Pollo Alegre

Yep, this place is a tad dirty, it’s really hot in the summer and really cold in the winter (I’ve left my coat on while eating more than once) but looking past those short comings the food is excellent and the service is exceptional and friendly.
To make ordering easy you can just say «whole chicken» or «half chicken» you’ll get beans, rice and lettuce with it, you can request flour tortillas, if you don’t specify you’ll get corn (which is better IMHO).
A nice grilled chicken that is not over done or over seasoned is what you’ll enjoy. The horchata (sweet rice milk) is very good, bottled Coke, shakes and malts available too.
An authentic experience, so throw your suburban concepts out the window.

Have been looking forward to eating here for a while, based on the reviews i was expecting much more. We purchased the chicken meal for $ 13 and some change, which sounded like an excellent deal. Instead we got a «whole chicken» pieced with only one breast, no cheese, and a small take home box of rice/​beans with only enough for about three bites of each for two adults and one three year old. The taste was ok, but the chicken was dry. If you are expecting a quality meal with all the fixings you will be disappointed, but you cant beat the price.

Good, friendly staff, excellent chicken (haven’t tried anything else). Decent-​sized, fairly nondescript interior.

Authentic Mexican experience. If it weren’t for the Unilocal reviews, I never would have found this place because there’s not much else in this neighborhood and it is off the beaten path. And by that, I mean that you might want to duck and cover going in and park close to the window.
Bring your Spanish because the only English here is written on the sign by the counter that tells you about the $ 10 minimum for credit cards. If you don’t know «La cuenta, por favor.» then you’re not ready.
The tacos are $ 1.75 but they are dinner sized portions. I thought I could eat four because I was hungry and I failed.
The guacamole is made on the spot when you order and is amazing. Served up on the finest paper plates they have.

Had the Whole Chicken with a friend.
Watched a novela.
Feels like home =]

I thought this was my favorite place in the neighborhood, NO! the world! Alas, it was not to be… I witnessed, with my own eyes, a waitresses refilling a salsa dish that had just been taken off a patron’s table and refilled it without washing or emptying it. Disgusting. Never again. No thanks to the Hepatitis A, y’all can keep that.

I didn’t eat chicken here, weird. I had Tortas de carne asada, although after a friend got the tacos, I wished I had gotten that. It looked gooooood. My food was still delicious.
The place was really bright inside, like orange and green with little paper chickens at each table. This is definitely a little gem on this corner.
The direction here was a bit confusing. After walking in the door, sit? Stand? Wait? All very confusing. We sat. The waitress was really busy and finally was able to come to us, but that was fine because I really wasn’t able to make up my mind prior to this.
There was a kid screaming really loud for the first portion, and one couple came in and left before the waitress could even approach them, probably from the screeching child. Once that was over, it was pleasant.
The menu was pretty bare (tortas, tacos, quesadillas and some really funny misspellings, intenten (or something like that– meaning intestines, I assume), some tongue, etc.
No alcohol on the menu, no tea.
This place is very small, very bare, but I think it’s special.

This place really is superb… fantastic friendly staff… and the food !
Everything I have had is incredible ! The sauces are amazing in depth and complexity… the «hot» sauce maybe not quite as good as the killer stuff at La Escollara… and perhaps I prefer some of the stuff at Oaxaca…
but…excellent chicken… damn near free.
These ethnic places around town are an amazing value
as for authenticity… I don’t know… nor do I care… just good. cheap…caring food from very nice people !

I don’t eat pollo, but if I did I’d be all over this place. Instead, I tried the chile relleno plate, which was good, but probably not as excellent as the specialty of the house. I was pretty darn happy that they had horchata though.
The bar area in the second room seemed to be closed when I was there, but it intrigued me… Well, I’ll just have to go back and check it out.
$ 10 min on credit cards!

