Pollo Campero, which bills itself as “the world’s largest Latin chicken chain,” plans to open at the Westfield Wheaton Mall.
The MoCo Show reported on Friday that the restaurant will replace Moe’s Southwest Grill in the mall’s food court after Moe’s closed in 2023.
The chain specializes in either hand-breaded and fried chicken or grilled Peruvian style.
Juan José Gutierrez, who is CEO of the family-owned business, opened the company’s original restaurant in Guatemala in 1971. The first U.S. outlet opened in Los Angeles in 2002, and there are now more than 400 Pollo Campero locations worldwide.
The restaurants offer various types of chicken empanadas, chicken bowls, and side dishes like plantains, yucca fries, rice, black beans, roasted corn salad, and cole slaw. The drink options are non-alcoholic.
Pollo Campero has additional locations in Gaithersburg, Langley Park, and the Wheaton Urban District, and a new location is set to open later this month at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda.
The chain opened a location next to The Fillmore in downtown Silver Spring in 2017, which closed in late 2021 and was replaced by Taco Bell Cantina earlier this year.