El Pollo: New resturant review

I offer you my review of the new place "El Pollo" on 291 5th Ave., BTW 1st and 2nd streets in da Slope.

(looks like they also own Ruben's Restaurant on 70th st. @ New Utrecht -anyone been there???)

The Mr. M and I ordered by phone on Tuesday night for delivery. We got the 1/2 roasted chicken with rice and beans and a side of tostones. The girl was friendly on the phone and upbeat. She said it might take 30 minutes. We don't live very many blocks away, and the delivery man arrived, seriously, in 10 minutes flat!! We heated up some tortillas from the fridge. I had previously made some spicy salsa, so I brought that out.

Not to digress, but I realized this morning that I really should take some pics of the food if I am going to talk about it. But, as usual, hunger kicked in and the pics before you are of the half devoured chicken. :oops: Pobresito pollito.

The left over chicken perfectly roasted, with browned seasoned skin. So good you could make a taco just out of the skin.



The chicken was uber tender and dare I say soft and moist as butter. Mr. M reminded me that I also love the Carneviento chicken. True, so true. Where CV had delicious green herbs sticking to the corners of the skin and meat, this pollo was in contrast browned like a mexican diva. Basically hard to compare. Also, this is my first time trying El Pollo and I might have caught them on a good night for roasting.

Along side the chicken photo you'll also see the tostones, the utter failure of the evening! There's only a few in that picture because the rest we tossed from our plates, half eaten, so sad. They were fried but flavorless. I tried adding different things to the tostones. Hot sauce, extra salt, a bit of lime, the white and green sauce they came with, even my salsa! To no avail. They were inedible and that saying a lot from a woman that will eat practically anything fried. Bad green bananas and crappy oil. Bleh!

Moving on:
The rice and beans were specifically white rice (not pictured) with black beans. Plus the sauces on the side.



The beans were good, but they had way too much liquid and not enough beans. The rice was rice, nuff said. The green and white sauce was so disappointing. The green tasted like they found the worlds most unripe flavorless green pepper and mashed it. Very unappetizing. The white sauce tasted like the white sauce you get from street vendors but with extra garlic. Not bad but not my style.

All in all it's a great place for the chicken. I haven't tried the rest of the menu. Maybe they just don't have their sides down yet??

1/2 chicken with side of rice and beans: $9
Tostones: $3
Total: $12 plus tax

(a pic of my salsa, hee hee)