Pio Pio 3

It must be difficult for NYC restaurants these days to manage the tension between eat in service and the higher demand of take out. I enjoyed a dine in dinner here with the classic Juanitas chicken and a side of fried yucca, a useless vegetable (or fruit- no its a tuber so must be vegetable) which was great. I’ve been to all three Pio Pio locations and never been disappointed with the food. However this location, being small and narrow, involves a lot of traffic along the one aisle with food prep and delivery heroes. So its hard to say if I’d come back for dine in, as much as I enjoy the food, but I also can’t imagine eating that tasty hot fried yucca after 20 minutes on the back of a moped.

Ive come here at least 4 times and noted inconsistent quality of the chicken. Sometimes it's moist and seems it's freshly roasted other times it's seem like whole foods sitting under heat lamp for 3 plus hours dried and crusty. At $11 for half a chicken I might as well get a whole one from WF for $9 as I know when their schedule 930 am and 330 pm. So disappointed.

Just the place to scratch a roasted-chicken itch. It's a no frills sort of restaurant chain - there are what, 9 in NYC? - and the lunch deal is unbeatable. A quarter-chicken, roasted deliciously, spiced wonderfully, comes with a side (I recommend the tostones for a tasty crunchy thing you won't do at home) with a little simple salad+avocado, very quick service, considering most of the orders at lunchtime are the special after all. We also ordered the salchipapas, thinking we might was some fries and hey, hot dogs. Oops. So much food, the server thought that was instead of one of the lunch specials. We left full to bursting for a very reasonable bill. Definitely take a look if the area is your lunch destination.