Piolin Jr Restaurant

Many delicious items to choose from an authentic Peruvian menu. Friendly service.
Although the outside looks misleading the interior is warm and cozy and clean. Full bar.
They have several locations but this is my favorite one. Parking can be a challenge. Just go to the back and look for the sign that says free parking. They seem to share a lot with another building. Call if you have doubts.
Definitely worth trying.

Not many healthy options. Everything was fried.
To-​go lunch menu looks better than dine-​in menu
Not very well lit, food was mediocre, not worth the price.
Dining room was a tacky lavender color.
Waitresses were attentive and sweet.

One of I and my wife’s favorite little places to go. We go there for the food… not the atmosphere. Parking is lame, doorway looks a bit scary and the resteraunt’s layout is funky. But this humble little place survives because of the locals who know good food.
I will drive 20 miles out of my way just to go there and have a plate of Rachi (sauteed tripe)…the spicing is delicious… If the plate wasn’t sizzling, I’d probably lick it.
I’ve had several of their rice/​seafood dishes and all were great. Their rotisserie chicken is high with the locals… its fall off the bone good. Their salads are like nothing I’ve ever had anywhere else. The dressing is essentially lemon juice and oil.
I’ve been going for at least 5 years and I must say that the service is not getting any faster. If you’re the type that expects pretty little blond 20 year olds hopping from table to table, this place ain’t the place for you… this is not your yuppy after work hangout. Very good food, huge portions and very reasonably priced. BTW, there is a second Piolyn Jr out on Burnside ave that is just as good.

Worst peruvian restaurant I’ve ever eat at… there was 1 server. She barely knew any english, possibly in crack or prostituting herself to the 2 guys next to me and the person i was with, had to practically beg for a water and refill, food was so bland couldnt finish, good peruvian spots I’ve been too are cora cora thats about it. STAY AWAYYYYY

Interesting place. I’ve never had Peruvian but I was in town for business and it was close to the office. So upon approach it’s a little confusing to tell if it’s open or not and there’s several entrances/​exits. I believe the door on the side is where you are supposed to enter.
My travel mate and I arrived around 11:30, maybe a little early for lunch, as no one was in the restaurant. When we walked in, we were greeted with the heavy smells of cleaning chemicals; almost eye wateringly so. It’s hard to call this a negative, as I think we all want to eat somewhere clean but this was just overpowering.
When we sat down, we were the only two in the restaurant. It felt a little awkward, like perhaps we were intruding. The menu is vast with plenty of lunch and dinner options. They run lunch specials daily. You should know, these offerings are large, a salad, soup and entrée. If I went back, I’d say share the meal. Trust me, you’d have enough.
The chicken soup will be perfect for the cool New England winters. In fact, I’d like to be able to buy a quart for when I’m not feeling great! It’s unique to think chicken soup spans all cultures. The fried rice was good too. I expected more, it was your everyday rice you’d pick up at your local Chinese place, no special rice or veggies. But again, it was good, just nothing to make it unique. The portions are hearty, the offerings are vast and if you go later in the day, I bet the cleaning chemical smell dissipates. Overall, enjoyable first experience with Peruvian, get the soup, that’s where it’s at!

I am a fan!
I have visited this location twice and loved the dishes each time.
The first time I ordered a steak dish. It came with white rice, sauce and onion & peppers. Very tasty. My friend had the red snapper which also came with white rice. He expressed it was amazing! We splurged on what we thought would be a small portion of seafood fried rice. The rice was so delicious that we abandoned our white rice all together. I think we both had to close our eyes and moan a little (lol). It was also enough for thirds or four people. We also tried their yucca fries! They were very good.
The second time me and my friend went we played it smart and less expensive!
We could not pass up the fried rice, so we ordered it again. At this visit, we wanted to try the rotisserie chicken (¼ dark meat only) and sweet plantains (mudaras). The server found us a deal where our chicken and sweet plantains cost about $ 8.50 each. STEAL! This visit and our food choices was even better than our first visit.
The restaurant was simply decorated and the servers were super sweet.
Go check this place out. I highly recommended the fried rice!
Check out their take out menu. There is a deal with the rotisserie chicken, fried rice, french fries and soda (try the Inca soda… ask for the yellow one)!

