El Pollo Rey — Restaurant in Kansas City

I travel quite a bit and this was a great surprise, but it wasn't. I found myself at El Pollo Rey for the first time about January 22, 2025

El Pollo Rey is another example of going where the locals eat to find good food and at a reasonable price. There is nothing fancy about their facility. It is in an industrial/commercial area of the city, close to a working class residential area. PERFECT. The clientele was mostly hardworking people and families.

The food, chicken, cooked on a wood-fired grill with very simple seasoning. The chicken is sold by the whole chicken (actually two halves), half chicken and chicken wings. What goes with the chicken, fresh tortillas from a family business, right up the street. The sides, beans and Mexican rice, included at no extra charge. That's it. The taste of the smoked chicken is fantastic.

This is a place where one can smell great food before entering the building. This will be one of my 'go to' places when I am in K.C. and I am there four to six times a year. This is not like eating on Fifth Avenue in NYC but THIS IS GREAT FOOD, produced by a hardworking family, at a great price. I cannot wait until my next trip. If you find yourself in Kansas City, and you liked smoked foods, I recommend getting to El Pollo Rey for some of the best wood-fired, grilled chicken I have ever had...

Whoa...hate to be the buzzkill at this love fest, but it is what it is. Dropped by a couple of weekends ago because of that killer smoke smell in the air that hit us as we were driving by. With great hope, we stopped to get chicken because joints like this are super popular back home in SoCal. Lots of folks inside, the food they were eating looked good so we ordered a whole chicken to go which came with a very small containers of salsa, pinto beans with a chunk of hot dog (WTH?) onions, a foil package of corn tortillas and decent Mexican rice. Maybe it's different when you eat in there, but it was hot and we wanted to go to the park. As I waited for my food, I noticed there was a mountain of grilled chicken that was sitting on the warming grill waiting to be go into an order and maybe that's where the problem starts. I know the chicken is going to have some char, I look forward to it, but it was black, DRY, DRY, DRY and very SALTY. The chicken was beyond saving even with the salsa. It was a cheap meal as it should be, but sometimes a cheap meal isn't the best way to save money. I've never thrown away an entire chicken, but that afternoon I did. We did end up eating a drumstick each, but everything else was a loss. Bummer, it...

Where to start on this place... I have to say that it was definitely worth the trip out of the way to have some chicken wings! You can tell you are getting close to this place before you even see the building. You will immediately notice a plume of smoke rising up in the air from all the chicken that is cooking on their grill. Follow the smell of deliciousness and you will arrive shortly.

The place is pretty small so seating is limited. They do have patio seating which offers up a little bit more seating when it is nice out. I ended up trying their 10 wings with tortillas for my meal. The wings were excellent. Cooked just right and slathered in a well flavored hot sauce. It was different with tortillas as the side for wings, but they were good tasting and fresh.

You know they do chicken right when you only have 3 items on the menu; Whole chicken, half chicken, or chicken wings. I will be coming back to give their whole or half chicken a try!

Update: I made the trip back to try a half chicken and it was excellent! Tender chicken with a nice smoky flavor to it! You get a lot of food...