Pollos a la Brasa Don Alex

An odd experience. Enjoyed the green sauce. House chicken was tasty. Everything was veryyyy salty. Great tostones. Nice portions for price. It was hectic. Kitchen seemed disorganized. Nevertheless I enjoyed it while my wife ate considerable less than me due to the sodium content. At the end our very friendly waitress gave us our bill with the tip already added (??). This struck me as odd and maybe illegal? Mandatory tip for table of two? Then when I paid I got standard credit card receipt with space for (additional?) tip. It was very odd. I dont know if anyone else had an experience like this? We are normally good tippers and would have left more than the automatically added 15%

DO. NOT. EAT. HERE.
They store RAW chicken in the Meter room. Health hazard. I posted a picture!

Horrible service. They wouldn’t serve us until we asked for our food in Spanish and even then they treated us like second class citizens. It took 30 min for us to get our credit cards back and there were TWO other tables of people. My friend didn’t have anything to drink for most of the dinner because they never brought us water. We asked 3 times for coffee and finally I had to stand up and wait at the coffee machine. Never going back.

I had chicken soup and LOVED IT, finally real chicken soup with very tasty chicken not like the other restaurants that serve you boneless chicken. I also had picante de Mariscos excellent dish. The waitress was very attentive. I will recommend it to my friends. I can’t wait to go eat there again !!!

Service: ²⁄₅
Food: 2.5÷5
When competing with several other Peruvian restaurants in the area, the least you could have is good service. Our waiter was completely checked out and we continuously had to flag him down to remember to bring the hot sauce or the salad dressing and the chicken we ordered. It was an unpleasant dining experience.
Once the food came, the rice was mediocre at best.
I’ve had better chicken at the places in the area, Pio Pio being the best.
Their green sauce — is no green sauce!
Once we were ready to leave, the guy completely forgot about the food we asked to pack up to take home and I was skeptical of taking it since it had been almost 20 minutes waiting for them to bring it back to us.
Maybe it was an off day? I think I’ll go to my other fav’s in the area instead.
I did find it funny they had ikea knives!

I don’t usually find sequels to be favorable especially when the original place is built on a level of uniqueness. So, when I heard that Don Alex opened up shop on 37^th Avenue (I usually frequent the one in Corona) I was beyond skeptical.
As is with most sequels, I was dragged here (somewhat willingly) by my hub’s friend. It was almost closing time and we wanted to non Mario pollo a la brasa. I have to say, I was shocked at how much I actually enjoyed the meal.
We played it safe and ordered what we usually would in Corona: Pollo a la brasa (of course), the chofan aka fried rice, the mussels, and of course the sangria. The chicken was pretty good — falling off the bone as promised. The chofan was probably the best dish — nicely seasoned and fragrant. The mussels were pretty good too! The pitcher of sangria was… as small as I expected it to be.
Until the next.

Sadly this place went downhill fast even if only in the area of service. I always get food to go and when I get it home it’s never what I ordered. When I’ve called to place orders I’ve been asked to call back in an hour when there is someone there who speaks English. They never have the correct change or give you back a few cents less than you’re owed. The waiter that I’ve dealt with most often is downright rude. It’s very unfortunate because we were getting chicken there 1 – 2 times a week. Never again. We’re done with this place.

I gave this place 5 stars in comparison to all the other «pollos a la brasas» places in this neighborhood (there are a lot). I’ve been living here for almost two decades. I tried probably all the Peruvian places around this neighborhood and this place is the best. Yes, even compared to Pio Pio. First, the beans are freakin’ awesome I don’t know how they cook it but they are done well. And forget it, the chicken here is awesome. I pick up one at least once a week.
The staff there is awesome and they are so friendly. The restaurant is very clean and so is the bathroom. Lastly, you do not get any attitude when you ask for extra Aji Verde Sauce unlike Pollos a la Brasa Mario or whatever who gave ‘tude not once, not twice but THREE times when I would ask for extra aji verde sauce. They lost my business.
Don Alex is just a better experience over all. Lastly, and probably one of my favorite things, they use very little salt so you don’t have to worry about them masking something in their food with salt.

Food wasn’t bad… Flank Steak was overcooked… service was alright. overall nothing too much to speak of.

As a resident of Jackson Heights for 8 years, I have had a geat deal of experience with «pollo a la brasa» restaurants in the neighborhood. I have never found any that compare to my favorite restaurant in Manhattan until today. Taking a menu as I passed by the restaurant, I thought maybe I’ll try this place someday. In choosing not to cook, I decided «what the h**l», I’ll give this place a try tonight. After getting there and deciding on take out instead of sitting down, I ordered the Half Chicken with Rice. Being hispanic I have a certain expectation of how my rice should taste as a staple food. The rice was like my mother used to make, what a great way to start a meal. The chicken was perfectly cooked and seasoned. I had gotten used to overcooked and overseasoned from the other restaurants in the area but no more. The layer of flavoring in the chicken with each bite, the moist chicken meat and the perfectlycooked rice made every mouthful a wonderful experience. I never recommend a «pollo a la brasa» restaurant other than my favorite in Manhattan but this is one I highly recommend and will return to over and over again. I would also like to mention the young lady who took my order, she was pleasant, efficient and more importantly when I told her I was thinking of staying and eating but would she please lower the music volume, she handled my concern immediately. This is a restaurant worth trying and I have no doubt once someone does they will go back often, as I already said I know I will.