Went today for father’s day dinner. 20 min to get noticed, sat down and waited for another 20 min. Finally a young lady comes and ask if we are ready to have anything to drink… we answered we are ready to order! She then tells our table that if we put our food order in it might be an hour or more she was not sure when the food can come out. She said she would ask the cook approximately how long it will take for our food order. The worst service I ever experienced! The waitress dressed as they were at a bar (trashy bar) and there was a kid crying for about 20 min straight! No one even tried to calm the baby. It was a disaster, a nightmare in there! Never again! We ended getting up and leaving! I will continue to go to Cora Cora!!! I can go on and on about this place but I’m just going to end it by saying… go spend your money elsewhere, everything about this place is just terrible!

I have to agree with other’s comments about the service (could be better) and the food (really good). Sopa de mariscos, pollo asado, ensaladas– todo estuvo muy bueno — it was all very well prepared and tasty.

best peruvian cebiche in town, hads down! i i have been tasting different cebiches in town to find the one resembles the most to the amazing ones you can eat in peru and this is so far THE ONE. the pisco sour very good and exellent service i will highly recomended piolin jr restaurant.

Although the service is not that great, the food is amazing! Ceviche and jalea are most deliciosa ones. Also, pollo a la brasa is a great deal for about $ 16, it can feed 4 people and everyone loves it :)

Piolyn is one of the most underrated gems in the Hartford area. It may be the location… that doesn’t stop a diverse and consistent clientele from visiting but eventually these folks will get more enterprising and probably turn this into a much more expensive place.
Tylically, an order of a rib eye dish will do to give you a sense of the place. But among the more outstanding dishes is a shrimp soup in a milk based broth. The yucca fries are great as are the maduros (fried sweet plantains). For that matter, the bread, corn bits, and sauces they bring to the table before your meal are great treats. The roasted chicken dishes are great as well.
While the dishes seem a bit pricey the servings are ample and — at least in my visits — the bill surprising low for the amount of food.
The service is excellent. Our waitress was among the best we have had anywhere, in a while.

Zibendou took me here but actually wanted to take me to their other location but this was closer at the time. Honestly, I wasn’t impressed. We got the chicken, some rice, plantains and salad. None of it was really good. I wouldn’t come back here. I guess I should have tried their other location…

My SO and I got a Groupon to this place and decided to try it out before it expired (lol). Our favorite Peruvian restaurant was hands-​down, Cora Cora, and following a disappointing experience at La Kerencya, we were a bit hesitant to try a new place.
We liked the canchas and creamy garlic sauce, which had a nice kick to it. Probably the best one I’ve tried so far! Our waiter was nice enough to give us extra after seeing how much we enjoyed it.
The menu had pictures, which were really useful. The SO got the mussels app, and I the papas a la Huancaína, a safe vegetarian dish for me. The mussels were apparently DELICIOUS as he went through them at the speed of light! My papas tasted wonderful as usual — the cheese sauce here is more pungent than at other places.
The first dish out was the mixed ceviche. I sampled a bit of the sauce and found much more acidic than at other places. The SO loved it though, and remarked that it had the right amount of heat and balance of flavors. I got as an accompaniment the Criolla salad, which was basically ceviche onions/​veggies in the same lime marinade. Again, good, but VERY acidic. I personally would not get that again because I don’t like the feeling of my teeth melting off :)
I ordered the arroz chaufa with vegetables — what’s a vegetarian to do? LOL. I enjoyed it though, as I always do. It went wonderfully well with the rest of the food that I could eat!
They gave us huuuuuge portions and we were absolutely beyond stuffed when we left. The service was gracious and accommodating and we would definitely return again. The only complaint, really, was the acidity of the food.

