Juan Pollo

  We first heard about Juan Pollo from the quarterly coupon magazine for Azusa, Irwindale and other surrounding areas.  It seemed like an inexpensive place that served rotisserie chicken cooked under a flame.  Earlier in the week, I stopped by there to pick up a take-home menu.  It’s located in a large strip mall on the north side of Alosta Avenue (A.K.A. Route 66) just west of Barranca Avenue and very close to Azusa Pacific University (APU).  The take-home menu stated that they made “The Best Testing Chicken!  Better Than Char-Broiled!”  It includes many individual items, up to a whole chicken and includes the Big Burrito that comes with rice and “benas”.  The menu also has a section on catering.  It includes everything from the Mini Pack (1 whole chicken with medium sized beans, rice, and potato salad to serve 2-3 people) to the Party Pak # 3 (20 whole chickens with pans of beans, rice, and potato salad to serve 50-60 people).  The fine print below the catering items says, “Due to business demands, Party Park may or may not be available at given times of day.”  That’s three typos in one menu.  What’s also interesting was that when we went to BonChon Chicken in Koreatown for my wife and sister-in-law’s birthday on October 29, their menu listed one type of chicken option as “Soy Galic”.  See my sister-in-law’s Multiply site for more on BonChon.  Maybe there’s something about chicken places and spelling.

Further research revealed that Juan Pollo is a chain restaurant that’s been around since 1984 and has most of its locations in San Bernardino County.

On Saturday, November 1, we decided to try the Juan Pollo in Azusa.  It’s a small eatery near a Subway and a Dollar Store in that strip mall.  It only has about 7-8 tables and a restroom for customers only.  The counter/open kitchen takes up most of the south wall.  On the north wall are pictures of the cartoon character Juan Pollo and his cousins including “Surf Pollo” (6th cousin), “Football Pollo” (10th cousin) and Chickie Baby (5th cousin).  There are also pictures of different colored Pollo cadets who look like chickens in Power Ranger or Mexican wrestler outfits.  The restaurant was moderately busy while we were there.  Several customers came and ordered including a mother with her three young children.  Some just ordered to go and most placed their orders in Spanish. 

I placed our orders at the counter and was handed them less than one minute after ordering.  Apparently they are always making the chicken and they just have to parse out the desired portions.  The place is similar to El Pollo Loco but different in that they use a rotisserie in place of a straight grill.  They also don’t have all the side dishes, only offering beans, rice, and potato salad.  All orders come with their salsa made fresh daily (choice of mild or spicy) and tortillas (choice of corn or flour).

Our orders came with a lot more food than we thought they would.  My half chicken special came with a lot of chicken and about five tortillas wrapped in foil (I chose corn) along with the salsa.  My wife got the lunch combo that the menu states only comes with two pieces of chicken, but her order actually seemed like more than that, possibly as much as a half chicken.  With the small rice and potato salad and salsa and tortillas (also corn) it was enough for two people.  Their prices in the restaurant were actually less than on the take home menu ($4.99 for the half chicken and $5.49 (versus $5.99) for the lunch special.)

The chicken was the highlight of the meal and it tasted great.  They marinated it with spices that complimented rather than overpowered the inherent taste of the chicken.  The outside was slightly crunchy and the inside juicy.  Even the white meat came apart easily.  Their homemade salsa is also good.  My wife liked that it only has a little bit of cilantro rather than overflowing with it.  It has jalapenos to make it spicy along with tomatoes, onions, and even some bits of carrot, the first time I’ve had them in salsa.  But it’s very good, not too salty or with any one ingredient dominating the taste.  The tortillas are a bit thin and fall apart easily since they heat them.  My wife liked that they gave us an adequate amount of tortillas rather than too many.  Though it was a lot of chicken, it tasted so good that we couldn’t help finishing it.  My wife doggy-bagged most of her rice and all of her potato salad.

We were quite full when we left.  If we’re really in a financial bind we could probably just split a half chicken for lunch and really save money.  Juan Pollo may not be able to spell but they sure know how to make chicken that’ll pass anyone’s test.