El Pollo Loco

Fresher tasting ingredients compared to Taco Bell (which is across the street). I ordered an avocado chicken burrito. Served w/​cabbage, black beans, and whole wheat tortilla. FRESH avocado I must say, not the «avocado sauce» that plenty of face food places sell. This burrito is served w/​a side salad. Salsa bar available inside along w/​To-​Go cups to take home. The salsa bar included avocado/​tomatillo sauce, fresh pico, fresh salsa, and other items. Cheaper than chipotle, slightly more expensive than taco bell. Fast and friendly service. I would come back if I was craving some fast food mexican food!

Been coming here for years. The management and staff has been here for ages and they are very hard workers day in and day out.
The chicken is very good as are the salsas. Saves me time by not having to go out to the backyard, fire up briquets for an hour, and cook the chicken. That and having to clean up too.
Best thing is that its healthier food than most other places. The pollo bowl combos are $ 5 and very good. The chicken combos are around $ 8. Each come with a drink (soda, tea, horchata), and flour or corn tortillas. With the chicken combos, you get two side dishes (corn, beans, brocolli, salad, mashed potatoes, cole slaw).
Only thing I don’t like is that the chicken pieces are small. Its like young chicken with not so much meat on it. If you get the 2 piece leg and thigh, you are going to leave hella hungry.

Love el pollo loco! One of our favorite go-​to, last minute dinner places. The only downfall is this particular location doesn’t have a drive thru so inside it can get kind of packed. Other than that, food is cheap, customer service is great, & it’s fast. They also send out neighborhood coupons too.

EPL does one thing great. Roasted chicken. I will admit that I am not a frequent customer, only because when I’m thinking of fast food, Pollo Loco rarely comes to mind. That is quickly changing.
As I said, the chicken is really good for a joint like this. Crisp skin and super juicy meat. Great seasoning. They do the bird justice.
My recent favorite is the chicken tostada salad. I think that’s what it’s called. Huge tortilla shell bowl loaded with that delicious fowl and fresh crunchy veggies and creamy avocado.
Oddly enough, this spot is directly across street from Taco Bell, which I haven’t been to since discovering EPL. And I’ve been running for the border for decades.
Nothing authentic here, but really good chicken. It’s fast food, so won’t even mention service. You get what you pay for.

Pollo Loco holds a special place in our family’s heart. Always our go to place when we run out of time to cook dinner. Their food is always fresh and the chicken is always delicious, this location in particular has friendlier staff than usual. Sucks that they don’t have a drive thru here, but overall great place to choose over greasy burgers.

I really like El Pollo Loco in general, but this one is one to avoid. They got our order wrong and we had to bug them for our missing items. When I ate my chicken when it was singed on the outside, but when I got to the middle it was not fully cooked. At that point we just left.
The best thing about the visit was I managed not to get food poisoning.

Not my favorite place but the bf was hungry and wanted something fast, so he thought of Pollo Loco. He got the Pollo Bowl, which came with rice, chicken, beans, pico de gallo, and cheese. He said he was good for what it was and the price. It was $ 5 and some change.

The people here are no bueno!
They charge $ 2.00 for a cup of water even if you purchase a meal.
The manager during the day is rude. They over charged me about 10 times for a water before I found out and I also called corporate who lied to me by saying.
” because they are a franchise they can do whatever that manager at that store wants“
NOT TRUE! District managers are telling you what to charge.
If I go to a place on lunch «work» and I want water for my meal I shouldn’t have to pay $ 2.00 for a small cup.
They said well that’s how it is. We count cups and they are strict about it.
STAY AWAY!

Horrible customer service! The Mexican lady at the register had no expression on her face, looked miserable and when I got my food I said thank you and I got no words out of her in return! So RUDE

They never get my order right. Every time I order an «avocado burrito» (on the under 500 cal menu) the lady hears «chicken avocado burrito» (not on the under 500 cal menu.) When I order a side salad, she hears tostada. When I order a salad to go, they put the dressing on the salad so it’s mushy by the time I get to eat it, so I ask for dressing on the side. What do I get? Dressing on my salad AND on the side. I only come here when I’m desperate but it’s pretty expensive for so many screw ups. The same lady is always working the register, I don’t think she speaks enough English to get what I’m ordering since she always messes it up. I think after this last time today I won’t go back because I’ve never once had my order come out right! Too bad it’s just down the street from my work!
Don’t waste your time, go to Orale’s down the street!

love this place. fast and good.

