El Pollo Loco

UPDATE: I just went again recently and I’ll probably not go back. Steven S took my order (according to my receipt). He was very condescending. I asked if they had a specific item and he doesn’t just say, «Sure,» and put the order in, but he decides he should walk over to the menu, point it out and say, «See, here it is» with an impatient smirk. Sorry if you had a bad day and you have no patience for customer service! I should’ve just left, but I didn’t feel like driving to another El Pollo Loco to pick up food for my family. As I waited, I noticed him go back to the grill and he was helping chop up chicken! He wasn’t wearing a hat or hairnet. Undercover Boss needs to come here!

second time it happened. my chicken was under cooked. I now have food poisoning. I won’t be going back no more. the cook looked young in his 20s. this is going to get someone very sick. please make sure to check your chicken before you leave. I gave them one chance before. on another note management John is very nice and always watching the store really well. this doesn’t happen on his watch.

I should have taken all the bad reviews here more seriously and as a warning, but I made the mistake coming here anyways. Adding another bad review when there are already so many feels like adding insult to injury, but my experience here was so unique, I think its worth sharing.
We had a coupon for about 20 pieces of chicken and I guess it’s not normally accepted at this location, but they accepted it anyways. Just like many other reviews said, they ran out of chicken. We waited over an hour for our order which means everyone that ordered chicken after us had to wait as well. Here is where it gets interesting. Other customers started getting impatient and asking why is there such a long wait and how long. The cashier told them those two gentleman (my coworker and I) used a coupon that they don’t accept, so it is causing a delay. Really??? Thanks for shifting the blame to us and trying to make us feel bad when the blame is your own incompetence. It gets better. Since the total time it took for us to order and get back to work was 1.5−2 hours, we lost an hour of pay. How many people can say they lost some of their paycheck due to El Pollo Locco? I can.

The beans on my tostada were soo spicy I couldn’t eat them.
We were leaving at 9:00 and the staff was already stacking tables and chairs for closing! (They don’t close until 10:00. Also NO music. kinda strange.

Went to Pollo Loco on Las Tunas/​main. The food & service leave a lot to be desired. We ordered salads and they had old wilty lettuce. We asked for taquitos and was given tacos. After we told him that’s not what we ordered, he said, I guess we don’t have any. They gave me money back for the tacos. He brought me packets to wipe my hands. They were not wipes but instead they were alcohol prep for disinfect cuts. He didn’t know the difference. They need to train their employees.

A little rude but everything else was great i ate peacefully no problems at all. The salad was good!

I guess I shouldn’t even bother with the bad reviews, there’s plenty to refer to. Just plain horrible customer service and incomplete orders.

I visit this location at least 5 times per week, the food is great and the service is excellent. I’m a personal trainer and prefer el pollo loco over any other chicken establishments. I highly recommend this restaurant to all my clients as a better type of diet to a healthier lifestyle. I’ve been coming to this location for years and will continue to visit for many more years to come.

You can’t never go wrong with Pollo Loco! Healthy and Delicious! But the service was very slow. Had to wait for my churros?!

El pollo loco is located at the corner of Mission and Las Tunas in a pretty busy plaza. There is a parking lot but it is shared with 5 other stores making parking a bit hectic during peak hours. If there isn’t any parking in the parking lot, you can either park on the street on Las Tunas or on Mission Dr.
The few times I have come here, the employees have always been very friendly. The store is pretty clean, but the one thing I think they could improve on is the salsa bar. Every time I come there is either hardly any salsa, no plastic lids, or no plastic containers. The salsa is usually spilled onto the countertop as well.
The quality of food, ehh it’s El Pollo Loco, so you can’t expect too much. I got the kids meal with pollo bowl ($ 3.99). It came with a small drink and two flour or corn tortillas. The bowl is made of Mexican rice with chicken cubes and beans. The chicken pieces are breast meat so it was dry. Salsa makes everything delicious so I added it all over my bowl, but still didn’t finish it. :(
I wouldn’t get the pollo bowl again since I hate dry chicken. I usually like getting the drum sticks because they are more moist and tasty!
Hey, what do you expect for 3.99? You can’t expect much for the price you pay.

this is my neighborhood EPL… haven’t been here for a looong time. Wish i could support them…
THREE times… perhaps more? they have been out of chicken… at around 530 p.m.
Wait…they’re a chicken restaurant… how can they be out of chicken… and this many times?
After the last time I sent EPL corporate an e-mail…no reply. Guess they are not concerned…
Two weeks ago my son came home slightly irritated… he had stopped by this very same EPL on his way home… guess what… OUT OF CHICKEN!!!

