Al Carbon Pollos A La Brasa - San Mateo

Ive eaten there almost all my life my family likes to go there and theyve really grown with adding more peruvian dishes and even boba peruvian style the owner is nice very talkative but very down to earth.

I went in there with my son because I got great recommendations from friends, I walk in and asked in English if they have lunch specials and she answers me in Spanish. And said if you want to order something you have to speak to me in Spanish because we don 't speak English here . I was shocked almost wanted to laugh. Yes I speak Spanish but I 'm more comfortable with English. Im also a business owner to shop down the street and this kind of service is very bad for business. I suggest owner should get involved.

The chicken was pretty good. The beans were insipid. Why does it take 15 minutes to pack up pre-made food when there's no one else waiting for an order? They made a mess of the beans as they were packing them and didn't clean it up, so we had a hassle getting our order back to our hotel. And then we discovered that instead of giving us two large sides each of rice and beans as we ordered and paid for, they gave us one large and one medium each. I really regret the large tip I put in the jar before we got our order.

Really good food, nice sefvice, good ratio quantity:quality, kind of small place but overall it is a really good optionFood: 5/5

Peruvian cuisine reflects local practices and ingredients including influences mainly from the indigenous population. Al Carbon which literally translates to to cook over coal offers authentic Peruvian cuisine in Downtown San Mateo. They are not a fancy restaurant but a hole in the wall style casual eatery. They are famous for their roast chicken and it has won several awards.We ordered:Drinks:Marucaya Aguas Fresca Passion Fruit drinkChicha Morada Aguas Fresca Purple Corn drink.Food:Pollos a la Brasa Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken so yummy so juicy. Even the breast meat was soft tender.Salchipapas Traditional Peruvian dish with thin cut sausage, potatoes and eggs. This was really good.Empanadas the meat inside had so much flavor and the pastry was flaky. They didn 't have ceviche or tamales so those will be for another time.We also ordered traditional fries, sweet potato fries, yucca fries and fried plantain on the side. All the fried stuff was so good. The fried plantain was the best.Dessert:Alfajores Shortbread sandwich cookies with Dulce de Leche we have had these before, they are so yummy we got a boxArroz Con Leche rice pudding with raisins wasn 't my favorite, maybe we were expecting something better.Overall Peruvian food is good. We still have to try a few other dishes so will definitely give this place another try.