Local Goodies: Peruvian Chicken

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

Chicken with a tortilla from Pollo Campero (Image: Mai Nguyen/Northern Virginia Magazine}

Clearly, “pollo a la brasa,” or Peruvian chicken, is not a new trend in the food world, but it is pretty new to me (I just tried it for the first time two weeks ago). After that first time, I was hooked so I went to two more places in the following two days. Here’s what I thought of the three places:

Meh – Pollo Campero (5852 Columbia Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041; 703-820-8400)
When I was in high school, almost all of my peers and teachers raved about this place. I used to even see long lines overflowing outside the door. So I was surprised to find myself disappointed with the food here. The chicken was really bland. I shared a side of fried plantains and yucca fries with my friend and they didn’t fare much better. Even though they were both fried, they were both soggy. The chicken did come with a complementary tortilla and they had a small salsa bar, but that didn’t make the chicken any better. This really turned out to be nothing special and I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat here again.

Good – Sabrina’s Grill (2962 Gallows Road, Falls Church, VA 22042; 703-698-9221)
The food here is kept under a heat lamp, but the food is still really fresh and good. Their chicken was okay, but I was much more interested in the fried yucca fries and fried plantains that I got. The yucca fries were a bit hard, but still retrained their natural texture after being fried and tasted really good. The fried plantains were cooked so that they had caramelized a bit and were sweet, but not overwhelmingly so.

Call me a regular – Chicken Loco (7610 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, VA 22003; 703-941-4377)
A friend actually bought this for me to bring home, so I’m not sure how their food is kept. The chicken here is the most flavorful out of the other locations since the other two locations didn’t have memorable chicken.  I absolutely loved the yucca fries here because they had a great texture and still tasted yucca. Their fried plantains were fried until they had caramelized a little bit and were just the right amount of sweet.

I do have a few more places to try out in the area, but Chicken Loco is definitely my favorite so far.

-Mai Nguyen

Tags: Chicken Loco, Gut Check, Mai Nguyen, Northern Virginia, Northern Virginia Magazine, NoVA, Peruvian Chicken, pollo a la brasa, Pollo Campero, Sabrina's Grill