On this snowy evening of delayed starts at the University of
Maryland and no school for my daughter we stopped at Pollo Oro on the way home
from campus. We’ve been to Pollo Oro before, but never got around to describing
it for the blog; last semester was kind of malaise-o-rama. So, here we are,
chicken fans, back at it for another installment of the Langley Park
rotisserie-chicken-landscape evaluation. Almost all the chicken places along
University Boulevard are easily characterized as unassuming, but there’s
something about Pollo Oro that makes it even more so. It’s a freestanding
place, not part of a strip mall, and looks like either an old Chinese
restaurant, an old Mexican restaurant, or some kind of combination, not unlike
the soul food, seafood, sub, Chinese, fried chicken fusion places up and down
Georgia Avenue. Georgia Avenue’s density and wall-to-wall businesses and
residences is very different from the spread out strip mall phantasmagoria that
is much of Langley Park. Anyhow, the chicken.
We ordered our usual cast of characters: a whole chicken,
fries, coleslaw, plantains, rice and beans, and a relatively unusual one,
macaroni and cheese. The chicken is among the spiciest around, with a strong
garlic flavor and a good charcoal infusion. They get the skin just right,
crispy and fatty. Yum. The sauces—a white and a green—were a disappointment, but
at least the spiciness of the chicken compensated for the blandness of the
green sauce. The white sauce has a decent mayonnaise flavor, but it was too
runny for my taste. Fries were run-of-the-mill and mostly good because we were
hungry. The slaw and the rice and beans are exceptionally good, especially the
latter. But the slaw is nothing like the tiny-chunked, super-creamy (overly
so), almost mushy stuff that’s practically everywhere else. The cabbage and
carrots were fresh and of a good size. Plantains are good, nothing special, but
good. The folks at Pollo Oro were friendly, and the counterman inquired as to
whether we walked, surprised, when I told him we had driven, that we hadn’t
used the drive-in.
It’s winter, and how. Snow, snow, and no rhythm to the days
or even weeks since we haven’t had one week when my daughter went to school
every day, all day. Well, maybe one, but it hardly makes a difference in this
sense of no routine and deadlines and projects hanging around, occasionally
being plucked from the ether to be completed.
Chicken and all that it reminds us of summer and the World
Cup is the answer, a way out on a quick, early-to-dark Thursday night after a
day at the U; the dirty snow lining University Boulevard reminding me of
endless winters in Mpls./St. Paul, back when it was really, really cold,
although, DC’s coldest day since 1896 was just last week.
Rice and beans: firm beans, well-cooked rice, not soupy,
good spices. A meal in and of themselves, especially since they come in a big
container.
All for less than $25.
Chicken: It could have used a less strong seasoning and more of
that seasoning. It was too spicy so a less strong spice was needed to make it
tastier the chicken was also a little
chewy. But pretty good in the end.
Beans and rice: out of this world so deliciousprfect amount
of salt
and good balance of rice and beans (rice was not drowned in beans beans
were’nt too liquidy).
Coleslaw: a bit too creamy but very crunchy unlike most
restaraunts coleslaw not the bets but okay I don’t have much too say about it.
French fries: kind of hard on the ends and needed more salt also mushy they were not very good I just
did’nt like them that much.
Sauce: pretty good but too runny it did taste good though it was
just kind of plain.
Mac and cheese: the cheese taste was good but it was way too
mushy like mashed potatos I did not like it and I usually love mac and cheese.
In summary not so good but
not the worst the beans were the definite best.
