Peru's Chicken

My list of new places to eat included Peru's Chicken, at 3050 Valley Avenue, Suite 101, so I headed that way a little after noon on December 17, 2009. I found the restaurant in a corner location in the Opequon Center Business Park, on the east side of Valley Avenue across from the Creekside Business Park.

Peru's is a small Hispanic operation occupying a single module in the building at 3050 Valley. It has eight square tables seating four people apiece, and a small patio with two iron tables out front. Orders are placed at a counter, with the menus displayed on the wall; a paper menu is also available.

The chicken is roasted in a charcoal rotisserie located behind the counter, which includes a preparation area. After placing your order and paying for it, you pick up your plastic tableware and napkin from the counter, select the canned or bottled drink you have paid for from a refrigerator, and sit down to be served.

Choices include 1/4 or 1/2 chicken with two side orders, a whole chicken with or without two sides, and larger orders for multiple diners; these range for a single whole chicken, a whole and half chicken, and two whole chickens.

Side orders are French fries, yucca, coleslaw, plantains, rice, beans, mashed potatoes, salad, and salsa. Beverages are canned or bottled soft drinks, juices, or water. Paying $1.25 for bottled water in a restaurant seems a bit expensive to me.

Chicken sandwiches are available, as are quesadillas and burritos; there are also steak and cheese sandwiches and cheeseburgers. Incidentally, the rotisserie chicken is seasoned with Peruvian spices, giving the establishment its name.

I ordered a half-chicken with white meat, rice, and beans, and a canned Dr. Pepper. The beans were black, and the food was served on a foam plastic plate, delivered on a tray. Two small paper cups of condiments were furnished; one apparently held spicy mustard, and the other looked and tasted like hot green chilies.

The chicken was very good. Diet faddists would probably be shocked to know that I didn't remove the skin, because that's where the Peruvian seasoning was. For a lunch I should have ordered the smaller 1/4 chicken; as it was, I decided that this would be my big meal for the day.

I recognized this place as being the former Marcella Char Broil, also a Hispanic chicken operation. My wife and I had eaten lunch there on May 25, 2008. There appeared to be no significant change in the room layout since then. In fact, the printed menu noted that the place had formerly been Marcella's Chicken.

The restaurant was in a corner location, with entry doors in the front and on the left side. Neither one had a vestibule, which meant that the constant in-and-out traffic let in cold air. This made the room cool enough that I kept my wraps on while I was eating.