December 17, 2011

Goyo El Pollo In South Beach

Goyo El Pollo opened a few months ago in South Beach. A narrow modern looking place with a bar section at the end right before the kitchen. It is located on Washington Avenue where you can find a lot of dining options, mostly family run restaurants can be found on this Avenue in Miami Beach. Now, knowing where to go is key on Washington Avenue because you can get trapped having mediocre food. To my delight when I walked into Goyo El Pollo I immediately noticed and felt a sense of family which is a good indicator that the food will be promising as restaurants that are run by its owners usually tend to cater for all details. Peruvian cuisine is one of my favorite cuisines in the world, I love their sauces in special as they are quite unique and oh so tasty. Also, Peruvian dishes are usually plentiful letting you share dishes among your dining companions.

Chupe de Camarones

This soup was to die for. It is a very traditional soup that is quite different from any other soups you'll ever try, it is a blend of of shrimp, peas, corn and egg with rice. It has a creamy consistency and it is yellow due to a pepper that is native to Peru. I could have this soup every day of the week and I think I will never get tired.

I specially like the story behind this restaurant. Goyo el Pollo is a family own restaurant, Mr. Jorge Barreto (Goyo) was a professional Peruvian soccer player in the 60’s and 70’s but after years as a pro due to an injury he had to end his carrier and decided to move to the United States for a better future for him and his family. When Goyo (Jorge Barreto) came to the United States he wanted to utilize his other passion “cooking,” and after working at an Italian restaurant, he decided that he loved the restaurant business so his new dream then was to open his own restaurant, after many years and with the help of his wife and children they finally opened their first restaurant 10 years ago in Hollywood, Florida.

The restaurant in Hollywood is named Goyo el pollo because his middle name is Gregorio and when he was a little boy his family and friends used to called him GOYO - a nickname for Gregorio and El Pollo is because he wanted his restaurant to be a “POLLERIA” (a chicken place).

With time it has become a full service restaurant offering a little bit of all of the wonderful dishes that Peru has to offer like Lomo Saltado, Ceviche, Pescado a lo macho, Jalea, Chaufa and many more.

Now 10 years later and after lots of hard work and dedication, the restaurant in Hollywood is very successful frequently visited by devoted followers.

The great news came almost 10 years after with the opening of a second location in Miami Beach.

Goyo is really proud of all of the recipes, they are all created by him and his wife, everything at the restaurant is prepared on premises including the desserts and the delicious Chicha morada.

Everything gets prepare at the moment orders are placed something that is not common among restaurants on Washington Avenue.

Other dishes I have tried and highly recommend:

Vuelve a la Vida: It belongs to the Ceviche family, it is made of fresh diced fish and seafood,
cooked in a delicate pool of lime juice mixed with crunchy celery hearts, young red onions, choclo (large white
Peruvian corn), canchita (Peruvian fried corn) and exotic Peruvian spices.

Classic Peruvian Pollo a la Brasa: Marinated chicken in their secret family recipe with a mixture of Peruvian
spices that makes our rotisserie chicken one of our most famous dishes on the beach. Believe me, people have come into the restaurant before going to the Miami airport for an order of their rotisserie chicken, I've witnessed this myself!