*Third Person Alert!* Happy Chicken. Happy Jon. A lot of flavor, intrigue, character. A lot of Jon.
When I first began diving into Unilocal and the culinary underbelly of Indy, this was one of the first places I read about. And I have no idea why it took me this long to get here. But lo! Last night was the best food experience I’ve had in the city (In fact: yesterday was a rather remarkable food day: a porcetta sandwich at Goose, craft sodas at Locally Grown Gardens, a Suadero taco at Demetrio and a chicken at Pollo Alegre. I’d suggest experiencing this schedule). And when I write «a chicken,» I do mean an entire chicken. I can’t really pass that offer up as it’s my true last supper meal: just give me a chicken by a chicken-​cooking expert and I’m set. This taqueria version is now a new option.
This is what Alex K wrote… an incredible grill & griddle style top that tops out at about 10 feet long. Then there’s a perfectly placed bar where you can sit in front of the guy who prepares your whole chicken for you, from chopped to grill to griddle to plate. I understand why there is not category «Meat Bar» on Unilocal,but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t love and enjoy-​oh-​so-​much if there was a «Meat Bar» category.
I also take notice of aural sensibilities at restaurants. I’m a fan for loudness. The racket of espresso machines. The clang of metal butcher knives on metal griddles. And here… it’s a good kind of noisy: that butcher knife clang, the spanish language being volleyed, thumping machismo-​driven latino music and sizzling steam off the grill. It doesn’t matter what intentions are here, the beast of this design rears itself vibrant.
The whole chicken is $ 10. With that chicken you get:
*12 tortillas, rice & beans, salsa, lettuce & limes & chips. Then you can you either tear into the chicken itself or do the taco set up.
Yes you can get cuckoo and order this solo like I did. But next I’m there I’m bringing four friends to make it massively economical and fulfilling.
If you think you need cranberry compote to go with your chicken this is the wrong place. They take a chicken, and grill it.
There’s a menu of many other meats for tacos & tortas. Burritos weren’t listed anywhere but I saw them, so just ask and they’ll roll up a fatty for you.
They keep it really simple here, and that’s the point. Simplicity = Happiness.
Game on!

When you arrive at Pollo Alegre, you are greeted with chips and three interesting and tasty salsas, all delicious and different. Thus far I have only stuck with the specialty of the house — grilled chicken. It is definitely some of the best pollo I’ve had in a Mexican restaurant in Indianapolis. The tacos were delicious and the guacamole was fresh. The prices really can’t be beat. Two tacos are filling if you engage the chips and salsa, and at $ 1.75 each, you can get out of there for $ 5. I’m looking forward to going back.
Update: I’ve tried the carnitas and it is really good as well. Spicy with pineapple cooked in. I really like this place because it is such a great value.

Mexicano style tacos were lacking, and I found a chicken bone in my burrito, which was also relatively blah in flavor. If you want to pay by card your order must be $ 10 or more, which is why I got 3 tacos and a burrito. Probably won’t come back here, Guatelinda and La Parada both have better tacos, in my opinion.

My new favorite Mexican spot!
Pollo Allegre is a very inexpensive and excellent Mexican diner, featuring burritos, tortas, tacos, etc. For less than $ 5, you get a very large, tasty burrito, filled with your choice of the usual meats plus chorizo, tongue, etc. Very authentic as far as I can tell. More than i can usually eat at one sitting, and that’s partially because they bring out fresh chips with three or four of the best freshly made salsas you’ll ever eat.
We’ve also tried the tacos, gorditas and chili rellenos. Everything is perfect.
We also just found out that they offer Mexican Coke, which is sweetened with cane sugar rather than the HFCS we get in the US. Much better.
Very friendly service and they know enough English to get everything just right.
You can’t go wrong here. Very tasty food for less than you’d pay for a full meal at the corporate fast food joints. I feel lucky that not only is it in Indianapolis, but it’s just minutes away from where I live.

This is a decent-​sized Mexican taqueria specializing in grilled chicken (Pollo al carbon). When I say specialize I mean it. I think I’m in love with their grill. It’s not often you see anything like it in the US. You see stuff like this all the time when you are traveling but I fell like I just hit the lottery by finding this in my hometown. There’s even a bar placed directly in front of the grill so you can admire it while you’re eating the delicious char grilled chicken.
Its funny I just wrote a review last night of the best chicken ever but I think this place might have taken the throne. It’s different though… just straight up grilled chicken but done right. (The chicken I had mentioned earlier was from Armando’s and is a marinated chicken.)
As this was part of a crawl I did not have much else here but they do have a few hard-​to-​find things on the menu. The cabeza (brains) was one and the other cecina (skirt steak) was the other. I will definitely be getting both of those dishes next time (along with the whole chicken).
The salsa both green and red varieties were equally astounding. No homemade chips here sadly but the quality of the salsa made me forgive them.
The staff was friendly and thanks to Google translate were able to give a few more restaurant recommendations. Not much English is spoken here so be patient and polite and enjoy the chicken.