By Talia Dennis and Taylor Markey

We’re back, and this time we stayed in College Park for our first Taste-T review of the semester. Four new restaurants opened in College Park this fall and we wanted to review at least one of them. However, we’ve already covered pizza and bagels, and the other two were not in our price range. Then we stumbled upon Poh-Yo, which opened within the last year. Located in the plaza across from  University View Apartments, this restaurant stars chicken.

It took us less than 15 minutes to walk along Route 1 from Ritchie Coliseum to the restaurant. There are also buses that have stops close to it, like the 114 bus, to make the commute easier.

When we first walked into Poh-Yo, we noticed we were the only customers there. We were greeted immediately before ordering our food.

The food was ready within minutes and while we chose to eat there, most people who came in took their food to go. Poh-Yo also delivers through Grubhub.

In a small fridge near the door, we noticed Poh-Yo sells both Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

Taylor: Before I get into the food, I would first like to talk about the music. It was amazing! There were tons of throwbacks — we had some hits from artists including Biggie Smalls and Ginuwine playing in the background while we ate. In my opinion, the music added to the greatness of the restaurant.

I ordered the Poh-Yo Wrap ($7.50), which includes charboiled chicken, onions, fries, feta, lettuce and house-made dressing. It also had a taste of cilantro.

The wrap came with two containers of sauce (without names) — a house-made dressing and another sauce that tasted like honey mustard. The house-made dressing was a mixture of garlic and sour cream, and the yellow sauce was a mixture of mayonnaise and mustard.

However, I did not feel the need to use the extra sauce on the side. The wrap was perfect without it, especially because the house-made dressing was already on the wrap.

When I first read the description of the wrap, I thought it came with fries on the side. But the fries were inside the wrap! It was quite the experience. It tasted like a whole meal wrapped into something that was easy to take on the go.

The feta cheese was also a nice touch. I felt as if I was eating a fancy salad at times, although that is far from the truth.

Talia: When I read the menu at Poh-Yo, I could not help but be reminded of one of my favorite restaurants back home called Bob’s Chicken. Both restaurants offer similar chicken dinners with various sides.

At Poh-Yo, I got the Quarter Dark ($7.50) withand a choice of two sides. I opted for plantains and yellow rice and brown beans. There was also an option that includesof white rice and black beans. The beans are not cooked in any pork product. In fact, there is no pork in this restaurant — which makes life easy for me.

I started with the chicken. Those who know me, know I eat my food in a specific order for an unknown reason. Within my  first bite, I knew this was food done right.

The leg and thigh that I got was savory and juicy. The skin was perfectly seasoned with a slight kick to it. I wanted to get as much chicken off the bone as I could. This did require me to ditch my knife and fork and use my hands instead.

A sweet and savory flavor came through in the plantains. Something about it made me think of a blend between a butternut squash and a sweet potato. However, they started to feel a bit heavier compared to the rest of my meal after eating a few.

The rice and beans were the perfect remedy. It helped balance out my entire meal. It tasted light to counter the plantains and had a basic seasoning in contrast to the chicken’s strong flavoring.

As a side note, only eat the green sauce if you really like jalepeños. Unfortunately for my taste buds, we asked what was in the sauce after I tried it and received a flaming surprise in my mouth. The sauce contains ground up jalepeños and basic seasoning.

Final Thoughts: We would definitely like to eat food from Poh-Yo again, but maybe next time we will order it to go or online for delivery. The food and portions are definitely worth the price. Poh-Yo definitely has great “pollo.”

Featured Photo Credit: A mural with Maryland colors and a chicken embellishes a wall at Poh-Yo. (Talia Dennis/Bloc Reporter)

Talia is a sophomore journalism major and history major and can be reached at tdennis1@terpmail.umd.edu.