Lately I’ve been trying to check out more of the restaurants I haven’t been to, like Susana’s Pupuseria across from the Red Derby. The other day on another Red Derby visit I decided to check out Pollomio at 3703 14th Street NW, at Spring.
At first I expected another Peruvian chicken place, but it’s actually a kind of quirky spot with a lot of different kinds of food. The first thing I noticed was the plethora of neon signs outside: they have a least four, which is kind of funny. Inside there’s a big bakery case, a large menu with all kinds Latin American food and also some kind of big frozen drink machine (see the signs below.)
I tried the chicken tacos and rice and beans, and they were inexpensive and decent — only $5.99 for the tacos. They didn’t come with any other sides so I also got rice and beans for about $2. The chicken was pretty good at first, salty and flavorful, but after the first taco and a half I was getting kind of tired of the saltiness. That said, they do have tons of things on the menu: a quarter, half, and whole chicken, various kinds of steak with vegetables, beef and chicken tacos, taquitos, burgers, soup, pupusas, salads, steak and cheese, chicken parmesan, and finally the plato tipico, which is a Honduran and Central American meal with eggs, cheese, beans, plantains and sometimes other stuff. With that much stuff you wonder if it’s all decent, but at least there’s something for everyone.
And that’s not even mentioning the bakery case, which is full of all kinds of things. I wasn’t really sure what anything was and there weren’t signs, so I picked one that looked like a croissant and asked what it was. After a few different staff folks said they didn’t know, I just went ahead and bought it — turns out it was a croissant. There’s also a bunch of frozen coffee drinks and smoothies that seem to be from a machine, but I didn’t go for those.
Unfortunately I didn’t catch the hours, and their website doesn’t work, but it might be worth a stop after a night at the Red Derby (or even Lyman’s, the new spot coming from the Raven and St. Ex folks next to the Derby!)
