We were happy that we were going to get there at about 3:30 PM because we figured that would be after the lunch rush and before the dinner rush. The article said that people were lined up early in the morning on opening day. We also were hoping that the novelty of the grand opening would be over by now too.
We found the restaurant OK. It is about 10 miles south-east of O'Hare Airport. As we turned the corner into the shopping center where it is located I wanted to abort the mission and go somewhere else. There were literally at least 30 cars in the drive through lane. If the drive through was that crowded I pictured us waiting at the counter forever to recieve our order. I wish we could have waited at the counter. They had TWO lines outside! One for take-out and one for dine-in.
I would have gladly left but Sheri convinced me to stay. She said it would be a shame to get way out here and then not give it a try. We got in the dine in line. They had a couple of tents set up over the line for shade, but we were at the end of the line and were in the full sun and next to a wall that was reflecting the sun back onto us. After a few minutes we switched to the take out line and moved up under the tent. That felt better.
We finally got to actually go inside the restaurant after about 20 minutes.
We decided that since it would be a long time before we would get back to the restaurant again since it is so far away from us we had better make this visit count. We decided on the 16 piece combo that includes three sides. We choose fried sweet plantains, fried green plantains, and Campero beans. It also include some biscuits. They also had two kinds of flan on the menu, and any time we are in a restaurant that has flan we always have to try it. We ordered the caramel flan instead of the mango flan.
It took us 40 minutes from the time we got in line until we walked out of the door with our order. We went back to the van to eat. The first thing we tried were the sweet plantains. They were not battered, probably just cooked in a pan with a little oil until they were soft. I loved them. Sheri thought they were similar to warm cinnamon apples and didn't want to fill up on them. They had a nice fresh tangy flavor. I am not sure if they were seasoned or sweetened with anything. I couldn't detect anything else but I wouldn't swear on it. My verdict: would definitely order them again.
We ate a few of those and then put them away. Then we tried the Campero beans. Amazing! The flavor was too complicated to do any justice with words, but I will try. At first I was put off because they were very running. A lot of liquid in relation to the amount of actual beans. However the liquid was more like soup than just bland cooking liquid. It looked like it had raw pico de gallo stirred in after the main cooking was done. The tomatoes, onions, and cilantro from the pico de gallo were softened from being in the hot beans, but they were still more raw than cooked. I think there was some meat in the beans for flavor, but I couldn't be sure. There were other vegetables that gave the liquid a little body. There was also a perfect amount of heat that slowly built with each mouthful. My verdict: would DEINITELY get the beans again and highly recommend them.
The next thing to try were the green plantains. These were battered and disk shaped. I looked through all of the bags and we got gypped on those and the line was too long to walk back in and complain, so I can't report on those.
OK, now it was time to try the chicken. It smelled great. I opened the box and it had a wonderful deep brown and slightly reddish amber look to the batter. I grabbed a wing and bit in. I was expecting some new and different Guatemalan spice combination that I have never tasted before. What else could make all of these people wait in line under the hot sun for so long, right? Well, I didn't taste anything exotic at all. It was just chicken. No spice. No unusual spice. Just fried chicken. I was very disappointed. I wanted to be overwhelmed with new tastes washing over my tongue. Oh well, I was very hungry so I kept on eating. After a couple more pieces though it hit me: this was probably the best fried chicken I had ever had. The meat was very tender and flavorful. The pieces were normally shaped pieces like your Mom would have cut, not the weird ones that KFC cuts. The chicken was extremely hot, fresh, and juicy. The coating was very thin and crunchy. Although it wasn't spiced, it was seasoned very lightly. It had good taste. I can't pin it down. Nothing exotic, just good. After I resolved my mismanaged expectations I was really digging the chicken. I was going after all of the small pieces; wings and thighs. Sheri ate three drumsticks which is a lot for her.
My final overall verdict: will I drive the 30 miles just get some more of their chicken? No. Especially if I would have to suffer through a 40 minute wait again. If I was going out for chicken and Pollo Campero was an extra five mile drive beyond KFC, would I make the extra drive? Every single time. I think I am going to go grab a cold breast out of the fridge right now as a matter of fact!
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