After a nice breakfast revisiting our old favorite Uncle Bill’s for breakfast, we packed up in Manhattan Beach and moved just down the coast to Hermosa Beach to rendezvous with Beau before heading out to the Channel Islands. We spent part of the afternoon exploring Hermosa Beach (where the modern surfing craze started), and then wanted to have a light lunch before packing up for our trip. Right next to our hotel was a small shopping area right on the Pacific Coastal Highway that included some rather pleasant roasted chicken smells wafting over our way: El Pollo Inka (one location of a Southern California chain). We decided to drop in and give it try.
With a hearty welcome from the proprietor, we were quickly seated at a table right in front of La Brasa, with a good dozen chickens roasting away. I liked the slight formality of the dining room, since most Peruvian Chicken places (such as a classic favorite of mine, El Pollo Rico) tend to have a distinctly informal “fast food” ambiance. Here, it’s more of a “relaxed dining” atmosphere.
As we looked over the menu, the proprietor encouraged us to dry the house drink, the chicha morada. Literally “Purple Drink”, Chicha Morada is a Peruvian beverage made from purple corn, sugar, and spices. The resulting beverage is surprisingly refreshing, and boldly colored. I find it surprisingly similar to Agua Jamaica, but with a slightly broader set of flavors. The version at El Pollo Inka was quite good, with the crispness you only get from having it freshly-made.
Looking over the menu, El Pollo Inka has a fairly extensive menu of Peruvian dishes and spirits. While they definitely focus on grilled chicken from the brasa, they’ve got a good cross section of familiar Peruvian dishes, include various lomo saltado (basically a Peruvian stir fry), bistek (Peruvian-style steaks), and seafood dishes. However, I was drawn in by the rotating roasting chickens in the brasa, and went for a simple Pollo a la Brasa, a half-chicken roasted and served with soup, rice, and a small salad. I’m glad I did, since this was a perfectly-roasted Peruvian chicken, nicely marinated and seasoned, with some nice aji-amarillo notes in the marinade. Combined with a particularly good aji verde (Peruvian jalapeno and cilantro sauce), and a little of the rice, and this was a nice, lighter lunch.
Carol, meanwhile, went for the Aji de Gallina (“hen’s chili), which was shredded chicken in a walnut gravy made from aji amarillo and a touch of cheese, served over a potato with garlic steamed rice and a hard-boiled egg. This was a surprisingly tasty dish: the shredded chicken was tender and flavorful, the sauce had nice walnut, cream, and aji amarillo notes, and with a bit of garlic rice, this had a nice, well-rounded, almost comfort-food satisfaction to it. I’d certainly consider this again.
Overall, we really liked El Pollo Inka. The food was pleasant, the ambiance nice, and the staff very attentive. They had a lot of good options for lighter portions, and I’d love to go back and try a broader selection of their menu on a future visit of mine to the South Bay area.