Your name is El Pollo Loco. What is the one thing you should NEVER run out of? Chicken!!! This spot is a regular for me and my son and 2 days in a row we were told it would be a 30 min wait for chicken. How is that possible? Half the restaurant is a grill. Someone not paying attention

One of the weaker EPL restaurants. They seem to be understaffed. Things are ok maybe 60% of the time. Often, though, wait times are high and the salsa bar is left depleted. They occasionally mess up your order here and one of the more annoying things is the bottleneck they have at the very end. Sometimes I will see my order made but I’ll literally have to wait 5 – 10 minutes to get it because the worker only fulfills orders in the queue order.
PARKING
Shared parking lot. Can be tough during peak hours

Unfortunately this is the closest Pollo Loco where we live… It’s a very dirty restaurant. Yesterday I went to get some food and ask four different employees that there was no Avocado and no one brought none out. I paid waited for my food ask this girl that worked there again and said ok and she just went to talk to the cook and just stood there. I TOOK LONGER TO GET THE AVOCADO THEN MY FAMILY MEAL…

Dirty, understaffed, and food isn’t great.
We’ve been here three times now. Should have learned after the first time. Every time I have been here the salsa bar is dirty, poorly stocked. Each time I’ve been there I have asked for them to restock and it hasn’t been done before I left.
Windows look dirty, bathroom was unusable.
Our whole family won’t be going back. The drive to fair oaks location is worth it!!!

The staff here sucks, I took my sick self there lastnight to get some soup. The guy charged me for a medium soup and they gave me a small. Not to mention the husky guy had an attitude when I asked him questions, I guess he was hungry because he walked out the office with a plate of food, which I found pretty nasty eating over customers food. The rest of the customers were complaining about their order been wrong. Not only did I get a small soup, but I asked the they did not put mango sauce on my shrimp tacos and yet they did just that. I came home and I threw it in the garbage didn’t want to raise hell over it. The soup was pretty nasty.
My recommendation is find a different location.
And to the manager here, hire better employees, they make or break your business and you should know that as a manager.

Whenever I’m craving El Pollo Loco, I like coming here or the one down Temple City — depending on which location I’m closer to.
I usually get the 8pcs family meal for lunch time or dinner time, especially when I wanna give my mom a break from cooking or when I’m not feeling Chinese or Vietnamese food.
The chicken is always juicy and moist whenever I get. I like the mac n cheese and mashed potato sides. The mac n cheese is a lil bit salty, but it balances out with the Mexican Cobb salad. Not a big fan of the churros — they’re dry and not coated well enough. The churros from Jack in the Box tastes better.
Service: Nice cashiers and servers — they accommodate well if you need a certain amount of plates and utensils and they do give you the bigger size to go containers for your salsa and guacamole sauces.
Overall, this place gets pretty packed and a decent place to eat. Just steer clear of the bad churros.

While the menu is healthy and offers good variety, I just don’t sense any passion from the staff here — no special «wow» moment for the customer.
For instance, once the salsa bar was filthy, with trash and salsa spilled everywhere. Often they’ve been out of items I wanted to order, which is a bit disappointing. And today the Cherry Coke was flat.
These little things are not disastrous, but they add up to produce a sub-​par experience, hence the 2 stars.

Came in to pick up 64 pieces of chicken for our dealership down the street, gentleman that helped me must have been a manager, his name was Howard. Real quick smooth, gave me a drink while I waited, once it was ready offered utensils, plates, and salsa. I usually get disappointed at places like this, but this was a good experience. Keep it up, it was busy the whole time I was there didnt c a single customer get upset.

Went to this location ordered two 3 piece combos all dark meat
No dark meat — what you have no dark meat ???
What does it cost u 10cents more ???
Cheap stupid owner chef
I’ll never come back
U should be ashamed of yourselves

el poco loco