El Sol: Peruvian Outpost Is Just So-So

The next time you think to yourself how hard it is to find a reliable, affordable Peruvian restaurant that looks like a quaint bordertown crossing and offers a roaming magician hungry for tips, you'll soon have the answer: El Sol. Almost hiding between two nondescript storefronts, El Sol faces out onto Northern Boulevard, another Latin cuisine contender in a neighborhood brimming with options for tostones and skirt steak.

The sangria is punchy and overwhelmingly sweet, though it serves as a nice rejoinder to the mountains of meat to come. The portions are generous but even the dancing Kool Aid mascot couldn't handle the boatload of sugar used in the sangria. Giant toasted corn kernels open the meal and cry out for a drizzling of the spicy green sauce that comes on the side. The ceviche is tasty with classic lime-driven notes. The roasted chicken, a specialty within the cuisine and the restaurant itself, does not disappoint. The skin arrives less crispy than what diners may be accustomed to but the meat's seasoned flavor is a surefire pleaser. Unexpectedly, the chicken is served with french fries and what appears to be giant comma-shaped morsels of...hot dog?

The prices are just right and the service is more than decent. The crowd is heavily neighborhood-driven, which is to say, brush up on your Spanish. Suffice it to say that between the vegetables, potatoes and the extensive carnivorous wonders, El Sol will leave you full and more curious about hot dogs than you ever cared to be.

INFO:

EL SOL
87-07 Northern Blvd

Jackson Heights
(718) 446-1149