever had, perhaps only behind Sardi’s in Greenbelt, MD and Romado’s in Montréal, QC. All the sides were good. They tasted about on par with all the other Peruvian chicken joints I’ve tasted.

Great little hole in the wall canteen style restaurant.
They offer 6 things here, rotisserie chicken bought by ¼, ½ of whole, Steak Fries, Coleslaw, rice, green chille sauce, and a delicious mayo kinda aioli (plus a bunch of soft drinks).
But what they do they do really well. The chicken was juicy tender and spiced perfectly, cooked over a big fire pit, the fries were crunch and awesome. Not a place to go if you are prissy and want everything to look nice but if you want really tasty chicken hit it up.

Yo this place is the bomb diggity. NoVa is known for its rotisserie chicken of the Latin American flavor and this place is definitely up there in terms of the great restaurants there. What I like about this place is that it’s a family feel to it. They treat you like family as you walk in, they help you with the order if you’re confused by their small type. They are quick in getting you the food, the place draws a variety of diverse peoples and they make the beat goddamn chicken.
I came here with my friend had a quarter chicken with yuca fries, beans and a coke in a glass bottle for under $ 10. What else can you ask for really?
The chicken was amazingly juicy and the yuca fries were fried perfectly. I will keep continuing to come here and bring all my friends here for it. This place gets the 5 stars because they know what they are great at and they are unapologetic and true about it. Love it!

Time to update my review since its been a few years. Not much has changed. The chicken is still the best Peruvian style chicken I’ve had outside of Peru. The menu largely unchanged. Here’s how it works if you haven’t tried it. You order either a quarter, half, or whole chicken. If you order the whole chicken they will cut it up in quarters. You pick two sides from the following options: rice, french fries, or coleslaw. Then you have your choice of green or yellow sauce some people get one of each. The green is a bit spicy. Order a drink if you like and pay.
Also the parking lot can get full however if coming via metro it’s about a two block walk from the Virginia Square metro.

I wasn’t terribly impressed with the chicken or the sauces here. I only have Crisp & Juicy to compare it to, and I have to say that I prefer Crisp & Juicy. The prices here are pretty good, though, with a quarter chicken + 2 sides + 2 sauces coming to just over 7 bucks. I would consider coming back to try the flan.

Now that’s what I’m talking about!
I love finding great meals under $ 10…And at El Pollo Rico its only $ 6.35 for a quarter chicken white meat combo meal with 2 sides. The chicken is uniquely spiced, magically juicy and delicious! The thick fries and tangy coleslaw is tasty too. El Pollo Rico is definitely worth a side trip if you’re a foodie tourist like me.
But if you’re one of those anorexic fad diet freaks whom skips the chicken skin, don’t bother you’ll missing out on all the yummy seasoning and flavor. I feel sorry for you all…

I’ve never had Peruvian food in my life and this was an awesome first bite of it. I discovered this place from watching Anthony Bourdain and knew I just had to come here. We took a taxi here which is probably the only way you can get here if you don’t have a car yourself. It wasn’t too crowded at first since it was kinda early on a weekday, but as time went on there were a lot of business people that came to pick up big lunch orders to take back to work. A very good sign.
My Aunt and I split the half chicken with rice and fries. The chicken was the absolute star. I went at it Filipino style, just with my hands. It’s probably the best way to eat chicken like this. It was juicy and a little tender. The spices on the skin made it. I couldn’t tell exactly what the spices were, it’s just something I’ve never experienced before. They were delicious nevertheless. The rice and the fries were just there to sop up the leftover spices and juices after demolishing the chicken.
We got ourself a taxi back home and I wish we had brought some back for my Dad, because I knew he would love this place too. We almost came back here for dinner, but it was a little too far and we were tired from walking around Arlington that day. I really wish we had made the effort to come back twice in one day. I’m sure it would have been worth it.

My love affair with El Pollo Rico has ended.
I grew up coming here and getting my chicken fix, ever since elementary school. It was one of my all time favorite cheap food place. Sadly, that has ended.
I came here Wednesday night after class to purchase lunch for work the next day. I got a half white with fries and coleslaw. I hadn’t planned on eating the food that night (since it was for lunch), so I just ate the fries and coleslaw and didn’t touch the chicken. The next day however, I picked up the chicken, placed it in a bowl and heated it up. When I removed the bowl from the microwave, there was a pool of blood inside of it. Upon further inspection of the chicken, I realized that the whole entire bottom of the chicken was not cooked and bloody (bright red blood). I was horrified and angry mostly since I had paid $ 11 for something I could not eat.
Unfortunately, I was very busy at work and had no time to take the chicken all the way back up there. So, I took pictures of the bloody chicken and went to EPR’s Unilocal page and used the «message this business» option. I expected to hear back from someone, but did not. So, today, Friday, I decided to follow up and call them. The guy who answered the phone was an ass. I told him that I purchased some chicken the other night and later realized that it was bloody. Before I could even finish my sentence, he interrupted me and condescendingly yelled «Well, you should have come back that night then». First of all, let me finish my damn sentence. Second of all, I tried to explain to him that it was not convenient but that I had pictures of it as well as my receipt. He then rudely stated that I needed to call back another time then and speak to the owner and then hung up.
Seriously? I have always loved this place and have always raved about it, but to be served raw meat and then yelled and and spoke to rudely, I will not tolerate.

Cheap, simple, delicious. El Pollo Rico does one thing and they do it extraordinarily well. I was hooked after my first taste of El Pollo Rico’s pollo a la brasa and I have been a regular since. For less than a $ 10 bill you can get half a chicken, a side of fries, and a side of coleslaw with a drink. Craziness. And I’m pretty sure that something they put in their sauces is addicting. Definitely tends to get busy at peak hours so aim for off times for immediate service. The inside is no frills but comfortable, so if you don’t go expecting a fancy dining room you shouldn’t be disappointed.

So over 1,000 users couldn’t be wrong. This place is it. It’s not just good, it is superb. It’s a modest location where if you didn’t know what you were looking for, you’ d just assume it was a very popular office building. Went in at the beginning of the lunch rush and it was almost a thing of beautify to watch. Two lines extending to opposite sides of the counter and two teams burning through each of the lines.
El Pollo Rico offers both carry out or dining in. Sitting in has about 60 or so seats, with the typical diner /​counter top décor. The décor, the ambiance, is secondary to the food here. Huge paintings on the walls of Central American themes. The biggest piece of ambiance are the huge roasters churning out delicious chicken, the piles of charcoal sitting next to the roasters, and the constant thumping of the hatchet/​butchers knife cutting chickens.
This is a brasa chicken lovers paradise. You get a quarter chicken, half chicken, half white meant, or whole. Three side choices steak fries, rice, or coleslaw. Two sauces (verde chili, or blaco) in case you’re looking to flavor your rice or steak fries. My wife decided to split a half of white meat, and split the sides. With each dish, you get a choice of two sides, we went with the steak fries and the rice. Even with the lunch rush on, the counter staff was extremely friendly and even had some jokes to crack.
The chicken was delicious. The skin had the delicious flavor of lingering charcoal on it. The meat was juicy, flavorful but not overpowering. The portion was huge. Plenty of meat and by far the best pollo a la brasa I’ve ever had. There are only so many ways you can compliment a chicken, not too greasy, not overpowering but pretty much perfect. The rice had a hint of flavor and good with the green sauce. The steak fries (I’m not always a huge fan) but were great. They were crispy, lightly salted, and I loved dipping them in the white sauce for a change up in flavor. The half chicken meal was very filling and I would couldn’t recommend eating here enough if you love chicken.