A Quick Bite: Carlito’s Chicken in San Jose

Carlito’s Chicken has a menu that boasts of “Healthy Latin American Food.” Not sure how healthy I felt when I left this Peruvian mom-and-pop joint, but I sure felt happy.

Billed as a Peruvian style rotisserie, this little eatery that opened six months ago in San Jose’s Shasta-Hanchett neighborhood features an eclectic mix of South, Central and Latin American cuisine.

Carlito’s strives to make your dining experience feel authentic, with colorful Spanish murals and Latin American flags adorning the dining room walls and three TVs that were tuned to futbol during my visits. Tall glass refrigerators store beverages such as the fun neon-green Inca Kola ($2.50), which tastes a bit like bananas. Cervezas like Peru’s Cusqueña and the Cuban Cristal, each $4.95, sit above chilled glass mugs just begging to be filled.

We dived right into the house specialty via the No. 2 combo ($16.95), which features half a spit-roasted chicken that was fall-off-the-bone scrumptious. The skin was flavorful, with tender, juicy meat beneath. The platter came with four pork ribs smothered in a sweet, sticky sauce, plus a long link of Portuguese chorizo. We were particularly impressed with the dense, smoky sausage, which wasn’t greasy in the least.

This special, which easily feeds two, came with a side of french fries and a salad. Salads that accompany meals like this are often on the pathetic side, a sad pile of iceberg lettuce with a drizzle of dressing and, if you’re lucky, a lone cherry tomato. But Carlito’s serves up a gorgeous side salad, with long wedges of avocado draped over thick tomato slices and spring greens. It was topped with a creamy Peruvian dressing (which, by the way, tastes great with the fries!).

Journeying to the Central American side of the menu, we enjoyed the Mixed Pupusas ($8.95). We opted for chicken (beef and pork are also available), though a mistake on the restaurant’s part was fortuitous for me. While I found the chicken pupusa to be only OK (it was a bit too oniony for my taste) a cheese pupusa sneaked onto my plate and was far more delicious, richly stuffed with mozzarella and Monterey Jack cheese and creamy refried beans. The pupusas were thick and chewy with the masa perfectly blistered.

But my favorite parts of the pupusa platter were three slices golden-brown plantains, sweet and slightly caramelized. The meal also comes with a generous mound of buttery yellow rice flecked with diced bell peppers, plus refried beans and a fiery-hot cabbage salad.

On another visit, I found another winner with the chicken enchiladas ($9.95), which features two tortillas stuffed with tender hunks of chicken and surprising (but tasty) long strips of red, yellow and green pepper. The sauce was on the tangy side, tasting more like tomatoes than chiles, which paired nicely with the melted cheese.

The meal was served with beans and rice, plus a salad made of shredded romaine, tomato slices and diced cucumber. The edges of the plate were prettily dusted in parsley.

Burritos, tacos and quesadillas come in three sizes: small, regular or super. My husband ordered the steak burrito, and we learned that even the regular ($5.25) is a belly-buster. The thick, chewy tortilla was grilled to perfection, stuffed with tender hunks of grass-fed Angus sirloin without a trace of gristle. It also contained cilantro, onions, beans and rice.

While the flavor was there, the heat was not. We requested hot sauce and were served tiny dishes of orange and green sauce. My husband spooned a dollop of orange sauce onto his burrito, took a bite, and then blew steam out his ears for the next 10 minutes as he tried to recover from the punishing heat. A little goes a long, long way, so even fans of the hot stuff should proceed with caution.

When I commented on the heat to our server, she said the green sauce is even hotter. We decided to take her word for it.

If you have room for it (we did not), you may end your meal on a sweet note, with a house-made flan ($3.95) or the intriguing alfajores ($3.95), which are sweet biscuits sandwiched around a layer of dulce de leche.

Carlito’s certainly has a way with its dishes, and we’re intrigued to find out where our next visit will take us.