El Pollo Loco

I would put no star if I could. Ordered a 2 piece chicken combo and I’m pretty sure it was parakeet. Talked to Juan the manager who said sometimes they’re small and they have no control but REALLY??? They need to know about quality control and not put chicken with no meat on the bone on the plate. Come on. They should at least let the chicken grow up before trying to present it as a meal. Very disappointed.

The portion sizes here suck. Why the hell are you so stingy with the food portions? I ordered a chicken bowl here and was decently filled, then the next week I order the same thing and it was less than half the total amount of food as the last one. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me before either (I boycotted this location for over a year due to lack of consistency and shortchanging the food quantity).
My pet peeve for restaurants is lack of consistency. There is zero consistency here.

This review is for catering. I am a sales rep and occasionally have to cater lunches for clients. I needed to find a cost effective, but tasty option for a large group lunch (20+ people.) The delivery service I normally use doesn’t serve Murrieta, so I turned to El Pollo Loco.
I placed my order online the night before. It was a simple process, but they don’t prompt you to enter your credit card, so I was a little worried that my order may not have gone through. I called early the next morning (before 9) and the gentleman who answered the phone had my order info on hand and took payment over the phone. He was also extremely polite! My order was delivered ontime. There was a slight confusion with the order that honestly was not a big deal, but before I even had a chance to call El Pollo Loco and get the mix up corrected, someone had rushed back out with the missing items. Again, I was very impressed by their service, professionalism and politeness.
The food was a big hit with my clients and I will certainly use this location again for future catering orders.

Salad was delicious and staff was friendly. always a good choice for a quick meal on the go :)

This El Pollo Loco has gotten so stingy with all of their condiments. I ordered the family meal and I asked for lots of salsa, they gave me only three salsas and one salad dressing and when I asked for more they said the family salad only comes with one salad dressing and they would only give me 3 more salsas. According to the cashier that is all they are allowed to give out, they were told they need to limit what they give out.
If that isn’t bad enough… I get home and the pieces of chicken were so small, the salsa was bitter and the churros tasted stale. It turns out condiments aren’t the only thing they are stingy with.
If you are in the mood for good chicken then I recommend Chuy’s off of Murrieta Hot Springs, their food is way better.

What a RIP-​OFF! They currently have a promotion of $ 24.99 Three Course Family Meal but I got charged $ 26.99 because the staff said it’s plus tax. If you look at the bottom of the receipt they obviously added the tax. I pointed it out to them but they keep insisting it’s tax. The conversation isn’t going anywhere so I just left very disappointed:(.

Food is pretty good. customer service is a hit and miss here. It really depends on who you deal with. Chicken can be chewy sometimes. Depends when I go. I usually get the chicken tostada or the pollo bowl. Both are good. Sometimes lack of a good amount of chicken

This place sucks! I use the drive through on my lunch brake. Twice in a row they did not give me tortillas. I get to work to eat lunch and no tortillas. I’m not going to drive back to get them so I just ate what I got. So I boycotted this place for about a year until today. Picked up lunch for a coworker and I and they shorted my coworker a taco that they charged me for. SO, I gave him my meal. For the prices of their food, It should be right every time. NEVER AGAIN will I eat at any El Polo Loco.

This restaurant has the best customer service I have ever seen in a fast food chain! They greet you at the door, personnel is so polite, happy, and friendly. The restaurant was super clean.
Food was great, hot and fresh. Had a simple 3 piece combo.

I think this place needs all new staff! First we paid $ 26.76 for food that had a big long black Mexican hair in it. Took the food back, the lady Maria C started yelling at the kitchen staff in Spanish. Then she fetched me a new plate of Mac n cheese from the same vat the hair came from! My kids refused to touch the food. While we sat and starred at the food in search of more black hairs, Vernonica was sweeping under our table WHILE WE SAT THERE! Seriously ?! I will never go back!

I ordered the 3 piece combo. It was hot and fast. They have hochata drink here too. One of the better el polo loco around.

When a place is always busy as this location you can bet that the food doesn’t sit and is usually fresh… The lunch rush at this location is ridiculous! I usually go in to eat because the drive thru line is into the parking lot. Good food good prices. My coworker got a salad but its probably not a popular item to order her spring mix was a bit wilted (no biggie to me i come here for the chicken not salad). In short– its clean, food is good/​hot/​fresh, its fast for being so busy, salsa bar stocked, employees are nice. Cant ask for more than that!

I been a pollo loco fan for years. Until I came here I will never go back due to them serving me some cold chicken that was really cold. Very upsetting due to pollo loco being my favorite place for fast food, now I wonder if my chicken was that cold how fresh was it really.

Good food, the chicken is very very good for a fast food place! Great deals on family meals. The drive through can be a bit crowded but that is to be expected. We have gone here a few times close to closing time and the I re cream machines were already turned off (twice) but I think that must be standard and not a problem if you go earlier. I wish they still served the foster freeze items. Overall decent and a good go to for last minute dinner demands.

Good chicken, fast service. Wish their chicken wasn’t so small. 8 pieces of chicken is only enough for one person seriously… And they’re aren’t cheap too…

I ordered the lower calorie wheat burrito — it was soggy and had 2 little bites of chicken!
Terrible for the price. The girl in the front who can’t speak english enough to know when they mix up an order needs a lesson in customer service.

I ordered the Baja Shrimp Tacos. When I opened them, the shell was soggy and the contents of the taco were all over the wraper. The avocado was actually stuck to the foil. My friend ordered the Wheat Avocado Burrito and they gave her the regular avocado burrito. I intially went through the drive thru, but I had to go in to correct the order. The girl behind the register told me «the guy who came in told me you wanted regular, not wheat.» I explained that I had just gone through the drive-​thru and she became somewhat annoyed. Another girl was called over and gave me the correct order.

I think El Pollo Loco is one of the best fast food places around. The quality is above others for the price. The chicken is flavorful and fresh and the carne asada is tender. The lighter options they have are very good. You can even order skinless chicken with broccoli.
I usually order the mango chicken tostada which is in the under 500 calorie options (without dressing of course). The cilantro cream dressing is delicious and tangy, and my choice to accompany my salad. I hate cilantro but I can devour this dressing.
They offer a tres leche cake here now which is also decent and convenient for my sweet tooth fix.
The line can get long at this location but it moves fairly fast. The medium size drink they carry is huge, so go for a small unless you’re really thirsty.

Good food, pleasant service my disappointment is with the drive thru didn’t get the second churro caused a huge problem with the kids something I really didn’t need at the end of my day!

This El Pollo Loco is definitely not the best in the area, but it has to do sometimes…
On one visit they were out of avocado sauce and had no more tortillas! Then the next visit they gave us their last corn and we wanted more :(
Not sure what’s going on, but as a restaurant manager, I would think you never let your products run out. Oh well… still a good place to go for a quick foodie run!