Charcoal Chicken

After several bouncing back and forth, back and forth regarding what to give this place, ultimately, well, the deciding factor forthcoming.
The food is a solid ³⁄₅. I got a ½ chicken, plantains, rice, and a horchata. The chicken is very good, sans the fact it tastes very charred, but once you get past that, it in fact is really, really good. The fact they also cut the bird up before serving it to you really helps make it better. The plantains were really good too. White rice? Slightly disappointed. While they had nice taste, they were slightly undercooked, and definitely lacked in areas where other places succeed with it. Oh well, my bad. And the horchata was not the best either. Honestly, I think Café Rio and a handful of other places really do the best job with it, so I can’t fully fault it.
Where I will knock the star is the fact when I got inside, and was ready to place my order, but nobody was out front to serve or help me. No one. Okay, sometimes people get busy, but I waited a full five minutes before somebody I guess realized I was waiting before I was greeted! Here’s a tip; place a service bell up front, and if you know you’re going to be in the back for extended periods without customers, use it, I would’ve pressed it and be more understanding of waiting for food rather than having to wait the extra minutes for somebody to come up and take my order. Yes, the lady who took my order was pleasant, but that’s not the point here. During lunch rush, there should be somebody up at the counter at all times ready for orders, plain and simple, cut and dry.
I still think Raices is the best place for this kind of food. This place did a decent bangup job, but customers should always be your first priority when making your restaurant your own. It’s what attracts regulars, which in turn makes customers bring in more business, which gets the place a better reputation. So with that all being mentioned, I would come back here for the sake that the chicken was good, but the customer service element lacked in this visit, something that honestly, you need if you want to thrive.

This is my second time coming here. I stopped in yesterday for lunch with a friend and got the special on the window. Quarter chicken with 2 sides and a soda. I got dark meat, fries, and fried rice. Damn delicious! The service was good, place was clean and wasn’t busy. My buddy complained that his chicken was a lil dry (he got white meat) but I just told him he should have gotten dark. If your in the Manassas area around Sudley Manor rd (not too far from there I think) stop in for a bite. They have good selection if you don’t want chicken also.

Great experience! Went in with a friend (who is a regular) and got my lunch special to go. Excellent customer service, chicken was fresh and moist, fries were heavenly. Will definitely frequent this place!

I ordered carry out. The advertising (take out menus and photo outside the building) gives you the impression the food is freshly prepared, but that is not the case. I got the 2pc chicken with chicken fried rice and mixed vegetables. The chicken was ok, but not juicy, and was lukewarm. The vegetables were bland and the rice was old. I believe the meal must have been prepared several hours ago. Also, they didn’t include any utensils to eat the meal. I will not be going back again.

I have eaten here several times and always have a good experience. The food is delicious and fast. The prices are reasonable. The employees are friendly.

Chicken was seasoned nicely, but was dry and over cooked; plantains were dry and old I could tell they were sitting for some time. I had the veg/​chicken soup as my other side, good taste but I wouldn’t get it again. won’t be back anytime soon.

Decent chicken… pretty good fries and arroz chaufa. good pricing. Really hard to compete since there are a lot of chicken places around here

excellent chicken, yuca fresh & crispy, service was above & beyond! and i have gone to eat at many peruvian restaurants, i know my peruvian chicken. definitely will be back :)

I love this place. Every time I order here, the workers are super friendly and helpful. Their chicken is super moist and delicious. I absolutely love the Yucca with the yellow dipping sauce. It’s worth trying at least once.

Really good… the Peruvian chicken is bomb and the Carne Asada was really good as well
The language barrier is a little rough when ordering but the stuff is really nice and the service is fast

best fried chicken i have tasted!!! awesome food always hot and fresh!!! i love this place and they deliver!!!

I’ve eaten here a few times, prior to the new management. I was quite underwhelmed with the chicken — the skin a bit dry and too peppery. I tried the sautéed pasta dish with beef in it. The first two times it was great; it was a nice size and a departure from the chicken. But the last time I had it, it’s as if the oil separated itself from the soy sauce and it was basically oily soy sauce noodles. Way too salty, and clearly wasn’t cooked properly for it to separate like that. Won’t take that pricey chance again. Hopefully the new management made the food improve. Not understanding the hype but I suppose it’s sufficient if you’re in a bind.

