El Pollo Loco

El Pollo Loco? More like El Caca Loco, because you’re going to take some crazy shits after eating at this place! A sure fire choice for those that enjoy food poisoning.

EPL considers 8 pieces of chicken. to be just that pieces — not WHOLE pieces mind you… they cut the breast and thigh pieces in half. I got an 8 piece order (which is considered a WHOLE chicken) I weighed it when I saw how scrawny the order was. it was 1 pound 4 ounces… that was for 4 drumsticks and less than ½ breast/​thigh portions. AND it was over 15.00 with tax!!! THE «thigh» was less than ½″ thick. NOt to mention so dry I couldn’t swallow it. Better off going to the grocery store or Costco and get a 3 – 4 pound rotisserie chicken for 5 or 6 bucks!!!

Churros. Hunting for freshly cooked churros late at night is one hell of task. Found it here! I didn’t come for the churros, but that was the icing on the cake! Ordered the double chicken enchiladas. Winner! Tons of chicken, so the «double» part was overkill. I’m sure a regular chicken enchilada would have been more than enough. The chicken was flavorful and the rice was well seasoned. I got exactly what I was craving for dinner– a hearty chicken enchilada.
The staff are very polite and makes sure your order is accurate. I know that should be a standard thing, but it’s quite impressive here. Well done! I’ll be back… maybe tomorrow!

The service was super slow, the order was all wrong. I like the food at this place, but the employees here clearly need more training. We waited over half an hour for our food because there were not enough employees at the store to support the influx of customers this store gets. They get two stars because of the food.

Came here for the family meal deal, seems to always be an issue at the CH location, guess what same poor service and untrained employees, or is this how all the El Pollo Locos are run? I have had better service at 7 – 11.
I think this location must be run buy the same owner that runs the one on Greenback Ln. in Citrus Heights, to bad…

Management needs improvement here. Went through the drive-​thru tonight and the board clearly said of you ordered a family meal you get a «free side dish.» One would expect to get get it with their order, right? Ha! Wasn’t so easy for me tonight. They told me that they «didn’t change the signs outside yet» and that the promotion ended earlier in the day. So I told her that since it’s still up that they should honor it. That’s when a different voice, very loudly and aggressive, came on and said «we’ll give it to you this time.»
ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Hell yeah you need to give it to me. That’s an error on management’s end and customers shouldn’t feel cheated. The cashier was very pleasant, but the manager needs to work on her customer service.
On another occasion I got dry, overcooked chicken. I swear my jaws hurt like hell after trying to eat it– it was dry like jerky!

First time at this new location, or any El Pollo loco for that matter, and to my surprise, it was exceptional!
I had the double chicken burrito, and my friend had the 3 piece meal with pinto beans and a side salad (which was good size for being a side). We could truly taste that the ingredients were high quality and very fresh, not your typical fast food.
Even the staff were surprisingly friendly and high class for a fast food Mexican restaurant. Jajuan made us feel like we were in an expensive sit-​down restaurant. He opened the door as we walked in, greeted us with a warm and welcoming smile, he even checked on us to make sure we were having a great experience, and asked to take our trays when we were done. That right there is 5 star customer service! You rock, Jajuan!
The dining room had a clean and open atmosphere, fresh salsa bar, and two dining areas. Plus, I loved that I could see the chicken being grilled fresh in their open kitchen, which was super clean. They had a variety of reasonably priced options for those eating light, to those wanting double meat, and even had family sized meals. (Talk about fresh, healthy food, that just happens to be fast!)
Move over chipotle/​jimboy’s/ taco bell/​baja fresh.
El Pollo Loco is the only place I’ll be going from now on!

Came here for the pre-​opening and everything looks great so far! The owner was super nice was super helpful in helping me decide what to order.
Food-​wise, I don’t have any other el pollo experiences to compare it to, but the tostada I had was pretty bleh.
I would say 1 – 2 stars for food, but +1 star for cleanliness and service.

I have been here twice and both times I found the food to be delicious. I got the fajita bowl (chicken on the side and no dairy) with the flour tortillas the second time and the chips the first time. I was not disappointed. My husband gets the chicken with steamed broccoli each time. We are happy with the courteous staff!

My boss ordered out here and she came back with like 7 orders for our team. They completely forgot an entire meal that she payed for, she had to go back for it. Another time gave them a second chance and they completely forgot salad dressings for out salads. Poor quality they don’t pay attention to detail or your order!

Fair prices and food is good and fresh. Love the serrano peppers at the salad bar and their creamy cilantro sauce. Employees have been accurate with everything thus far and very helpful. Just some advice to cook the rice for brc more thorough because some are hard

Meh!..
Gave this new el pollo location a try what a mistake.
everyone working there seems to be loco. i guess in a way they a representing the el pollo loco brand.
food was bland, no one seems to understand the menu and the process of preparing the food .
Salad /​salsa was not that great either
Pros:
Good food if you can get in there on the right shift/​time
Cons:
everything from my recent visit
I might give this location another chance to turn things around.

I got a take out Pollo Caesar bowl at 11:30 am 10÷29÷15,. I got home and there was no dressing on it or on the side. It was dry and bland and the rather salty chicken was just a few small pieces that were barely warm. There was no one to take my order when I went in and after a minute two girls came giggling up to the counter and one took my order. No manager in sight. Only one customer at a table. Not a positive experience. I won’t be back. It was not good value… I dumped it down the garbage disposal and made a peanut butter sandwich.

