El Pollo Loco

Do not go to this location for lunch 20 minutes thru drive thru. Service thru drive thru is poor and backed up into the street/​traffic.

Horrible! They forgot my tortillas! How hard could it be? Had to drive back with my hungry son. Attention to detail is sooooo important!

I hate this location… Nobody ever helps you it’s like they don’t see you walk in… They are also very rude to some customers… Still love el pollo in general but this place is dirty n service is awful.

The concept of building your own chicken tacos off of a whole piece of grilled chicken is definitely an interesting take on tacos!
I visited last week and got a 4-​piece with 2 small sides order. We also had a coupon for the Chile Lime Shrimp bowl. While we were waiting, I noticed that the restaurant was really lacking in cleanliness. My boyfriend raved about the salsa bar, but when I got there, the onions, lime, and lemon were all empty. The guacamole salsa everyone tends to come for, was also looking questionable… it seemed like it had been sitting out too long because there was some sort of blackish residue on the top layer of the salsa. The regular salsa also had this layer of old oil you could see from the watery areas of the salsa — blechh! Additionally, the trash cans were filled to the brim, to the point where people couldn’t stuff any more trash inside so everything was just falling out and scattered among the ground. Talk about a unsanitary and dirty environment…
There was no way I was eating there, so we took our food home and opted to eat our meal in our clean apartment. Food was good, the chicken was moist and soft and the rice and corn sides paired well with the tacos. (Extra tortillas were also $ 0.25 I believe) The Chile Lime Shrimp bowl had like 4 shrimp and an overwhelming amount of beans, with little flavor overall. Thank goodness it was free because that was definitely a disappointment.
Two redeeming stars for the food… But please clean up your restaurant, no one wants to eat food while looking at garbage strewn across the floors.

I like this location a lot. The food is always fresh and hot. I’m picky when I order food and this location never disappoints. I always go through the drive-​thru and they always get my order right. I’m a fan!

VERY VERY VERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRY upset and highly P.O. Sooooooo, I have been coming to this el pollo loco for 8 months at least one a week and literally never had many issues. One of the cashiers that works there is amazing and always knows my order right away (he is so super to me). So today, my last day working in Irvine I wanted to go to my fave for the last time in I don’t know how long and I went to get my regular. Everything went wrong from start to finished. I waited almost 5 mins before I could order my food over the intercom, the girl didn’t hear anything I was saying and when I finally got up to the front of the line she didn’t even greet me like my regular buddy does, she just opened the window and screamed my total. She handed me my food and that was it, no Bye or have a great day. As I pulled a mile down the street opening my food, my chicken was ICE cold. I was going to let it go (because things happen) until the full middle was cold and taste like UGH! I turned around and went back inside and when I got there nobody even paid attention to me as I stood in line with food in my hand counting to 10 to not go off about this terrible customer service in general. When the «Team Lead» approached me I told him my food was cold he took it and just said «oh ok we will make it over». No apology no nothing (blank stare) I told him don’t worry just give me my money back I’m already later back from my lunch and he and his staff customer service is terrible he just said OK, well I tried and I was willing to give u some credits, but u want ur money back so ill do that. (I was already fired up to go off)!!! Whooooooooooooooo Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. He is refunding me the money and as he does he looks at the drink I had on the counter and asked me did I want that and did I want a refund for that as well. (I slid it right too him (nope refund all of it)… THEN he gave me the wrong refund amount. he decided to only give me the meal cost (not the tax paid) Not the Money but the principal. so whomever the «Team Lead» is on this date 10/​14/​2015 at about 3 pm! do yourself a favor and demote him. He has no class! Thank you and I will NEVER return

Great option for healthy fast food! No coupon needed but we had one for a $ 10 meal for two so we used it!
The meal was descent. Not a lot of food but enough to feel satisfied. And we saved the churros for later :-)
The location is fine. Close to home. Okay part of the neighborhood, a little on the small side but not many people there so we have plenty of tables to choose from. ‘A’ for cleanliness as well.
For the sides we enjoyed the broccoli, coleslaw, and rice. All delish. I’ve had their black beans before, too. Also a good choice.
Will definitely be back. (1) we have more coupons but (2) it really is the best option for cheap yet healthy fast food.

