El Pollo Loco

I think the food here is good. This review is strictly for the service. Everytime I go through the drive through to order they always mess up my order. I just don’t get it. I ordered a shrimp and chicken tostada and I get home and it’s just chicken. What’s funny is the lady repeated my order to me yet the order is wrong. I just don’t get it

Alright so tried this chain for the first time…
The drive thru lady was NOT friendly…
She acted like I was stupid– not like I was taking all day…
Then they seemed to have attitude…
I was expecting the food to be better too from the reviews.
The salad was gross… The dressing was way too thick tasted like straight mayonnaise
The chicken was pretty good. Really small pieces tho… The rice wasn’t good at all. I think that was the most disappointing thing… Like how do you screw up rice so much?
I saw on reviews that they had fries or in pics there were and the girl rudely told me «uh we don’t have French fries…»
Ok jeesh!.. anyways—
I had shrimp tacos too… They were good atleast.

Just came here for a late dinner pick for to-​go and noticed it was slightly remodeled outside and nicely done inside. I am glad it was done as I have gone here since it first opened. It is time for a change…
Customer service is good on and off. Never been thru the drive-​thru as its always a long line. There is a self service salad bar for sauces and other ingredient but don’t come here late as they don’t really stock up on their sauce. Actually, they are slow at filling the containers lately when I have come. They offer small plastic cups to put your sauces and condiments but you will have to fill a lot of these tiny cups for that sixteen piece family meal. You can ask for their larger sauce cups but it’s only a slightly bigger plastic cup and they usually only give you two! They give you that look if you ask for 4. They used to give big styrofoam cups for sauces but no more. Prices did go up and I barely see coupons come in the mail to use.
Still love their chicken and spicy avocado sauce so I know I will be back! Chicken is so flavorful. Just wish they wouldn’t be so stingy giving us big sauce cups! ;p

Twice now I have sent my order back cause it was incorrect. I have allergies. Rather than make it fresh I have caught them picking the ingredients out of my food. They could have sent me to the hospital or worse yet killed me. The staff needs to understand cross contamination and proper food safety.

Busy during lunchtime but staff keeps thing kool and under control. Just recommend keeping shop a bit cleaner during this busy hour. Loved the food since I was younger living in southern Cali. It’s fresh and actual food served matches the picture. Thanks staff of mission Blvd. Keep up the good work.

I went here for the first time last week and ordered the family meal deal: 8 pieces chicken legs & thighs, 4 enchiladas, 4 churros & 2 sides (I choose macaroni & cheese for both). ($ 22)
The chicken is flavorful, tasted really yummy! The enchiladas were okay, nothing special. The churros were good and their macaroni & cheese is off the hook!
I also ordered the double chicken bowl… I loved it! It’s like eating 1 – 2 burritos minus the tortilla. I drizzled cilantro sauce over it (so good!) The portions were good for $ 6.99.
They have a salsa bar with fresh salsa that also tastes good.
Their service was quick the first time I went, which I only waited about 5 min since there was no one in line waiting. (Lunch time before the lunch crowd on a Monday)
The 2^nd time I went was around 6:20pm on a Thursday and I waited for about less than 20 min. If you go here, make sure you have time to spare to wait just in case of long lines and the wait for the food… it just really depends.
Cilantro sauce is free if you ask them for it.
The first time I went there I asked if there was a limit to how many cilantro sauce we can get and they said as many as you want. The 2^nd time I went there, I asked again and they said the same thing. Today, I asked for the same amount of cilantro sauce I got last time and they told me I could only get 3 and the rest would be an extra charge.
They didn’t believe me when I told them they didn’t have a limit so yeah they do now I guess (went there 3 times within a week & a half). I almost got annoyed because I talked to the same person that didn’t complain about giving me the sauce last time. Oh well.
Anyway, the place is nice but can get pretty packed. They have a lot of customers. Food is good. Would definately eat here again.

I love El Pollo Loco the for is good for a fast food joint and it’s cheap. I went there Friday night around 8pm and order our food the girl that helped us was over nice and friendly. If not for her and the food I would give this place 1 star. Worst service ever from this young guy. The whole time he was standing around and talking instead of getting our food together. After getting our food 10mins later we sat down to eat and realized that we had no forks and was missing part of our order. So I walked up the counter and waited like another 5 mins before he turned around and didn’t even ask if he could help us he just stood there looking at me. I don’t expect great service from I fast food joint but I do expect at least a little.

For el pollo loco this location was clean, fast and tentative .
My food was perfect. I had a chicken and shrimp tostada. Shrimp were plump and juicy while my chicken was warm and flavorful.

I wish I didn’t have to drive to Hayward for El Pollo Loco. It’s so good. I don’t really care for their sides, bit the chicken is so good. Smoky, tender and very flavorful. I would rather have Mexican style grilled chicken over fast food fried chicken any day of the week.

Food was good, drive through was a good experience and it was open till a good time. I ordered one of their chicken bowls and that was pretty good.

Great location and customer service. This location I visited the drive thru. The flow of service was decent waiting in drive thru line. Staff was courteous and order was exact. If in the area check it out. I’ll be back again for more!

Got wrong order again. I guess I shouldn’t go here when it’s busy day. I like your food but it’s frustrating when you drive all the way home to realize you got ripped off.