1) Reason for Coming
Mark and I along with another couple on a Saturday evening came here for our first Peruvian dining experience. The couple that we came with had eaten here before and since they had a Groupon we were happy to tag along.
2) Ambiance
I was not sure what to make of the place when we walked it. The restaurant was dead and the waitresses looked bored and were watching European soccer on television. There were two dining areas and we were seated in the larger of the two. There were plenty of tables that started to fill up as the evening went on. Both rooms look like they are transformed into a dance floor but I forgot to ask the waitress.
The dining room is very casual to the point where they were showing both European soccer as well as playing what appeared to be You Tube videos of Latin American Music.
2) Food
Once we sat down and handed our menus our drink orders were taken. Mark and one of our friends got some Peruvian beer (both of which were good) and I wanted a glass of wine but of the six choices listed on the menu they only had merlot available by the glass, and I am not a big fan of this variety.
As mentioned by some of the other reviewers even though we were seated quickly and drink orders taken it took a bit of time for our waitress to scavange the beers for the boys and take our orders.
The menu is very… busy. For a first timeer like myself it was very overwhelming and I was surprised that mostly every dish came with french fries and/​or white rice and had eggs incorporated into it. Our waitress was helpful in assisting me with narrowing down my menu choices.
We started out with two appetizers — muscles (spicy) and cerviche (which I love!). The food came out relatively fast (which was a plus becuase there were hardly any other customers there) but then that is where the evening takes and unfortunate turn. The muscles had just enough spice but unfortunately this flavor was over powered by the sheer potency of the lime juice and quantity of red onion. Now I like both of those flavors but I felt like I was eating an entire lime. The chevice was not much better — served in a martini glass it was more like a soup and even after I drained the juice and put some on my plate I was unable to taste the seafood, just lime.
Unfortunately my dinner was not much better — I ordered the Piolin Jr ceviche (little did I know what I was getting my self into at the time) which came with sweet potato and fried calamari. I asked for a substitution of yucca fries instead of sweet potato but was unable to get it so I ordered it as a side. Service was quick but the Yucca fries were brought out before the rest of the meals and unfortuantley they were not warm to begin with and got colder as I awaited my meal. When I did get my meal — there was one LARGE black hair in the middle of the plate. The waitress brought it back but there was no apology from her nor did the manager come out to apologize. This ceviche was a bit better but my mouth had so much lime flavor in it that it was hard to taste anything else. Yucca fries were — meh and not seasoned.
My husband and my friend got one of the steak dishes with egg and white rice and they allowed my husband to substitute plaintains for white rice (wonder why he was able to but I was not). He enjoyed the steak — not overly seasoned and the egg had a slightly runny texture to he. He was also nice enough to share some of his plaintains and steak with me as I was very disappointed and done at this point. I personally did not enjoy the steak as it seemed over cooked and underseasoned for my taste buds.
3)Overall impression —
Very disappointed by my first Peruvian experience. I will not give up on this cuisine just yet. Poilin Jr. was just not my cup of tea

Although I usually stick to ceviche and crunchy fried seafood at Peruvian eateries, Nick and I have been on a Peruvian charcoal roasted chicken kick these days. While working our way through the area’s restaurants, we stopped at Piolin Jr for some Peruvian rotisserie chicken (and sweet plantains… and ceviche…). At both Piolin Jr and Cora Cora, I’m amazed by the value of their chicken platters (sounds like fast food, right?). $ 9.00 for half a chicken — rubbed with paprika, cumin, garlic & oregano, then bathed in a tangy marinade of white vinegar, lemon, and… alright, I don’t know what else — roasted to perfection and served with salad and fries. Easily enough for two people.
The chicken was tender, moist and intensely flavorful, especially when paired with the sweet plantains and the house aji sauce. Honestly, with such fantastic meat, I’d prefer they didn’t automatically add in a half-​assed iceberg salad and mound of fries — the chicken (and whatever extra sides I order) needs no extra embellishment!
All in all, very satisfying meal.