So wonderful. Quarter chicken plantains and rice and beans. One of the best things I’ve eaten in 10 years, price point around $ 6 and outrageously good service. These guys deserve to be full all the time.

I’ve tried a few different Peruvian chicken restaurants in Manassas, and this one in my opinion is the best there is. The chicken is always moist and flavorful, and has a nice crispy skin. Service is always friendly and quick, and the restaurant itself is very clean. This has become a regular lunch spot for me and my co-​workers, and anyone I take there is highly impressed with the food.

«Hi, I’d like to place an order for delivery.»
«Sorry, we don’t have anyone here to deliver.» *click*

There are a lot of options in the immediate surrounding area but I chose to try this one. Once I walked in I noticed that the restaurant was larger than I expected and was very clean and the booths end tables look new and not worn down. The menu for chicken is your standard Peruvian chicken menu but the food was excellent. It also looked like they had a handful of other menu option that I did not try. Next time I’m in town for business I will visit this place again as I was very impressed.

DONT JUDGE THIS RESTAURANT ON ITS Unilocal RATING! THESE REVIEWS DONT GIVE IT THE CREDIT IT DESERVES, TRUST ME. Now that I’m done with that… I just came back from this restaurant and it’s simply amazing. I really wish more people knew about it because it’s an absolute gem. It’s tucked away in a shopping plaza and it’s quite easy to miss. Also, the exterior doesn’t match the interior so don’t judge on it’s outer appearance because the inside is very neat and lovely. The staff was so polite and friendly. The chef, the manager, and the nice lady who took our order came to our table frequently to check how we were doing. Everything was great. From the remarkable service to the food… don’t even get me started about the food. Everything was seasoned to perfection. The yucca was crispy and lightly salted the chicken was so good omg. Another person in my group tried their seafood rice and that was amazing too. Ughh everything was just so delicious. Pretty much, If you don’t like flavor then don’t come here because this place is all flavor. They just got a customer for life.

The absolute BEST Peruvian chicken I’ve ever eaten. It beats ANY and ALL rotisserie places in NYC… HANDS DOWN! The chix are sooo SUCCULENT and the seasoning is sooo FLAVORFUL you end up sucking the bones because you don’t want the EXPERIENCE to end!
I visit Manassas at least 3x’s a year and I make sure I haul back 8 chickens.
They’re double wrapped in foil and then put in my freezer. I haven’t tried their sides so I can’t comment.
The owner would make a mint if he moved to NY! (hint, hint)

A god awful rip off.
For $ 25, I got 1 chicken and 4 sides. They did NOT give me the 6 sodas I paid for. The sides are TINY, like individual sides, not family size, the 1 tiny piece of corn was overcooked. The veggies were all wilted and nasty. The chicken was dry and crumbling. I will never EVER go back.

Manassas really is becoming a Peruvian chicken hot spot lately. This place just recently opened where «Cedar’s» used to be, and confusingly has the same name that the Kebab place down the street used to have before changing names.
The interior is really nice with tile, lighting, etc. It looks a LOT better than it did back when it was Cedar’s.
We got a whole chicken to go with salad and fried yucca for about $ 16.
I usually evaluate the chicken for crispness of skin, seasoning/​flavor, juiciness of the breast meat, overall tenderness, and how freshly it was cooked.
The chicken we got here had nice crispy skin, was very tender, breast meat was reasonably juicy, chicken overall was very tender and tasted very fresh. However as far as flavor, it tasted like it was absolutely BATHED in garlic! It tasted like they made a garlic paste and rubbed it all under the skin.
I absolutely LOVE garlic and this was borderline too much garlic for me.
The salad was average, I would ask for the dressing on the side next time since it tasted like Kraft Ranch. The yucca was excellent, crispy and hot.
I’ll try this place again in a few weeks to see if they’ve tweaked their chicken recipe to go easy on the garlic. The food is great but this is a very, very crowded category for the area and IMO at this point, there are better Peruvian chicken options around.