Review: Pio Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken

[A|pine]

Pio Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken
2929 Sunridge Way N.E.
Tuesday - Saturday: 11 am to 9 pm
Sunday: 11 am to 8 pm

5/5 - Service - Great service they helped a great deal with my dish selection. Very friendly and informative on the type of dishes offered. The servers also gave me some Chicha Morada (a purple corn beverage) on the house. Mind you it wasn't overly busy when I showed up...which was 10:45. They were nice enough to serve me outside of their business hours.

4/5 - Ambiance / Decor - Great pictures of Peru, has a family restaurant feel to it, very casual. Nothing out of this world.

5/5 - Food - Great Flavours, portions for price was decent.

4.5/5 - Overall - Great flavours, portions could be a bit larger but nonetheless I will be back to sample the rotisserie chicken and other dishes. It's great to see the food scene mature and diversify here in Calgary over the past 5 years.

My only issue with the menu was that it was disappointing to not see Guinea Pig on the menu...(based on South Park Episode)



Was in the area, stopping by Rona for some home stuff and this restaurant caught my eye. I decided to give it a try, so I stopped in for some food and early lunch. Now contrary to the restaurant name I didn't order rotisserie chicken, but based on my experience and dishes I ordered, I will definitely be back sampling the numerous other dishes in their menu.

The average dish price is under $20.00 so I think it is comparable to a Vietnamese restaurant, maybe slightly higher price point. Business is family run, talked to the servers and they were very friendly. Their mother does all the cooking and has a strong dedication to keeping the dishes authentic Peruvian. After some small chit chat, I took their suggestion on a common dish to start your day off, which is the Tamals and Coffee. I also ordered Aji de Gallina.

The tamals were delicious, the red onions had enough citrus and zesty heat on them that complimented the filled corn flour. Tamals were filled with an assortment of goods (chicken, olives, some other goods). The Aji de Gallina can be described as a Peruvian curry. It was delicious, interesting and different. The spices were unlike any other curry I've eaten - it was a good balance not too heavy.
(I've eaten chinese, japanese katsu curry, and sort of real indian...at least to my knowledge it is sort of real since I can handle the spiciness...real indian curry I have heard is quite spicy)

Here are a couple pictures, ignore my 'angles' take of the second photo. Not quite instagram calibre.

[flipstah]

Is this that place opposite of Golf Town?

I just saw that it's open and better check it out!

[jsn]

My friend's family owns this place. His mom is the head chef. I haven't tried their new place yet (this one), but their old place was great. The rotisserie chicken is amazing

[A|pine]

Originally posted by flipstah
Is this that place opposite of Golf Town?

I just saw that it's open and better check it out!

Yep that's the one.

[Xtrema]

Food 4/5 - Chicken rub is great and tasty. Ceviche is great if a bit spicy. The taste is very unique and new to Calgary.

Decor 3/5 - Very simple but very airy. Definitely not a 1st date kinda place. Unless you take your date to Pho than you'll be ok here.

Service 3.5/5 - It's very obvious that people who run the joint in new to the restaurant business. For one, it doesn't know what it wants to be, a fast food joint or a full service restaurant. It end up to be neither. The iPad POS system is slow in taking orders. And while I was eating, a kid was sweeping the floor around me. This is the 12:30 lunch time. While I'm the only table, you don't sweep up dust while people are eating. They are all friendly and service is great. They just need to get all the operational kinks out.

Overall - 4/5


It's something different (for Calgary) and food tastes great. Price is more in line with Swiss Chalet than fast food. I will definitely be back to support them. I want them to stick around but since it was 12:30 and I'm the only in there, I really hope their business picks up.

[HHURICANE1]

Ate there the other night. The chicken was very good though only lukewarm. They should turn up the heat in the holding oven. It was a bit confusing whether you ordered at the counter or not but the service was very friendly. It's not the greatest location unfortunately. I would never have known they existed if not for the review here. I will go back.

[5fivespeed]

Ate there two days ago and absolutely loved it. The waitress was great, the service was fast (I told her I had to get to work...) and the light conversation she had with us was great. I thought about trying a new place to eat and we ended up here and I won't hesitate to go back again.

[20incheyes]

Originally posted by HHURICANE1
Ate there the other night. The chicken was very good though only lukewarm. They should turn up the heat in the holding oven.

that was the only real fault I noticed too which was a disappointment. But overall I would def go back because the flavours were great.

I much prefer this place over Notables $20 quarter chicken lunch.

[Xtrema]

Went there again. Service is much improved this time around. Menu updated. Seems like they got over the opening jitters.

[95EG6P]

Went there and it is really good the flavors are pretty good will go back soon

[852VR6]

Going there tmr to try out for the 1st time, anything there that is must try?

[jsn]

Definitely try out their specialty chicken. Make sure you get it with the green dipping sauce. I'm pretty sure it comes with it, but if not, just ask for it. No idea what it's called but they'll know what you're talking about.

For desert, I absolutely love the Picarones. It's some fried donut like desert.

[bleu]

Totally going to try this place! It's just so far from where I live. Hopefully soon! I've been hearing great things about it.

[flipstah]

Finally tried out Pio with the brother last night and it was very good! I agree with the OP and jsn:

Originally posted by jsn
Definitely try out their specialty chicken. Make sure you get it with the green dipping sauce. I'm pretty sure it comes with it, but if not, just ask for it. No idea what it's called but they'll know what you're talking about.

For desert, I absolutely love the Picarones. It's some fried donut like desert.

The green pesto sauce is way better than the white one, which seemed to be mayo-based.

Mmm... Purple corn juice.

[DJ Lazy]

Is this a place where you can walk in, order and leave with food in hand after 5-10mins or do I need to take a 45mins-1 hour lunch to try this place out?

[diamondedge]

Originally posted by DJ Lazy
Is this a place where you can walk in, order and leave with food in hand after 5-10mins or do I need to take a 45mins-1 hour lunch to try this place out?

Call ahead for the former, sit down and eat for the later for sure. It's close to my office.