Ok so after reading some of the reviews here, I urge people trying Peruvian food for the first time to do these things:
— Don’t order something that sounds like Chinese food, such as Arroz Chaufa. A lot of Peruvian dishes are influenced by Chinese immigrants since there are a ton in Peru. Don’t expect something completely different (they also have these dishes for «American» taste buds). Same goes for Pollo Saltado (the dish with chicken and noodles, aka Lo Mein Peruvian style). Unless this is what you are looking for, then don’t order these things.
— I recommend trying to roisterer chicken «Pollo a la Brasa» and for the price, yes, ice berg lettuce is what you are getting. If you are looking for something a bit more and a bit more with the price tag, again go to Cora Cora in Hartford and I believe they just opened up another super fancy Peruvian Resturant in Hartford (don’t know the name and I can’t vouch for it since I haven’t eaten there).
— Try the seafood since that is very Peruvian, if thats not quite your style or taste, try a Menu item. Some things that might appear are: Aji de Gaina (a yellow cream over shredded chicken with boiled potatoes), Papa la huancaina, Causa, and Escabeche de Pollo (fried chicken with a red spicy sauce over it). I hope this is helpful for people trying Peruvian food for the first time! :D

One day on my way to Phở 501 I stopped by Piolin Jr because the wait at Phở 501 was too long. The place was empty and so the service was fast. The staff was attentive. It was my first time trying Peruvian in the States. I loved the canchas (dried roasted corn) and the marinated onions. I nibbled on those while I waited for my entrees. We ordered the chicken special and rice with mixed seafood. I think I made my selection based on the pictures on the menu. We got tons and tons of food. The food was on the saltier side but I normally don’t cook with salt so I assumed I was sensitive to salt.
Rotisserie Chicken $ 5.99
This was an amazing bargain! Why go to KFC when you want chicken when you can get a full meal here for half of the price. The $ 5.99 price tag gets you fries and a salad. Yes it was an ice berg salad but I did appreciate the cucumbers and carrots. I packed that for work later that evening. NO complaints about the fries from me other than WAY too much salt. If you plan on ordering fries here ask them to cut down on the cut or else you’ll be in sodium overload before you leave the restaurant.
Rice with Mixed Seafood $ 13.99
Enormous portions. Again very salty but has such great potential to be an amazing meal. You will need the marinated onions to decrease the saltiness of the dish. I like the flavors and the ingredients but couldn’t bare the saltiness. You can have a little then it gets too much. Would I order again? Yep! I would simply ask for less salt and maybe hot sauce.
Overall a cheap afternoon lunch. I left with tons of leftovers. The service was friendly. The place was relatively clean but you can tell at night time this place must turn into a dance club or something based on the smell.

The food was salty and greasy. It had no flavor. They didnt have some of the options available for desert so I was disappointed. The food was over priced for the quality of the food.
This was my first time having Peruvian food … it was really close to chines take out food. My meal was cooked in soy sauce and I really didnt like it.
The customer service was amazing. The waitress didnt speak much English but she saw that I didnt like the food so she replaced it with the simple fried fish.

Piolyn Jr is a decent peruvian restaurant in East Hartford, CT, we ate a few weeks ago. It is a bar /​nightclub combo with on street parking. For our entrees we ordered the Saltado Mixto (14.00, mixed beef & chicken) as well as the Marisco combination, basically an enormous seafood platter.
Service was okay, the staff was very friendly, however it took forever to get our food.

Ate here this afternoon. Had eaten in the Hartford site but found this to be a real treat. Ceviche Mixto was fresh and delicious and the Chaufa de Mariscos was super and enormous. Great service, nice people.
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