Pollo Delicioso brings Peruvian flair to So. Md.
It’s rotisserie chicken cooked the authentic Peruvian way at Pollo Delicioso located in the Central Square Shopping Center in Prince Frederick.
Pollo Delicioso features pollo a la brasa, a popular Peruvian cuisine also known as Peruvian rotisserie chicken. The restaurant also serves madefrom-scratch rice and chicken specialty dishes, sauces, sides, soups, chips, dips and more, and offers daily lunch specials, online ordering and drive-through pick up, and catering services for special occasions.
Owner Robert Coulon said it was his years of experience in the restaurant industry combined with his passion to own a restaurant that inspired him to launch Pollo Delicioso in April of this year.
“I have been working in restaurants since I was 15,” Coulon said. “I’ve worked at many different places, but it wasn’t until I started working for a place up in Bethesda called Uncle Julio’s Rio Grande Cafe that I got to see what a good restaurant is run like … I found a home with them and worked most of my career with them.”
“Another thing that I saw with them was in the kitchen, everything was done from scratch,” Coulon added. “They were able to do it in such a consistent form … I went up into a management role with them and got the eye-opener on what it’s really like to run a restaurant.”
Coulon said he left his position with the restaurant to become manager, and eventual co-owner, of a sports bar in Bethesda. When the bar changed ownership in 2016, Coulon set out on his own to bring Peruvian rotisserie chicken to Southern Maryland with Pollo Delicioso located on Central Square Drive.
“I already had my recipe. I already worked out that part of it for marinating the chicken, my green and yellow sauces, the rice and beans … I knew I was ready to go,” Coulon said.
Coulon said Pollo Delicioso’s chicken is marinated for more than 24 hours in his recipe blend of spices and Peruvian flavors, roasted over charcoal in a rotisserie oven, then paired with spicy green and yellow sauces to give restaurant customers a traditional eating experience.
Pollo Delicioso offers individual combination platters of 1/4, 1/2 or one whole rotisserie chicken with sauces, sides and a beverage. The restaurant also offers family- and party-sized platters; a la carte servings of chicken and sauces; arroz chaufa, a Peruvian fried rice and chicken dish; chicken burritos, quesadillas and wraps; salad topped with rotisserie chicken or chicken salad; sides of rice, beans, coleslaw, fried plantains, fried yuca, french fries, sautéed green beans and sautéed brussel sprouts; tortilla chips and dips; soups; Inca Kola, a Peruvian soft drink; and sodas, fruit juices and water.
“When Robert called Kevin Bourgeois and myself about renting at our Central Square Shopping Center, we both were excited to have something different coming to Prince Frederick. This was exactly what we wanted at the shopping center,” said Susan Allen, co-owner of the shopping center and owner of Susan L. Allen CPA accounting firm in Prince Frederick. “Pollo Delicioso is the best tasting chicken I have ever had and the service is absolutely wonderful.”
Coulon said that so far, business has been cooking at Pollo Delicioso, and that he is grateful to his employees for the work they do and their ser vice to customers, and also thankful for the help his mother, Barbara Coulon, provides with day-to-day operations at the restaurant.
Over time, Coulon said he plans to add more food items to the restaurant’s menu of offerings, and looks forward to opening more locations in the Southern Maryland area.
“People love the service, people love the food,” Coulon said. “I want us to fit in and be a part of the community … I can’t explain my excitement in being down here.”
For more information on Pollo Delicioso, or to view the restaurant’s menu or place an online order, go to www.pollodelicioso.com.