El Pollo Loco

I was very disappointed with this place. It was my first time here I went thru the drive thru. I was getting a family meal. I asked the girl at the drive thru her name is
Maria L. According to my receipt what sides they had and she said they are posted mind you it was night time and dark out I could not read the sign because it was bad lighting and I have a little bit of vision problems so I just ordered whatever I saw them advertise on tv. The sides I ordered were not good. I mean Damn was it too hard just to tell me what sides they offered. My partner was pissed she called corporate and they apologized for the bad experience I had and gave me 10 off my next order. Never again will I visit this place!

I always come here for lunch since it’s right next to my office, the drive-​through is always pretty quick.
I’ve ordered a variety of food and it’s always served warm and good tasting. Highly recommend for someone looking for a quick bite to eat and in the neighborhood.
The only downside is that they no longer have a dollar menu, their value menu is now about two dollars

The food is good but the place is dirty. Walk-​in at 8:00 pm and the place was a miss, garbage was full and tables are all dirty. No wonder no was in there dining in. The place was un-​appetizing. The management should be better trained in cleanliness and actually care about their work areas. I don’t plan to dine-​in again in this place.

Just went on the RIP list… Chicken and Baja shrimp bowl is in fact a Watery rice and bean bowl topped with cilantro stems… only redeeming factor is that the girl at the drive thru looks like a Brazilian samba dancer during «Carnival»…I like that about her, they say dancing is good for the soul but apparently not for the bowl…

I love the healthier options that to pollo had to offer, and they generally have some pretty good deals. The food is great… The service on the other hand is less than palatable. You’d think they were experiencing a mad rush but the driveway had few cars, and the dining area had two other tables being utilized. One sole diner and an older couple.
It took a while to place our order. The kid at the register was just standing there and kept saying «just a minute». There was no one else in line, and I am unsure as to why we were waiting a minute? He also never moved from in front the register we placed our order at, nor did anyone come and assist him… Whatever.
They now have one of those vibrating light flashing coaster-​like devices to alert you as to when your food is ready. So I go to pick up my food and no one is there. The little salsa bar had no little plastic cups, so I needed to request some. Another guy behind the counter who had been drying his hands for forever, rolled his eyes as he spotted me standing there. I asked for little plastic cups and he started to hand me lids, so I corrected him and again requested the cups. He grumpily proceeded to get them, knocked a few cups or lids onto the floor and handed me eight of them.
The eatery area was clean, we got our food quickly, the food was alright… Got the $ 5 combo ranchero bowl. It was pretty spicy and mostly rice and beans.
Two stars for bad attitudes.

Worst and slowest drive through ever!!! Literally took 15 minutes to get a burrito at the drive through.

Came inside for lunch at 12:30 pm on Wednesday; the place was moderately busy and parking was easy.
As I went to get my drink, a worker was restocking the salsa bar; as I ate, I saw another employee sweeping the floor. And as I’m now about to leave, a third worker is emptying the trash. This is one of the cleaner fast-​food restaurants I’ve been in.
Nice work, guys.
The food is usual El Pollo Loco – hot, moist, flavorful, crispy-​skinned chicken. They got my order right, including the no tortilla strips on the salad. The gravy is fresh and spicy, mmm. Good food, great work.

I normally don’t order salads because I feel like I can easily make that at home, but I was in a rush, hungry, and wanted something healthy. I ordered the avocado salad on the 500 calories or less menu. When I opened my salad, I was super disappointed to find only 2 little slices of avocado resting on the side of the salad. Literally only two little slices. Isn’t this called an avocado salad for a reason? Yet that’s what I had the least amount of out of everything else in the salad. This was so cheap of El Pollo Loco. See attached photo. If I ever go back and order the avocado salad again, I will guarantee it lives up to its name and have them put a decent amount of avocado.

I love love love the bacon avocado salad. Just do not appreciate the rude service I seem to get every time I go to the drive thru!

We have issues with accuracy here. Hubby ordered two combo meals with a coke and diet coke. Drive through kid said here’s your diet cokes. Hubby asks Are they both diet or is one Coke? Kid says one is regular Coke. Hubby then said «don’t lie to me because the drink is for someone allergic to fake sugar.» Kid then changes his story and says it is diet. Completely unacceptable.
During this same instance, we were given the wrong side item for one of our combos and the kid tried to get us to drive off without the extra taquitos that were ordered.
While this was the first time we’ve ever been lied to before, missing food items, missing dressing for salads or incorrect side orders seem to be a consistent problem.
The food is great, if they actually give it to you – which I highly recommend you check for (as well as accuracy) before driving off.
I would have given two or maybe three stars… but for our experience of dishonesty.

I really like coming here because it’s great for a quick lunch. I have generally been here for lunch and my favorite is the BRC. I find that if I stop by for dinner the food isn’t as good. Two times in a row, when I went in the evening my BRC was small and had crunchy rice. So I would recommend going in the day!

If every El Pollo Loco location is as consistent as this one, it’s easily the best fast food chain I’ve been to. I review restaurants based on their competition and what’s appropriately comparable to them, and no other fast food restaurant comes close to the quality product this place puts out.
I still can’t believe I went my whole life up until the past year never trying this place. I remember thinking what a stupid fucking name it was– naming your business after mentally challenged poultry didn’t exactly scream competence to me. That, and on top of how much the supremely overrated Chik-​Fil-​A, KFC and Popeye’s sucked, I just kinda overlooked this place.
First off– DON’T order anything other than the chicken. I’ve had their burritos, quesadillas, etc. and they’re all fairly mediocre. Not terrible, but pretty unmemorable.
The chicken though… This shit is good. Dip it in their avocado salsa and it’s even better. It’s always ridiculously hot– as in spewing steam all over the fucking place and burning the shit out of your fingers if you touch them within 5 minutes of having been given your order. When have you EVER had this happen to you at a fast food restaurant? If your answer is anything other than «never,» you’re a fucking liar. You can’t even get legitimately HOT food at 95% of sit-​down restaurants these days.
As simple as the idea might seem, freshly grilled, well seasoned, not frozen, HOT chicken is the answer. It tastes like (and is) REAL food– which is not something you’re necessarily used to or getting when eating at chain restaurants. Breasts, wings, etc. not all being the same uniform size is a good sign indicating that we’re not all eating the same genetically-​modified cloned superchicken born in the late 90’s over and over again for all eternity. Perfectly run organization, as far as I’m concerned.

