Pollo Oro

 

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.