Chicken Mania for Dinner
Not the best picture but you get the idea.
I received word today via Twitter that the new Peruvian chicken place, Chicken Mania had opened up this weekend, so we headed there for dinner tonight. Peruvian style chicken is cooked rotisserie style after soaking for hours (sometimes overnight) in a water and spices. The result is a very flavorful, incredibly moist bird. I’m happy to report that Chicken Mania did an excellent job on my chicken tonight. It was both moist and flavorful. Those of you that are fans of Peruvian style chicken will naturally compare it to local favorite Chicken Fiesta. I’m here to tell you it’s a battle and too close to call a clear winner. The flavor of the chicken is a little different than at Chicken Fiesta but my palate can’t pinpoint the spice. One difference is the sauces that are served. Chicken Fiesta goes with a white sauce and green sauce. The green sauce is hot. Chicken Mania has a very similar white sauce and red sauce (there is a green on the menu but I didn’t try it). The red sauce is fiery death hot but tasty. I never thought I would turn my back on the green sauce but this red stuff is making me question my beliefs.
The sides at Chicken Mania fell short for me. I had the fried cassava and ranchero beans. The cassava was dense and very chewy not at all like the fried yucca I love at Chicken Fiesta. The ranchero beans did not deliver any of the promised bacon, tomatoes and onions. I wondered whether not I got the black beans instead but didn’t care enough to find out. As black beans they were tasty, as ranchero beans they were lacking.
The menu has a large selection of traditional Peruvian seafood options. One that caught my eye; “Fish Cebiche with Leche de Tigre – Peruvian fresh fish marinated with lime juice mixed with special spices and the juice produced from the ingredients of ceviche”. There are also some unique meat options including, “Asado Sandwich – Pot roast meat served with optional lettuce and tomato.”
I know now that restaurant/food magazines don't use an iTouch when photographing restaurants.
The restaurant itself is nicely remodeled but a little bright and sterile. Plenty of room for eating but the parking lot is limited to about 5 or 6 cars so that could an issue. The staff were professional and the food came out reasonably quick. Dinner for 3 with soda was around $21. Despite the shortcomings of the sides I’ll be taking the family back.
Front door and where you place your order, near the gentleman to the left.
Chicken Mania (267-3340) is located at 7524 Forest Hill Ave (past the turn for WalMart) and available for Take Out and Delivery. I neglected to ask how far they deliver. There is no kid’s menu but plenty of options for the little ones. One last fact that I know is very important to some of you, yes they have Inca Kola. If you have any questions send them in and I’ll ask them best I can but remember I’ve only had the chicken.
I can’t seem to get past the name. I keep thinking Chicken Mania sounds like an ailment akin to Mad Cow Disease.
Up in NOVA I used to go to a place called Pollo Loco.
Keep in mind, Chicken Mania is Peruvian-style, and Chicken Fiesta is Tex-Mex. Although they both offer rotisserie chicken, their food’s ethnic foundation is different. Either way, I’m glad to hear someone tried Chicken Mania, not to mention that they deliver, and I look forward to visiting them after your rave review of their rotisserie chicken.
Sweet! Will have to tell Pedro about this :)
Inca Kola! Nothing will ever touch Pollo Rico in Arlington. With that being said, excited to try Chicken Mania
THEY DELIVER!!?? Now that’s a great plus to teach the other chicken places :)
It’s not there yet, but has promise. Still some service issues, but nice people. Give them a few weeks to work out the kinks and this should be a worthy addition to the corridor.
Ok so they have a lot of improvement to do. They seem very disorganized. It took almost half an hour to order and get my food with 3 people in line in front of me. The chicken might have been a hair undercooked which turned us off a little bit, the fries were great, the ranchero beans were bland. The white sauce was pretty good, a lot thicker than I’m used to. Didn’t get to try to hot sauce since they forgot to give it to me. 5 people behind me in line left. There were some people who stood there waiting for their food while it sat on the counter, some didn’t get some things at all. I know they’re new so I’m willing to give them a shot a few months later when they hopefully have their shit together.
I agree with Pedro. We had to leave after waiting about 10 minutes with only two people in front of us. They told the couple in front of us that they were out of chicken and it was 7pm. We went to Chicken Fiesta.
Wow. We lucked out. None of the service issues that everyone is mentioning. We did dine early before 6:00. Hopefully they’ll work things out.
Actually, that’s the worst picture. ;-)
Ate there last night around 7:30 and didn’t experience any service issues. Agree that the chicken was delicious but found the sides a bit lacking. I could go to either Fiesta or Mania and be very satisfied with my meal.
Another new Peruvian and Latinamerican place is ROCOTO CHICKEN, is a restaurant inside EL JARDIN LATINO MARKET in Broad St., close to Parham Rd. The rotisserie chicken is so good, is from farm and they use natural charcoal. Weekends is like crazy, hard to find a table because they have a PERUVIAN SEA FOOD FEST. You should try it. This is the website: http://www.rocotochicken.com
My family and kids went yesterday good experience special the deep fry chicken my kids finish all them really tender huge plate. I try the lomo saltado and my wife the jalea again We could not finish we take half home since for the price we spend less money and take food home.
they star deliver wich is a pluss and taking table orden in my opinion chickenmania is one of the best place in richmond to go.Cheeper autentic Peruvian food and good service I gland finally we have unique tasty wich is no only rostisserie chicken it is a Peruvian cuisine.
webside.
http://www.chickenmania.net
[...] you’ve been to Chicken Mania and wished to have a nice cold beer with your chicken you might not have to wait to much longer as [...]
[...] has gotten around to reviewing Chicken Mania. Here’s mine and a few others perspective from 3 months ago. Check out the full review to see how they reached the following conclusion. We [...]