This is my favorite place to eat healthy if I want fast food. I get a kid’s meal, and it’s plenty and filling. It’s a great location for getting a bite to eat when shopping.

On a night before Thanksgiving, everyone wants to eat out and they didn’t cook any chicken. Makes no sense that El Pollo Loco runs out of pollo…

I actually really like El Pollo Loco’s food but the service is SO BAD. I work down the street and go there quite a bit for lunch (thru the drive thru). I can honestly say that EVERY SINGLE time I go my order is wrong. I WILL NOT BE GOING BACK!

They don’t have these on the East Coast. So, I’m new to it. I loooove their chicken. And there’s something about seeing it slow cook. Taco Bell cooks their chicken in a bag in boiling water.
Love the horchata on tap. It slaked the thirst that comes from some of the spicier items that I like. I love the chipotle combo. Fast food that actually is spicy! And their cool guacamole inspired salsa has a kick.
Friendly staff. Good stuff.

Okay… seriously EPL.
First, an overview of my previous EPL experience (at 556 Shaw Ave. in Clovis, CA):
Just read my review on THAT shining star of a restaurant. If I could link to it, I would but all you have to do is go back through my reviews and look for the other El Pollo Loco review I’ve posted…
Okay. Now that you’ve read that previous review, here’s the idiocy I put up with at yet ANOTHER Clovis EPL location. To EPL’s credit, I was issued five $ 10 meal vouchers for items I never received and for my being inconvenienced. Mind you, this was after launching a social media campaign to address the ineptitude of the Shaw Ave. location and corresponding with the Director of Area 17 (I’ve since been officially warned not to use her name again). Read on…
First visit to the Herndon & Willow EPL:
Used one of my ten dollar vouchers in conjunction with cash difference to buy my office lunch. Went through the drive-​thru and after I got back to the office, discovered that three items were missing; all side items. The chicken was decent but the one side of rice we DID get was crusty and hard. It was obviously scraped from the sides of an empty ¹⁄₆^th pan — garbage.
Second visit to the Herndon & Willow EPL:
Went INSIDE this time to pick up dinner for my family. Used two more vouchers to pay for my meals and ended up with a balance of $ 4.75 on one of those vouchers. The guy behind the counter wrote my balance on the back of one voucher and handed it back to me and I asked him how I would be able to redeem the balance. He informed me that their system went off of the numbered code and that all I had to do was bring it in on my next purchase to use. Seemed a bit sketchy…
Third and FINAL visit to EPL (Final being for real, FINAL!!!):
Once again went inside to get dinner for my family after work and ATTEMPTED to use one of my final vouchers (including the partial one with $ 4.75 left as a balance…). The girl working the counter stared at the vouchers as if they were written in sanskrit and told me that they couldn’t honor the vouchers because it wasn’t their store’s code. Umm… Excuse me but I’ve already used these here with relatively no problems!!!
«Let me go get my manager…»
I waited a few minutes before the Manager came to the counter and ALSO stared at the vouchers like they were in braille hieroglyphics. She then pointed out that because they had the same code, I couldn’t use more than one. Again, Umm… HAVEN’T HAD A PROBLEM UNTIL NOW!!!
I then mentioned that I still had a balance on one of them from the previous time and mentioned how her employee told me I could use this particular one again and she informed me that that was not how they worked. Since they were not vouchers but instead gift cards, they were good UP to $ 10. Any remaining balance would be null and void. Fine… but your jackass employee should NOT have lied to me when I used that last one. I could have grabbed a couple of fucking churros or something… Also, why could you guys honor my previous vouchers but not this one? Well, I checked the codes and they DIDN’T EVEN MATCH!
«Excuse me, manager? These are NOT the same codes…»
She then got huffy when she was ringing me up and started to get my order together. She obviously was pissed to have to be doing so and made it clear. When she called my name to pick up my order at the counter, she told me that I was lucky she’d decided to honor my voucher even though I knew I was in the right. Well, I made DAMNED SURE to check the bag COMPLETELY this time and guess what? Yep… Missing FOUR ITEMS I had ordered…
«Excuse me M’aam, where is my side of mac & cheese, my order of two churros, the breast that’s supposed to come with this „breast“ and wing combo and all of my goddamn tortillas!!!»
She replied, «Oops, I’m sorry. Let me get them for you.» DOESN’T YOUR CORPORATE OFFICE REALIZE THAT THIS IS WHY YOU’RE LOSING CUSTOMERS IN DROVES!!!
In summation, I’ve given El Pollo Loco WAAAAAY too many chances and they obviously can’t tell their head from their ass. HORRIBLE customer service and their employees need to go back to second grade and start over…
Please, please, PLEASE El Pollo Loco Corporate — evaluate your Fresno market because it seems that even your GOOD area 17 store has gone to shit. Giving an unhappy customer $ 50 worth of vouchers (that they may or may not be able to use) is worthless if the service is still horrible.
Cleanliness: 4 ½ Stars
Quality: 2 ½ Stars
Service: Negative 5 Stars

Great service, and tasty food!

The flame grilled chicken had excellent flavor. Service was fast and staff is friendly.