El Pollo Loco

This Pollo Loco gives the chain a bad reputation. They have too many people working shifts here for the service to be so slow, the store to be so dirty and for them to forget to give you tortillas with your order. Very bad experience, and it isn’t the first time this has happened. Thought I would give them another try and once again they dissapointed.

Despite the negative reviews, I have been here many times & never had a negative experience. Chicken has always been good. The salsa bar always well stocked. The people working there are always friendly & I usually see people cleaning up the tables. As far as the tokens for the bathroom, I appreciate the idea. Unfortunately, there are a lot of transients in that area & they are pretty strict on only people that buy food there get a token. The bathrooms have always been clean when I’ve gone. It is my «go to» fast food place when I’m in North Salinas!

Me and my husband tried this place for the first time and we were very happy. There were bad reviews for this place and I just don’t understand them. This place was clean, the service was friendly and fast, and the food was pretty good. We plan on going back again.

This place has dry chicken and the skin is very hard which means they put it in the grill too long. All in all, I don’t think that anyone should come here because they don’t know how to cook their chicken.

Very dirty. Guess I should have read the reviews 1^st! Looks like it’s been filthy and poorly managed for a long time. FILTHY!

on 3÷15÷15 we went to this El Pollo Loco, we have been here quite a few times in the past, but it had been awhile since we had been there. The issue I had was the ladies bathroom. The door would not lock, not to mention they have some kind of token system in order to gain access, but since the door doesn’t lock anyway the token system is not necessary, but the disgusting part is they did NOT have a waste basket in the bathroom, discarded paper towels were strewn about. Isn’t this a health hazard? All customer deserve better basic service.
As for the food, it tasted ok, but they screwed up our order.
I will not be returning.

We had a coupon and wanted to try their shrimp tacos. I had the shrimp and chicken salad. The chicken was really dry but the shrimp was ok. Their beans had no flavor. Hubby said his tacos were good. Overall the food was a little boring. But hey, I had a coupon.
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Dirtiest el pollo loco I have ever been in. Wish I had looked around more before we ordered.

Whoever was the Manager In November of 2013, had this place in order! After previewing several places, we chose this store to cater our wedding. The food was delivered by the Manager, himself, with one assistant. It was hot and delicious, just like every visit before!
Since then, when we have gone there, the tables are dirty, the food is either under-​cooked, or cold! Whoever is taking the order is never assisted by the group of people gathered in the back, standing around chatting!
This is too bad, because besides being delicious food, it used to be neat and clean and service was tops!
There is definitely an opportunity for a MANAGER to lift it up.

We seldom eat fast food, but sometimes on road trips, they are unavoidable. You just don’t have the time to eat at a sit down restaurant and take an hour for your meal.
On our way to Cambria, we stopped by this mall in Salinas to have lunch. I remember liking the chicken at an El Pollo Loco that I’ve been to years ago, so we chose to eat here. My husband has never eaten here before though.
We both liked the chicken. The marinade was good and the chicken is grilled, not fried. It’s a much better alternative than KFC, Popeyes or McDonald’s. You can see the chicken being grilled in the premises.
The hubby thought the mashed potatoes with gravy that he chose for his side was the same processed stuff you get at KFC. The coleslaw also didn’t have a lot of flavor. I chose the steamed broccoli and steamed corn for my sides. Broccoli was crisp, but my corn was overcooked.
Value is good. I ordered the 2 pc. chicken combo (chips + 2 sides + fountain drink) for $ 7.50. Service was good too. They do have other items on the menu, such as tacos, burritos and enchiladas, but I have never tried those. Don’t know how good they are. The star of this place is really the chicken. It’s flavorful, moist and delicious.

Totally impressed. Chicken moist and flavorful. Great side options. Wonderful for the whole family. Service with a smile

We’ve only come here a couple of times and it appears this place has nothing but problems.
We stopped in yesterday just before 6:00, hoping for a better experience. We walked in yesterday evening for dinner and the trash cans were overfilled and every single table that someone wasn’t sitting at was filthy, with some having trays of food left on them that had not been cleaned up. We ended up having to clean our own table to eat. Who knows how long since the trash had been taken out or the tables were cleaned off… and they were just starting with the dinner rush. We were there for about a half hour and in that time not one person came out to clean off any tables or remove any trash –and this is with the dinner rush going on.
Seeing the way they keep their dining area clean, I’d be scared to see what their kitchen looks like.
Definitely skip this El Pollo Loco.

The chicken today was dry but tastie. There’s new side orders, sweet fries and steam broccoli. Love this more than KFC.

Waited a long time for our food. When we finally got it it was cold. First and last time at this place.

this place serves the slowest «fast food» ever.
i’ve been here twice and i’ve waited over 10 minutes one time and almost 20 minutes another time.
the food is overrated and the service was horrible.

El Pollo DRY-​O!!! Wow, that was some dry a$$ chicken. Had the salad with chicken on it. Only thing good about it was the cilantro dressing, which I did not use (diet restrictions) but did give it a fingertip taste… very good. Chicken was little dried cubes of dryness. Not good. Ruined the whole salad, which was super small sized portion. I felt ripped off for what I got. Hubby got some chicken combo and gave it a «meh…». Interior was messy and overall unkempt. Will not return. Place called Super Pollo Taqueria down the road has far better chicken and it’s family owned/​operated.

This place was a mess. Traveling through the area, needed fast food. Wanted to eat it there. Plenty of tables but they were all dirty filthy. The floors were even worse. I guess the staff that cleans the eating area wasn’t doing their job. We had to wipe our own tables off.
So many better choices in Salinas. We won’t be back.

I sent my husband here to pick up dinner and bring it back to our hotel room. The restaurant is walking distance. I waited. And I waited. And I waited. I started to worry…
I would have called his phone but he left it in our room since he was only going to run here and come back.
I thought I should start calling the hospitals, I was worried.
He came back and said that inside the restaurant there were 6 orders ahead of him. He was in the restaurant waiting 30 minutes after he ordered.
The food was alright. We both got the small side salads but I think there was really no dressing on them. They were really dry. The chicken taco was good but the chicken avocado burrito was not good. It did not taste like the ones in Vegas. I can’t place the difference exactly but I did not notice any avocado in there. It was flavorless and the lettuce inside was soggy even the the tortilla was toasted to a crisp on the outside.

I rarely come here because my parents used to love it and I can’t help but laugh at the memories. I usually preferred other forms of take-​out but for some reason, after all these years, I had a hankering for EPL. My husband and I stopped by and had a hard time deciding what to get because the menu had changed and there were so many options! We stood in front of the register for a good ten minutes discussing our options and the employee at the register was very patient, polite, and helpful. One pleasant surprise was the steamed vegetable options.
I don’t remember what we got specifically (chicken, surely), but we were both happy with our meals and we may even go back more often of our own will, not just when visiting family.

Pollo Loco is awesome. Fast food chicken doesn’t get better than this. It’s cheap and good. I wish they had these in San Francisco.