I want to give less stars but I cannot. First off the the chicken was under cooked but the worst thing was inside my now of mac n cheese was a huge clump of curly black hair… GROSS! Hell no I will not touch this place again. I gave the food back. I asked «don’t you wear hair nets?» The guy said «no and that it just happens sometimes.» I have worked in the food industry and no. It should never just happen…

A review in which we learn that April is a bit neurotic about some things …
I’ve lived in San Jose for almost 18 years now and had never been to El Pollo Loco. I’ve also never eaten at Taco Bell. And never will. So on Monday, it being MLK day and all, I thought I should do something ethnic. Off to El Pollo Loco I went.
At first glance it would appear that EPL is a south of the border KFC. Same sides, same chicken, albeit grilled not fried. For $ 7.99 I got a breast, wing, rice, NEW corn (as opposed to old corn, I guess) and two flour tortillas.
Unfortunately when I got my order the powers that be at EPL decided I should have mac ‘n cheese instead of NEW corn. And here comes my neuroses. Personally I think that mac ‘n cheese is one of the grossest things on the planet. I don’t want to eat it, smell it, or look at it. The fact that it was sitting there in a large lump on my plate was not a good thing. AND it was touching my chicken.
That pretty much ruined it all for me right there. Yes, the chicken was decent. The NEW corn, which I got after alerting the counter staff to their error, was OK, and the flour tortillas were tasty. But the smell of the mac ‘n cheese lingered on …

I mean do I need to write this?..
This place serves clean food. And they’re a classier type of fast food which they aren’t. The service is great. I came here 6 times and everyone is nice and happy.
I’m here to write about a couple that were sitting two tables away from me. There were two families with kids who were next to them. This couple were kissing for 5 seconds straight. I was like okay. then a minute later I raised my head and they’re kissing, I mean hard, that you could hear it. I mean really. That went on for a minute. I went to tell the cashier. He went and told them please respect the others. They stopped and went on for about 8 more times. The total of the kissing time was 30 minutes, in public, in a restaurant, next to people eating, next to kids. I made a mistake not shouting at them. I had the chance to do so, but I was kind of in a weak position. The guy was big. But I know now, that if I said something, everyone else would help me out. This position that I was in is called the bystander effect: you wait for someone else to make a move first, ‘not my problem’ attitude. If you thin k there’s something wrong make a move, speak out.
Amin B

Decent grilled chicken, and condiments. Their newer dishes can be missed.

This was my first time at an El Pollo Loco. I had a coupon so I decided to give it a try. I got the quesadilla and was asked if I wanted the avocado, bacon or chicken one. I chose the avocado. To my surprise, there was avocado and chicken in it. It made me think it was a bit of a mystery pocket. It was quite big and I didn’t even need dinner that night after having it for lunch. It’s served with chips and they have a salsa bar. I tried each of the salsa’s and even grabbed a whole jalapeño which was nice. As I started to inspect the quesadilla while eating it, I found bits of soggy corn chips and decided I should stop looking. I don’t have much faith in what I’m eating there so think I’ll give some authentic taqueria’s the business next time.

Normally, I am a fan of El Pollo and their chicken. But this particular location has been unfriendly to me on several occassions. Even for a fast food place, fundamental service counts. Long story short, customer satisfaction is not a priority here. Therefore, i won’t be visiting this place again.
Hello KFC.

Drove by a few times on the way to the Valley Fair Mall.
Finally, decided to stop in; the menu has grown since the last time I was in one of these crazy chicken places.
I saw the usual burrito’s and bowls; then I saw the $ 5 combo specials.
It was the Poblano Burrito that caught my eye: it looked phat and different with some avocado popping out. And, at $ 5.79 has to be more fulfilling than their standard burrito.
Road Test :
Sure nuf, it was a filling burrito, replete with a good amount of fresh avocado, fluffy mex rice, plenty of herb grilled chicken, pinto beans and a wee bit of poblano salsa. Not greasy. Not too shabby.
Tip: look for the stand alone counter and load up on fresh serrano chili’s, lemons, chopped cilantro and chopped onions and three kinds of salsa.
Customer service: very good.
Décor: standard and clean.
Parking: tight, might be sketchy at night.

I was hoping they would make this place a drive thru one of these days so ill keep my hopes up! Service is really good here and there salsa bar is fresh when ever I come! Bathroom is usually clean so A+ bebe! I drink lots of water so u know how that story plays out! Lol! Parking is so so! Actually very little parking! I come at night so I wouldn’t come during the day or lunch hour particularly for this reason!

I’ve never been to El Pollo Loco until today but I’ll be coming back here again for certain sometime soon! The food here is good and fresh. It’s also a much healthier alternative to most fast food places! They have a fresh salsa bar here and a dollar menu. I got a fried fish taco and one chicken one for $ 1.99 each. I also got the chicken tortilla soup which was full of vegetables and big pieces of grilled chicken. It came with tortilla strips separately and some tasty cheese that tasted a lot like feta cheese.
Since I was starving and didn’t eat anything that day, I also got a side order of chips for .99 cents. My order came out in about five minutes and the chips were warm like they just came out of the fryer, yum! I liked all the salsas I tried. The green avocado one is the best and so is the pico de gallo. I don’t like the red salsa though as it’s a little to spicy for me and isn’t that good. Most of the items I got were fairly low in fat and calories-​:) There is a nutritional calculator on the wall there as well as on line that calculates your meal for you. I’ll have to try their chicken legs next time!