El Pollon Destin Florida — Restaurant in Destin

This was an initial visit to El Pollon. I spotted the restaurant in the shopping center. I had eaten at a Peruvian restaurant in another area a few years ago and enjoyed it. The sign outside mentioned Peruvian chicken. I had also visited Lima, Peru several years ago and enjoyed some of the food there. As a result, the two of us decided to have lunch at El Pollon.

It was a good choice. We ordered a 1/2 chicken meal. It came with two sides and a good selection of them. I did not know what yuca fries were. The cashier, who was very knowledgeable and very knowledgeable about the menu and the restaurant, described what they were.

The chicken took a few minutes to deliver. This is not a typical fast-food restaurant where a person turns around, grabs the food to put on a plate, and then sets the dish on the counter.

The green beans had to be cooked as well as the chicken. Waiting a few minutes was well worth it.

The chicken was cooked perfectly and had excellent flavor. The green beans were outstanding. They were crunchy with a light seasoning and obviously freshly prepared.

Yuca is a vegetable that is similar to a potato. I grew up in a family that ate potatoes about once a day in various forms and eat it in almost any form.

Yuca had a good flavor, seemed lighter and less dense than potato, and, in this instance, it was fried like typical American french fries. It came with two types of a sauce. One was mayonnaise based and another was seasoned with jalapeno. I used the mayonnaise sauce which was good. I also used ketchup on a couple of the fries, which was also good.

Another customer was ordering a dessert called tres leches cake.

The person at the counter urged us to try it as it was freshly made. She described it as having a sweet flavor but not overwhelming.

It was excellent as well. It is apparently also made at the restaurant and was very fresh. It was a light, yellow cake with a frosting like thick whipped cream. In other restaurants, I have had desserts that were not this good and were much more expensive.

El Pollon was very neat and clean. It advertises Peruvian food and appears to be authentic. Some of the other customers were likely very familiar with Peruvian food and culture and were fully enjoying their meals. In my experience, that is usually a good sign for the authenticity of the restaurant.

The woman at the counter was equally fluent in Spanish and English. I heard her answering questions and she seemed equally fluent in both. She was also more than willing to answer any questions and explain and describe their food options.

Destin is an expensive area for dining out. This restaurant offers very good food in an informal setting. The prices are very reasonable. The two of us split one meal and it was more than enough food for the two of us. The total cost was about $25 in an area where $50 for lunch is common.

El Pollon is well...

When we got there, it smelled heavily of bleach and we were told that they were closed even though we arrived 1-2 hours before closing time. They then changed their story saying we were only able to order takeout due to their bathrooms being broken. We were fine with that. Waited inside and received our food, and ate outside. My sister in law had ordered 1/4 dark meat chicken with a side of black beans and white rice, since the fried rice was out. As soon as she got the food, she noted she was given black beans and French fries, which she can’t eat because she is gluten intolerant. The problem was that my other two in-laws had ordered rice and received theirs, but she did not. The cashier, Abril, told my sister in-law that she needed a receipt and when she came back with the receipt the cashier said she didn’t understand what she was saying. She took a different approach and spoke to her in Spanish, since our entire family are native Spanish speakers, and was still told she still couldn’t understand her. A woman tried to intervene and help speak to the cashier in Spanish but translated wrong saying she no longer wanted fries and wanted to exchange them with white rice. When she called her out about translating it wrong stating she did not order fries, they looked at her weird. Frustrated she left and kept the food she was given. Later on, when my husband went in to grab napkins, they all ran to the back of the kitchen and stared at him until he left. While the food was ok, the experience with the staff and the atmosphere of the restaurant was disappointing. Would not go back because of how we...

Worst customer service I have seen in a while. The inside was clean but that’s because the bathroom was closed and they were only doing Togo. We had a group of 6 people so 3 orders total. The chicken was not bad but tasted very heavy on the herb seasoning. We ordered the steak quesadilla and 1/4 chicken dark meat with rice and black beans. We go my our food went outside to eat and we realized we got fries instead of rice with the chicken. I did not get a printed receipt as well. So we went back in and showed them the food and said we ordered rice and then they requested the receipt. We got one with the bag and to our surprise it said fries. We took it to them and said we did not order fries we ordered rice. Then they said you can’t change it either and acted like they were not understanding what we were saying then claimed they were out of rice even though 3 other people in our group got rice. If I could give 0 stars for service I would. Steak quesadilla was bland, bacon cheese fries were not bad but the fries tasted...