El Pollo Loco

Wilfred Harris

El Pollo Loco is my go-to spot for a quick and delicious meal! 🌟 Their flame-grilled chicken is juicy and packed with flavor. I love the two-piece meal served with rice and beans - it’s so satisfying!

The vibrant salsa bar adds a fun touch, letting me customize each bite. The casual vibe makes it a perfect spot for a friendly lunch or dinner. Just a heads up, it can get busy during peak hours, but the wait is totally worth it! Can’t wait to return for more! 🍗❤️

I was picking up lunch for myself and two coworkers.
It was around 12:30.
No one else but me in the drive thru and mostly an empty parking lot so they were not busy. I joking asked when I got to the window if everything was in the bag.
The cashier just closed the window without so much as a thank you.
When I arrived at work 15 minutes away only to find one order in the bag with lots of napkins and salsas. I immediately called the location and was told I could drive back to puck up.
Being I was on my lunch hour that was not possible.
I asked the manager Delia if she could please bring it to my offIce.
She said no.
So there I am, with myself and coworker and no lunch. Living in Cali where fast food workers make $20+ an hour and therefore the cost of food skyrocketing getting an order wrong and not doing more to fix the issue is ridiculous. I suggested that she order the missing food on door dash or grubhub and have it delivered.
She said no, she couldn’t do that. I asked what could she do and her suggestion was to return to the restaurant.
Her solution was to inconvenience me even more.
She had zero skills in problem solving and customer service.
Two necessary skills.
As a manager she was not even trying to come up with a viable solution.
I called the corporate customer service and am still waiting to hear back at 6:30pm.
So if this is indicative of how they feel about the importance of customer service then I see why the manager was so indignant and didn’t care.
Living in Cali there's many alternatives for Mexican food so this was my last trip to Pollo Loco.
Obviously they have enough customers that they don’t care about my business. I did reach out as requested.
CRICKETS!!!

Owner response

Maria the hiring “ manager “ definitely doesn’t act like one, she acts like a regular staff employee.
It is so unprofessional for her to schedule someone for an interview and have them waiting for ONE HOUR!!! Please don’t apply at this place that is so unprofessional, she LEFT HOME!!! I don’t understand how she’s part of management, at this point it seems like they just needed a body and they filled her in. DO NOT apply here, you’ll waste your time and gas she won’t interview you after she (herself) tells you to come in. Please do better! Time for a REAL manager to fill her spot.

Owner response

Food: it's El Apollo Loco, so the food is exactly what you'd expect, Good! The chicken was a tad over cooked but still very flavorful.
The tortillas were fresh; the pinto beans done right - soft inside yet had an outer skin that snapped; the Mac&Cheese & Coleslaw were just right; & both the Pico del gallo & Guacamole salsa's were great! All in all, it was a very tastey meal 😁👍 Service: 1.
Trying to place our order. Upon placing our order we were greeted by an attendant speaking Spanish language. We informed her that we did not speak Spanish and there was an uncomfortable pause.... The attendant then said, "Well, what do you want then?" Kind of gave us a feeling like we were bothering her to order in our native tongue. But, we ignored the attitude and commenced placing our order, in our native English language of course. This person immediately responded again in Spanish. As polite as possible, we again told her that we didn't understand what she was saying. Then again, this person repeated herself in Spanish. So, once again, we told her we had no idea what she was saying. Only then did she decide to confirm our order in English. It was quite frustrating and uncomfortable! We are strong supporters of societal integration but overtly changing a countries national language without concern for us preexisting residents is 100% rude! Their management should make point to only staff bilingual attendants considerate of these facts so not to offend their customers. 2.
We informed the attendant while placing our otder that we planned to eat outside the restaurant because we were with our dog. So, when we received our order we immediately checked for utensils, napkins, and plates. None of which were provided! Thus, we asked for these items prior to leaving the drive through. And again, there it was...an uncomfortable pause! Like this person couldn't be bothered.
In fact, she told us to wait and shut the window. We knew we weren't being rude or asking for anything more then we'd already said we needed to eat at their outside tables so it felt very dismissing. She returned and in an aggressive tone said, "So what is it that you want then?" We again mentioned that we had our dog so we couldn't eat inside so we needed those its to be able to do so. Again, she shut the window.
This time with a slight slamming motion. My gal and I looked at one another in disbelief of how this was all took place. She came back, opened the window, handed us the bag of items, and we tried to thank her but she again slammed the window shut. This sights manager needs to seriously have a talk with their team about customer service. We'd just spent $50 for our meal with them and were basically treated like crap!!!! There are two of these locations about the same distance from our home.
After this experience at this one, which one do you think we'll be headed to next time we feel like having their food? Likely not this place! Atmosphere: The outside where we ate seemed clean and suitable to eat our meal. The lighting could have been a little better but was enough. The only uncomfortable aspect to eating there was the presence if a homeless persons over packed shopping cart parked right near the front entrance door. It took us about 20 minutes to eat our food.
We had full visibility of the lobby eating area through the large windows the whole time. So, when we finished eating we went in to use the restrooms to clean up afterwards.
They had bathroom doors that required a code to enter.
The code was ridiculously easy to figure out. They had it set to: 1,2,3,4,5 Upon getting this code and going to clean up we noticed both restrooms were in use. That wouldn't have felt wierd but we were only one of three customers there.
Us outside and two seperate people that were eating inside.
We could see they hadn't left there tables the whole time we were there.
So, we assumed that someone (likely homeless people) were probably inside there taking a spit baths or sleeping. We waited a few minutes but no one came out so we decided it was time to leave!