Look, you know what you are going to get when you come here. It’s a fast food place. They are always consistent. This El Pollo Loco is consistent as well. They are consistent in that they NEVER have what is listed on the corporate websites menu. How does that happen? If the web menu says shrimp and chicken enchiladas then why the hell don’t you make them? The take away here is if you want something from the menu that never changes (chicken for the family, brc burrito etc) then you will be good. If you see or hear a commercial for something exciting, roll the dice and see what comes up.

The past few times I have been here the staff have been welcoming and friendly despite the amount of customers (and this location is very busy). The salsa bar is fresh and stocked and clean. I enjoy coming here for lunch.

There chicken is so tender and juicy. I love there family meal, it has a delicious healthy salad, perfectly crispy Churros, a good amount of rice and beans and delicious chicken with tortillas. Easy and cheap way to feed a bunch of people.

There was a hair in my pollo bowl, i was asked if I wanted my recipe I said no because I was sure I didn’t need it. I called the manager she «took down» my name and order and said if I came back the next day I would get my money back or what I ordered. So I came back the next day for another manager (short, chubby) to tell me if I didn’t have my recipe she couldn’t do anything About it. I told her what had happened and that the other manager wrote my name down she said she had no record of it. So pretty much too bad so sad. So avoid, you will get hair in your food.

Poor decision by management to say they will only except physical coupons and not digital. A lot of coupon sights post coupons which encourage you to go there and every other location they accept it, not this location… That they have to «count the coupons at the end of the night». I know management has numbers to meet, but really?

Usually good, maybe just this location. Dining area was not clean, with only 4 tables in use, the rest were all left dirty. From the time we arrived until we left, nobody wiped down a single table. Salsa bar was a mess as well, really needed attention. The food was ok, not really good, not good, just ok.

They always mess up our order. Things are always missing.

I mean seriously people get it together, there is a bunch of kids working here and a manger that does not speak any English, first I went here for drive thru service a week ago but they were closed so I they gave out a comp card Great!!!, then I go back a few days later to use the comp card at the drive thru 7 min wait time and they cant give me what it says on the card. I even offered to pay the difference, no they said. You can only have what we give you, this was the worst fast food drive thru experience of my life, then they give me food that is not even fully cooked, its time to call food inspection, immigration and the corporate office as I am beyond upset and sick from a simple piece of chicken at a chicken place ridiculous. «F»

Great service and they gave me a good amount of chicken! Most el pollo loco places are super stingy but this one wasn’t. Thank you! :)

Delicious food. Amazing service. This was our first time eating here and we were totally satisfied! The gentlemen was kind enough to give us a free piece of chicken since we enjoyed it so much! Thank you! I wish they would open these in Virginia!

Its el pollo loco, its good, simple… not much to brag about, but the manager was very nice…

This place is the absolute worse, from their poblano avocado burrito that they put no chicken in & always forget the avocado, to the extreme polo bowl with 10 cents worth of chicken, to the leg and thigh where you get the same amount of meat you would get if you ordered the beak of the chicken. This place cuts all their meals with beans and rice and acts like giving you a real portion of their GMO chicken will break the bank. NEVER AGAIN

TIP: Park (and save yourself the long car lines) and order inside so you can pack as much salsa from the salsa bar as you would like! :) They’re salsas are so yummy!
One of the only reasons why I couldn’t be a 100% vegetarian is because of this establishment. I don’t know how they do it, but their chicken has been something my family has enjoyed for years.
This establishment is on the corner so it gets very busy. The two-​piece combo is more than enough for me and it comes with two small sides and two tortillas (corn or flour).
Enjoy!