Food was very good quality and a great price. It was very busy and a little slow but worth the wait. Much better taste and value than Chipotle.

Dirty, dry, overpriced.
The chicken was warm, and I was hoping to give them 3 – 4 stars, but unfortunately that was the highlight of the meal.
I paid almost $ 12 for a meal, but only got two small tortillas, when I asked for more, they wanted to charge me.
The chicken was dry, but at least it was well cooked. I’d rather have it a little dry then come down with salmonella.
The place was a mess. Another couple had to ask someone to clean a spot so they could sit, even though no one else dining in.
The salsa bar looked like i’d recently seen some sort of violent conflict (see photo) and while they have lots of drinks to chose from, there was no iced tea, of either flavor.
That’s the thing that secured the two-​star review, when I complained, they told me it would be at least ten minutes to get the iced tea going and when I asked why I just paid $ 2 for a drink they don’t have, the manager ignored me.
Needless to say, it’s pretty disappointing.

I went there last night 10/​5, but did not eat there, here;s why: Common sense isn’t so common…
1) I watched a female employee cleaning around the salsa bar, whatever she was spraying was getting into the watery salsas and reacting, causing bubbling. The aroma at the salsa bar was not of fresh cilantro, onions, or tomatoes but one of caustic cleaner. Not appealing.
2) Pico made with unripe tomatoes and very watery, mild tomato salsa also bubbling from the cleaner which I could see wipe marks right up to the line of salsa in all containers, Same towel that cleaned off a couple tables a moment earlier.
3) Observed a fat female in the production line in the kitchen knock over a stack of soup cups into a pot of soup, reached in with bare hands to grab them out, threw away the bottom cup and re-​stacked the rest above in the same location to happen again. laughing while doing this. There’s a right way to have fun at work, but cooking for public is serious.
4) Dining and ordering area is a complete waste of space and a fail in design., right down the the Gold fabric wall sofa at the end of the order counter… why would someone put that there? If this store ever got busy, it would be complete chaos.
5) Men’s room design is a complete fail… or the architects/​corporate management are a bit too friendly and or too comfortable with one another. Recommendation: Addition of a stall partition and partitions around the urinal would make this large restroom usable by more than one person at a time. Think McFly!
I gave this location a couple weeks before I went in the get the business flowing, but it’s flowing the wrong way.
Pretty building but, that’s about all this location offers. There are many pretty buildings in Folsom and some with real Mexican food nearby.
***Management recommendation: Get a manager with common sense from a successful location here to oversee for a few weeks so this location doesn’t become a company tax write off and or a customer gets sick. I almost called the health department on this one.
I like El Pollo Loco and frequent periodically as they’re generally a healthier and better alternative to fast food. I will re visit this one in a month or 2 and revise my review if it’s warranted.

The taste of the burrito was very bland and subpar. I’ve been spoiled by the Sunrise location quality all these years. Even the salsa bar was too liquidy and lots of pink and not ripe tomatoes.

It has been years since I visited a El Pollo Loco and since they just opened a convenient location, it was time to re-​engage. Visited today at lunch and it was fricking busy but the food came out quick. They had hundreds of chickens cooking in plain view which is cool. Ordered the two piece combo (breast and wing) which came with tortillas and two sides. The sides I picked were a Loco Salad and pinto beans. The tortillas are a choice of flour or corn. Ordered corn got flour. Bummer. The salad was decent and the creamy cilantro dressing was tasty. The pinto beans were very bland and were supposed to be simmered with poblano peppers. I could not tell. Everything I have described was at or below average and then I ate the chicken. Oh mama was it nice and tender and wonderfully flavored. Just A+++. Next time I will just get chicken.

It was about 955pm when I arrived, and the sign on the door says that the dining room is open until 10pm, and the drive-​thru until 11.
I ordered a meal and waited. I wondered if they might sell individual pieces of chicken and asked the kid at the counter.
He said, ‘Yes, but it is 10:02, and we are closed.‘
Seriously? He couldn’t turn around and grab a piece of chicken and sell it to me? If I wanted it, I would have to leave, get back in my car, and go through the drive-​thru?
In what world does that make sense?
Also, there was a guy standing directly on the grill grates in work boots, cleaning the hood above. The chicken had been piled to the side, but still, using a cleaning solution overhead could cause contamination, and more importantly, his boots could.

Came here for lunch on Thursday at drive thru, not a single soul for grand opening week. The food was great and I got it really fast, it’s not fried like KFC, all grilled so it’d healthier. I got one of the avocado bowls with a large horchata and a small side of macaroni and cheese and the girl was really profesional and asked if she could help me order because I was taking a long time to look at the menu. They give free salsa too which is pretty cool and the outside is really clean and well decorated, they have little lights they were still installing and the workers were putting in bark and other little tiny bushes. I didn’t go in because I thought it would be a nightmare like everything is in folsom during lunch hour since more than half of the population doesn’t work. But it was totally dead so it was a huge shock, specially for opening week. Expect an indoor review and cleanliness. Definitely recommend and will return.