Food is pretty good and a nice change from Taco Bell.
Just a few issues here:
You can get stuck in drive-​thru for a long time (20 minute min) on a busy night.
Service is slow and not great/​friendly. Some of the workers through customer service out the window when it is busy.
I’ve found a few big bones in my boneless chicken items. Sometimes chicken is overcooked and can barely chew it.
Food is too expensive for what you get.

Food is pretty good, but, it’s over-​priced, You can get a way bigger burrito for the same $ all over this town. Service here is sketchy — a few times they screwed up my order — wrong items, and one time, we were in drive-​thru near closing time — we got up to the order station, and they played a recording, «thanks for coming to El Pollo Loco, we are closing now, please come back tomorrow». I was trapped — there were 7 cars behind me. I had to get out of my car and go the the cars behind me and tell them we were screwed. There must be a better way to handle closing time. If I had been hurt, run over, or anything like that, I would have sued the sh*t out of that franchise.
Two more complaints: PLEASE, El Pollo — make sure the people who take the orders can speak ENGLISH. Many can’t, and that’s probably why my order has been wrong 3 times.
Stop changing the menu! Leave it alone!

If you haven’t tried this place, you are in for a treat! The place is always packed and also has a drive thru with a long line. Once you have their chicken, you’ll never go back to eatting KFC or jollie bee because this place is 10x better! Their food is fresh and grilled to perfection. You also have choices of different sides. I personally didn’t like the mashed potatoes but the Mac and cheese was awesome! This place is a must try!

Fast-​food chain restaurant located along Mission Blvd, specializing in Mexican-​style, fire-​grilled chicken. This is one of the only locations I have visited that has a drive-​thru, which is super convenient when traveling with kids/​animals in the car. I LOVE El Pollo Loco! That said, I have vowed never to waste my time or money to visit this location ever again as their service is atrociously slow.
I drove out here from the Tri-​Valley to get my El Pollo Loco fix on a Saturday evening around 5:45, and had to wait in their drive-​thru line for a dreadful 20+ minutes. 20 minutes! There were only a handful of cars in line, but it was taking the staff forever to fulfill each order. I have had to wait for 10+ minutes in this drive-​thru before, which is already longer than most drive-​thru lines, but I’ve never had to wait this long. Everyone in line had their engines turned off & were parked in line as they waited their turn. To make it even worse, they were also completely out of chicken breast & cherry coke. I thought about heading home but figured that I might as well order as I’d already wasted enough time here.
Never again.

Needs new management! Not sure if I will ever come back to this location. The food quality has gone way down. Anything with chopped chicken is bound to have skin, fat and the parts they should throw out. I requested my burrito to be re-​made and got attitude from the worker. She acted like she has stock in the company or that her pay check is decreasing by making my order over. Bad service and bad food.

El Pollo Loco has chicken, burritos, mex food. trying it out.
eats: chipotle chicken burrito (5.99)
–salsa bar has 3 kinds of salsa to customized burrito
–chipotle sauce not evenly spread. lots at the bottom. Hot!
–chicken taste better than chipotle chicken
–tasted fresh, 3.5 stars
portions average,

One of the only drive-​thru places I frequent in the East Bay, hell make that Bay area!
I always go for the two piece combo, leg and thigh with steamed broccoli, beans, corn, fries, mash or rice as sides with corn tortillas. Of course with the pico de gallo and avocado salsa to top everything with. I love how they make their chicken here, skin or no skin! Tasty, actually grilled– that’s where the flavor lies and is still juicy! KFC, who? what?
The service is always really good when I come in, the workers do their job and quickly. This location is kept really clean and is never really packed so it’s great for lunch time.

REVIEW on Catered food
Our company got CHEAP! Yes, we lost our biggest account but that doesn’t mean the people who survived the cut and are working hard on other accounts should suffer so miserably for the holidays… Especially our holiday party. Whom we look forward to to unleash stress for a single day. We actually enjoy each others company for a change, unlike the rest of the year where the work whip comes out. Moral can get dismal if we don’t have these one off parties.
With a 75% cut on the holiday budget, our company holiday committee (which I was on) tried hard to seek out a budget friendly meal in San Francisco. Well, you all know how that goes… $KA$-$CHING$ is SF’s middle name. And so, we found El Pollo Loco catering service online.
I have to admit, everything about their catered food was awesome! From the online ordering, the way they package the food in containers and boxes and how the order was all ready for me when I arrived. It was awesome! After reviewing all the items on the counter, they even helped lug the boxes into my car for transport to San Francisco. Everything was locked solid into their packages and NOTHING spilled out.
40 minutes drive into the city, unloaded it, then parked my car in a far away parking lot and BARTed back. The food remained HOT for almost 2 hours. I was extremely pleased and the co-​workers… all loved it! WIN WIN for everyone!!!
We spent under $ 300 that feeds 20 people and even had loads of leftovers for the next day. I would definitely do this again and recommend it to anyone who’s budgets been slashed off lower than Walmart’s lowest prices of the season pricing.
Let’s see what happens next year. Hope we get to actually dine in SF next year but otherwise, we’ll be keeping this place in the Rolodex!
PS and FYI — we also had booze, desserts and other appetizers for our holiday meal… didn’t want you to think a happy holiday would exclude BOOZE and DESSERTS! :) Cheers!